Business district tax bills to be corrected

The Daily Inter Lake

About 140 downtown Kalispell property owners will receive a second property tax bill because of a $41,000 accounting error.

Kalispell Finance Director Amy Robertson said the regular tax bills, which are already complete and in the mail, levy 3.75 mills plus 1.5 cents per square foot for the new downtown business improvement district.

However, after reviewing the tax rolls, Robertson realized that the mill levy was incorrect. The actual levy should have been 37.5 mills. Nobody caught the error, she said, so property owners in the district will be getting a second bill.

"The levy as billed generates $4,574," Robertson noted in a recent memo to the City Council. "It will be necessary to manually bill the difference to generate [an additional] $41,164."

The business improvement district was formed just over a year ago, after a majority of the downtown property owners petitioned the council. In broad terms, the district runs from Center Street south to Fourth Street between First Avenue West and First Avenue East.

The district's intent, according to its mission statement, is "to maintain and promote the character and economic vitality of downtown Kalispell" and to be an advocate for a "unique, prosperous and healthy district that's the social, commercial, professional and cultural heart of the community."

Earlier this year, the district's seven-member board of directors proposed an initial budget of $70,000 per year. All of the money comes via a self-imposed tax on the district's commercial properties. Residential properties and public entities won't pay anything, and no public money is involved.

The board members are Insty-Prints co-owner Judy Larson, downtown property owner Ken Yachechak, First Interstate Bank President Bob Schneider, Dave Rae at KOFI, accountant Rex Boller, Mark Pirrie at Western Outdoor Store, and Janet Clark at the Kalispell Grand Hotel.