No new funds for growth work

Flathead County's preliminary budget doesn't set any new money aside for implementation of the growth policy, but officials say that doesn't indicate a lack of support for the planning document.

A public hearing on the preliminary budget is this morning. A hearing on the draft growth policy is tonight.

The budget covers the period from July 1 through June 30, 2007. It identifies $60.7 million in proposed expenditures, including $743,000 for the Flathead County Planning Office.

Planning Director Jeff Harris said this budget contains $30,000 that was rolled over from last year to pay for some basic transportation planning.

No new appropriations were requested for the growth policy this year, despite the fact that the document - which hasn't been formally approved yet - calls for multiple add-on plans to be created over the next several years.

Many of these add-ons deal with technical subjects, such as water quality, affordable housing and wastewater management. They couldn't be handled in-house, so the county would have to pay outside firms to do some or all of the work.

Nevertheless, this budget doesn't allocate any money for that purpose. In fact, the planning office could actually leave money on the table: Under the preliminary budget, it would be one of only two county departments that wouldn't levy the maximum amount possible this year.

The county could levy up to 1.72 mills to pay for planning activities this year, but it's only proposing 1.33 mills. The difference is worth about $50,000 - not enough to pay for any of the technical studies, but money that could possibly be set aside for that purpose.

During the public comment period on the draft policy, several people questioned if the commissioners were really committed to long-range planning and expressed concerns that the county would fall short when it comes to implementing the growth policy.

However, Harris and County Administrator Mike Pence said there are a number of reasons why the budget doesn't contain any new money for long-range planning.

First of all, Pence noted that the new growth policy still hasn't been adopted, so appropriating money for any of the additional studies at this point would be premature.

If the policy is adopted and it turns out that any outside expertise is needed this fiscal year, he said, the commissioners can do a budget amendment.

Moreover, Harris said there's plenty of growth policy implementation work that can be done in-house, as soon as the document is approved.

"We have tons of work ahead of us without going in and asking for additional money," he said.

Once the growth policy is approved, Harris said, the planning office will put together a list of all the follow-up planning activities it calls for and ask the commissioners to prioritize them.

"Our first pick would be the development predictability map, which doesn't require outside resources," he said. Similarly, overhauling the flood-plain and subdivision regulations will be done in-house, as will any new neighborhood plans.

At the same time, the planning office can look into what would be required to create the more technical studies, so that when it does need funding to do that work, it can give the commissioners a reasonable cost estimate.

"I think that's a more realistic and responsible approach, rather than just asking for a bunch of money because we know we're going to need this at some point," Harris said.

Finally, Harris and Pence both pointed out that, by state law, individual departments can only establish cash reserves equal to 33 percent of their annual expenditures.

The proposed budget would raise the planning office's cash reserves from 25 percent to 33 percent, so even if the office wanted to levy the additional 0.39 mills, it isn't clear it could do so.

Today's budget hearing takes place in the community room in the basement of the Flathead County Justice Center, beginning at 9 a.m.

Tonight, the Flathead County Planning Board will hold what could be the last public hearing on the draft growth policy. The hearing, which is specifically intended to address proposed modifications to the draft, takes place in the second-floor conference at the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell, beginning at 6 p.m.