County backs away from gas-tax idea

Flathead County commissioners have qualms about taking a potential county gas tax to a public vote.

Two of the three commissioners - Joe Brenneman and Gary Hall - told the Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls city councils that they don't favor such a tax at this time to improve the county's roads.

The third commissioner, Dale Lauman, was not at the Monday joint workshop session - where no votes were legally allowed - of the three councils plus the commissioners in Columbia Falls.

The county commission is the key governing body because it is the only one able to put the proposal to a public referendum.

Commission chairman Brenneman said the commissioners have not yet discussed whether to put such a proposal on a ballot, nor even set a date to talk about it. Such a discussion would likely be scheduled if one of city councils or one of the commissioners request it, he said.

"We're sharing with you what we're thinking, feeling, sensing because we have to consider whether to put it to a vote soon," Hall told the councils.

Hall and Brenneman originally liked the idea of a gas tax, but later decided the concept had flaws.

Kalispell Mayor Pam Kennedy said: "I'm a little dismayed that the commissioners don't want to bring it to the voters."

Montana allows individual counties to levy a local gasoline tax of up to 2 cents per gallon - if voters approve such a measure.

The Flathead gas tax proposal was prompted by Congress allowing the Rural Schools and Community Act of 2000 to expire after a seven-year extension.

That federal law provided payments to counties and schools based on national forest land in their jurisdictions.

Almost a year ago, Congress did not renew that law because of the current federal deficit.

That means the last federal payment to Flathead County - roughly $1.5 million - was applied to the county's and its schools' 2007 budgets. That annual $1.5 million won't materialize in 2008 and beyond.

Of each year's $1.5 million, about $900,000 goes to Flathead County's $4.865 million annual road budget, providing 18.5 percent of that total.

In January, Hall and Kennedy lobbied the three councils and the commissioners to seriously consider levying a gas tax in Flathead County to make up a significant part of the $1.5 million a year.

So far, only the Kalispell City Council has discussed the idea in depth in a workshop session. Several council members appeared to support the idea.

As part of the Kalispell council's earlier discussion, Council Member Bob Hafferman said he would support a gas tax only if the three councils and the commissioners write to Montana's three congressional members and Gov. Brian Schweitzer to push for a "sensible solution" to manage forests, since the lost revenue is forest-related. The proposed letter did not elaborate on what that solution might be.

That letter was on Monday's joint meeting agenda, which led to the gas tax discussion because the two issues are linked.

Brenneman said that a gas tax would put Flathead County's gas stations at a competitive disadvantage compared to service stations in surrounding counties.

Collecting the gas taxes from services stations would be more complicated than originally thought, and setting up such a system would cost money, Hall and Brenneman said.

Changing his mind from January, Hall said discussions with other counties raised the possibility of the cities and county feuding over how the gas tax money would be split among them.

"I don't want to have fights with distribution," he said.

Kennedy said: "We certainly have to find other ways to deal with roads on a countywide basis."

Kalispell council member Hank Olson contended that people are willing to drive to another county to avoid a tax of two cents or less per gallon. And he argued that a gas tax would bring in more revenue from tourists than it would lose to people leaving Flathead County to buy lower-taxed gas.

Kennedy said the county and three cities could consider approaching the Montana legislature about adding a slight gas tax statewide to distribute to all counties for road work.

For more information, read Wednesday's Daily Inter Lake.