Kalispell council backs gas tax

The Kalispell City Council supports sending a proposed countywide gasoline tax to voters in a November referendum.

But the council also wants several loose ends nailed down with the Flathead County commissioners plus the city councils of Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

On Tuesday, the Kalispell council voted 7-1 to support sending the proposed gas tax to the voters - with the caveat that the county and three city governments hammer out more details that all can support. Council member Jim Atkinson was absent.

"It's not a done deal. It's something to be addressed by our citizens and the citizens of Flathead County," Mayor Pam Kennedy said. "We favor it going to the voters, but our city managers have to get together to discuss some of these issues."

Council member Bob Hafferman voted against Tuesday's resolution, arguing that it is too vague and that the federal and state governments should be approached first to supply the missing money that the local gas tax is supposed to recover.

"This agreement is like signing a blank check," Hafferman said.

The proposal is for the county government to tack on the tax at fuel pumps, and to use the collected money for road repairs across the Flathead.

Montana allows counties to levy local gasoline taxes of as much as 2 cents per gallon - if voters approve such a measure.

But unresolved details include whether Flathead County should seek the maximum-allowed 2 cents per gallon, the duration for which such a tax would be levied, which roads would be fixed, and how the tax revenue would be divided among the three cities and Flathead County.

"Tell [the commissioners] we're interested, but let's see some numbers," council member Hank Olson said.

So far, the county commissioners and Kalispell's council have voiced support for the general concept. The city councils of Whitefish and Columbia Falls have not addressed the proposal yet.

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

That federal law provided counties and schools - which had lost much of their taxable bases because of national forests in their jurisdictions - to receive 25 percent of the revenue from those forests.

As federal timber revenues began to drop significantly during the 1990s, so did the revenue to local schools and counties.

That means the last federal payment to Flathead County - roughly $1.5 million - will be applied to the 2007 budgets of the county and its schools.

Of that $1.5 million, about $900,000 goes to Flathead County's $4.865 million annual road budget, providing 18.5 percent of that total. The proposed gas tax would make up a portion of the predicted $900,000 shortfall expected for 2008.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com