Gas tax could go to voters

A proposed Flathead County gas tax would raise $1.268 million annually, City Manager Jim Patrick told the Kalispell City Council on Monday.

Slightly more than 64 million gallons of gasoline were sold in Flathead County in 2006, Patrick said. So if voters pass a 2-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline sold, then the revenue would be $1.268 million, which is still less than the $1.5 million in lost road-maintenance income that the proposed tax is supposed to replace.

The Flathead County commissioners are looking at taking such a tax to a public vote, and are seeking support from the governments of Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Only the Kalispell council has discussed the matter, voicing support with some reservations.

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 Valley.

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

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