Whitefish tightens budget

Spending, hiring freeze proposed

Now in an arena of slower growth, the city of Whitefish will freeze spending and hiring in the coming year.

Whitefish City Manager Gary Marks delivered his preliminary budget message to the City Council last week with a clear theme of hold the line. Marks' annual presentation is a precursor to actual budget deliberations that will begin in the coming weeks.

"Slower growth is not a surprise," Marks said, pointing to a chart that shows the number of residential dwelling units built in Whitefish dropped from a record 292 units in 2005 to just 74 last year.

The equation is simple: The slower the growth, the less revenue for the city.

"Our objective is to freeze spending in the general fund" at $3.5 million, Marks said. "I think we can probably ride this out" with help from the city's cash reserves.

Whitefish likewise plans to freeze the hiring of more city employees. The city still plans to eventually add two staff positions needed to administer its new critical-areas ordinance, but Marks noted that with the drop-off in construction growth, existing staff may be able to largely handle the extra workload the new ordinance is expected to create.

Revenue collected from zoning permits and planning fees is down significantly, indicating the workload at the planning office has lessened.

Marks' PowerPoint charts provided evidence.

Zoning-permit collections for the third quarter dropped from $91,200 in 2006 to $59,222 last year. Revenue from planning fees for that same quarter plummeted from $193,021 in 2006 to $77,381 last year.

The city employs 86 full-time workers, a ratio of 10.3 employees per 1,000 residents. That staffing level has remained steady over the past three years.

Compared to other cities its size, Whitefish falls on the conservative end of staffing levels, Marks noted. In fiscal year 2007 the city of Livingston, with a population of 7,279, had 134 employees, while Whitefish, with an estimated population of 7,723, had 82 employees.

Whitefish's 2 percent resort tax has helped the city keep property tax rates at the same level for the past seven years - at the lowest level of any larger Montana city. The tax rate has held steady at 111 mills since 2002. With the property-tax rebates provided by the resort tax figured in, Whitefish's tax rate is at 84 mills.

By comparison, Missoula levies 205 mills, Livingston 170 and Great Falls 141.

THE CONUNDRUM for Whitefish in this year's budget is finding a way to maintain the current level of city services during a time of decreased revenues.

Fire and ambulance calls continue to increase. The number of calls has jumped from 1,049 annual calls in 2001 to 1,905 last year. This year the fire department projects 2,204 calls.

Whitefish will use money from bonding its tax-increment finance district to pay for a new emergency-services center to be built on Baker Avenue across from Safeway. But the city still needs a way to pay for the planned ramp up to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week fire and ambulance service, a move that will shift a number of volunteer firefighters and emergency-medical technicians to paid positions.

The need for 24/7 service is further illustrated by the increasing number of night calls for fire and ambulance service, Marks said. In 2001 the department responded to 432 night calls; that number has doubled since then, to a projected 860 night calls this year.

The city had hoped to use a $550,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to offset the 24/7 costs over the next five years, but was notified Tuesday it did not receive the grant, Marks said.

The remaining option is to have the council place a levy request on the ballot to support around-the-clock fire and ambulance protection.

Marks said the city will budget for a potential increase in ambulance rates to offset the increasing cost of providing service.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com