City studies street-light assessment

The city of Kalispell is trying to decide how to compute assessments for 50 large street lights.

The city recently was given the lights by the Montana Department of Transportation. The lights are located on 10 parcels of state land along Reserve Loop.

City Assessment Coordinator Doug Conners gave the city council an update recently during a work session.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources, Glacier High School and Kidsports could be liable for up $47,000 in street light assessments according to city code. These entities pay the tax through their land leases with the state, Kalispell City Attorney Charlie Harball said Wednesday.

City staff is recommending that the council put a 5-acre cap on the assessments, which would mean that the aforementioned tenants would only pay a maximum streetlight assessment of $600 a year. That would pay for the electricity costs for the 50 lights, Conners said. Last year, the lights’ electricity cost $5,189.

The proposal would raise $6,089, Conners said. The extra dollars would help pay for replacement of the high-pressure sodium lights when needed.

Tax bills with the $47,000 in assessments already have been sent out, but they can be abated or lowered by council.

The city charges .003 per square foot for properties that benefit from a street light. That has been in effect since July 2002, when it was raised from .00242 per square foot. There are no plans to raise the rate, Harball said.

However, the city has a goal of introducing a combined assessment for streets, storm water and lighting sometime in the next year. This would deflect more of the assessments to retail properties that draw the foot traffic to their places of businesses, Harball said.

Capping the lighting assessment at five acres and abating taxes for the aforementioned three tenants will come before the council on Monday.