Tax-increment money: How was it spent?

Time is running out for Kalispell’s West Side Tax Increment Finance District.

The district sunsets in March 2012 unless city officials find and agree on a new debt-financed project to extend its life.

When the district was formed in 1997, taxable property values in its boundaries were capped. Ever since, tax revenues generated above and beyond those caps have been steered into a TIF fund.

That “tax increment” can be used to improve public infrastructure, eliminate blight and foster private development that leads to job creation.

Here’s a general breakdown of how money generated by the TIF district has been spent, according to the city:

• $59,070 to improve infrastructure for the development of Westbrook Square on West Idaho Street in 1999.

• Financing of $2.5 million in bonds for the city to buy and renovate 60,000 square feet at the former Gateway West Mall. The space is owned by the city and Flathead County Economic Development Authority, which contributed funding for the project.

It is now leased rent-free to TeleTech Holdings Inc., a company that runs a call center there and employed about 800 people at last count, according to Kellie Danielson, director of Flathead County Economic Development Authority.

TeleTech and Stream International before it both made payments in lieu of taxes totaling nearly $350,000 to help pay off the debt, retired in July 2010.

• $401,786 for other TeleTech-related improvements, most spent in 2004.

• $477,701 to acquire land and build a parking lot north of the former Gateway West Mall, spent in 2006 and 2007.

• $45,064 for common area maintenance charges and $1,951 for snowplowing the parking lot.

• $118,481 for administrative costs, $144,747 for salaries and $5,575 for audits.

• $21,298 for various appraisals and redevelopment costs.

• $23,419 for interest expenses.

• A total of $60,000 for maintenance charges related to Flathead County Economic Development Authority, spent each year from 2002 to present.

• $347,892 spent in 2007 to move and enlarge infrastructure along Meridian Road, done in conjunction with a state- and city-funded improvement of that road from West Idaho Street to U.S. 93.

• $133,954 to redesign Three Mile Road at Meridian Road, spent in 2009 and 2010.

• $63,263 for various street paving in 2009 and 2010.

• $68,582 to improve Lower Springcreek Road, spent in 2009 and 2010.

• $68,204 to improve storm-water drainage on Glenwood Drive in 2010.

• $27,422 to build Greenbriar Park as promised to a housing developer, with most spent in 2010.

• $51,334 to build Hawthorne Park as promised to a housing developer, with most spent in 2009.

• $122,117 for design work on U.S. 93 Alternate Route and its interaction with neighborhood streets, spent in 2010.

• $465,000 for a tax distribution in 2011, with money going to the city, county, schools and state.