County's proposed 911 district fails

A proposed countywide tax district to raise $1.9 million per year for 911 dispatch center upgrades will not move forward.

Flathead County property owners were successful in rejecting the E-911 special district. There were 10,390 responses received with protested assessment values totaling $374,535, or 18.8 percent.

If the protested amount had totaled less than $199,199 — 10 percent of the assessment value — the county commissioners would have had legal authority to move forward with creation of the district, county Administrator Mike Pence said late Tuesday.

The county sent 65,985 notices of assessment to property owners.

A 60-day protest period ended at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Pence said protest forms came in steadily all day Tuesday, with a half-dozen arriving right at the deadline as officials prepared to tally the results.

The commissioners will conduct a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday as required by state law. No decision is expected, but the commissioners have the option of placing the proposed E-911 special district on a future election ballot.

If protests had exceeded 50 percent of the assessed value, the commissioners could not have considered the district for at least one year.

The county has been struggling to finding a way to pay for capital improvements such as upgraded telephone and computer equipment and radio tower improvements.

When voters approved a $6.9 million bond issue to build the 911 center in 2008, no funding mechanism for ongoing upgrades was put in place. Now the county is nearing the end of an $800,000 set-aside for minimal capital improvements that was part of the original bonds.

For years the county and its three incorporated cities have tried to identify a long-term, equitable funding source to operate the consolidated 911 center. The dispatch center’s budget this fiscal year is $2.9 million, but that’s the amount it takes just to keep the center operating, according to county Finance Director Sandy Carlson said.

The 911 center is funded by a property tax levy of about 6 mills that funds a portion of the Sheriff’s Office budget — a funding mechanism that generates about $1.4 million annually for the center. The three cities contribute money based on population, and a small tax on county residents’ phone bills brings in the rest of the operating money.

Last year a countywide ballot request to create a special tax district that would raise $1.8 million annually for the 911 center failed by just 10 votes.

Much of the opposition to the proposed tax district centered around the assessments for commercial businesses and alleged inequities with businesses such as construction companies and storage facilities.

Commissioner Phil Mitchell said Tuesday he wants to see the county “slow down the process” and establish a committee to study the current costs of operating the 911 center and compare those costs to Montana’s seven other urban counties. He also would encourage the committee to take a broader look at how consolidated dispatch centers are handled nationwide.

“We need to determine how best to finance this or leave it as is in the budget,” Mitchell said. “I think we need to wait at least another year and listen to the taxpayers who have said ‘no’ twice.”

Commissioner Gary Krueger said earlier that if the tax district fails, cutting personnel at the dispatch center is a likely scenario.

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