Whitefish resort tax jumps to 3 percent

Lodging, restaurant food and drinks and luxury retail items will cost a little more in Whitefish starting Wednesday.

The city’s resort tax increases from 2 to 3 percent starting July 1.

Whitefish voters in April overwhelmingly approved a 1 percent increase to provide partial funding for the purchase of a conservation easement on 3,020 acres of land in Haskill Basin to preserve the city’s primary water supply.

The city will use revenue from the extra 1 percent resort tax to help raise $8 million of a $17 million easement for the forested acreage owned by F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co.

Whitefish gets 75 percent of its drinking water from Second and Third creeks on Stoltze land, but for more than a century access has been enabled by an informal agreement between the city and Stoltze.

The Trust for Public Land, a California-based national nonprofit that preserves land for open space, became interested in the conservation project two years ago and began negotiating with Stoltze for an option to buy the easement. The land is valued at $20.6 million and Stoltze is selling the easement for $17 million.

The federal Forest Legacy Program will provide a $7 million grant; $2 million will come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via its Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Program; and Stoltze will put in $4 million, leaving $8 million for the city of Whitefish to contribute.

The extra 1 percent of Whitefish resort tax revenue is expected to generate $1 million per year. Seventy percent of the revenue will go toward the cost of the easement, with 25 percent earmarked for property tax relief over the 10-year life of the tax. Five percent will go to administration.

The other 2 percent of the tax will continue to be split as it has been since it took effect in February 1996, with 65 percent used for street projects, 25 percent for property tax rebates, 5 percent to park improvements and 5 percent for administration.

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