Council diary
A summary of city council actions across the Flathead Valley on Monday night:
COLUMBIA FALLS
• Approved on a 5-2 vote a budget that will levy the maximum number of mills in property tax plus a little more than four mills that were left on the table from last year.
The result will be a tax increase of $9.91 in annual city property taxes for a $200,000 home, or a tax bill of $608.01 — up from $598.10 last year.
The council will look to formally adopt the budget at its September meeting.
The additional four mills amounts to about $25,000 in additional revenue, which will be used for city streets. The city’s street budget for next year will be roughly $400,000.
The city is in good financial shape, City Manager Susan Nicosia noted. The certified taxable value went up to $6.44 million from $6.05 million last year.
The growth in value came from new businesses on the U.S. 2 strip and fiber optic cables and other improvements from telecommunications companies. The city will see even more growth next year as the Cedar Creek Lodge and other new businesses will come fully onto the tax rolls.
The total budget is down from last year. Last year’s budget was $7.56 million, this year’s budget is $7.38 million, which includes sewer and water funds. The general fund budget is up, however, to slightly more than $3 million.
• Approved two new firefighters: Clark Davis and Joe Schrader. Schrader used to be on the department, but moved out of the district and now has a home back in Columbia Falls again. Davis was a member of the Smith Valley Fire Department several years ago.
• Heard from Nicosia that a paving grant for the Sapa-Johnsrud baseball fields has been finalized and the paving should happen soon on the parking lot and some of the access roads. The city helped the baseball association get an $88,000 grant from the state for the paving. The lots are currently dirt and are dusty in dry weather.
KALISPELL
• Voted to amend its five-year agreement with the Flathead Valley Hockey Association to operate a portable ice rink in Woodland Park. The change will allow the organization to install a permanent concrete slab in the park’s ice rink to extend its hockey season and reduce installation costs. The association also plans to build a fire pit and Zamboni storage. The hockey association will be responsible for all costs.
KALISPELL
• Passed the final budget of $51.3 million for fiscal year 2017 that includes a reduction in property taxes.
The budget is a decrease of 18.92 percent in spending from last year for all funds. The total decrease is $11.9 million. Under the budget, property taxes will decrease about 11.18 percent.
City Manager Chuck Stearns explained that the increase from 2 to 3 percent for the resort tax with 25 percent of the increase going to additional property tax reduction has led to the decrease in property taxes. The budget shows the mill levy with a reduction of 15 mills over last year.
Council member Andy Feury pointed out that Whitefish’s property taxes were the second-lowest in 2015 among Montana cities with populations over 4,500.
“We get beat up for being spenders,” he said. “We actually do as good a job as anybody in the state.”
City employees will generally receive pay increases of 3.8 percent. Last year’s pay increases were 2.3 percent.
Both commercial and residential street lighting assessments will increase by 10 percent. The impact on the median commercial property assessment of $33.50 annually would be $3.35. The impact for residential property is an average increase of $1.60 per year.