School projects await infrastructure vote

HELENA ­— Nearly $2 million in state-funded upgrades to Kalispell’s public schools still hangs in the balance as negotiations over a major infrastructure initiative have yet to yield a compromise during the waning days of the 2017 Legislature.

The funding is currently in both infrastructure bonding bills still in contention, along with tens of millions of dollars in other projects across the state.

Both bills would provide $1 million for heating and vent repairs in the Libby School District, a combined $1.9 million for boiler replacements in Polson and Arlee school districts, $1.5 million for energy upgrades at Flathead High School and $483,000 for energy upgrades at Kalispell Middle School.

Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau said the $1.5 million proposed for Flathead High would cover the final stages of the school’s ongoing boiler and mechanical piping replacements.

“The bottom line is if this bill goes through and we get that funding, it would simply offset the cost of this project for us and allow additional dollars to be used for deferred maintenance,” Flatau said Tuesday. “It would be a huge positive for us. … We have a slew of items at Flathead, from window replacements to additional mechanical upgrades.”

Other items include energy-efficient lighting installation and safety and security upgrades such as required updates to the school’s alarm systems, he added.

Flatau said he’s lobbied the Legislature’s Flathead delegation about the funding in previous years, but hadn’t expected a different result this session.

“We thought it was lost and we thought it lost any attention, and surprisingly this thing got resurrected a couple weeks ago, so we were surprised to see it back on the table,” Flatau said. “It’s something we were not planning for, but had applied for just in case.”

Nearly half a million dollars is also slated to provide energy efficiency upgrades to Kalispell Middle School, which Flatau said would also be used to fund deferred maintenance on a priority basis.

The infrastructure package advanced this session also includes the proposal to raise the state’s gas tax by 6 cents as a dedicated source of funding for road and highway projects throughout the state.

It passed the Legislature last week and will soon land on the governor’s desk.

Flathead County Commissioner Gary Krueger said Tuesday that the amount the county is estimated to receive from the additional gas-tax revenue — a portion of which flows directly to counties for local projects — is roughly equal to its annual payments from the federal Secure Rural Schools program, which faces an uncertain future with federal budget cuts on the horizon.

“$700,000 would nearly replace those SRS funds and we could probably maintain current road department services pretty much the same as they are today,” Krueger said. Without it, “our road department is probably going to have to significantly rely on vacancy savings or any cash reserves that are possible, delayed maintenance of equipment [and] of roads.”

On Tuesday morning, the 85th day of the 90-day legislative session, members of the House and Senate leadership met with Gov. Steve Bullock following several rounds of negotiations to reach a last-minute deal on a bonding bill. As with the previous session, the two sides have locked horns over the dollar amount of general obligation bonds and large capital-works projects to be included in the final bill.

An attempt to bring one of the bonding bills to the House floor failed Monday by 10 votes, and no attempt was made to reconsider either measure Tuesday.

Bullock and Republican leaders have begun haggling in recent days over a handful of bills opposed by the governor, but which have emerged as bargaining chips to swing enough Republican votes to pass an infrastructure bill by the required two-thirds supermajority.

Included in the list, a copy of which was provided to the media by a spokeswoman for the House Majority, were Republican-supported bills addressing abortion, charter schools and exempt wells.

“There’s not a lot of pieces left on the chessboard, and I think you better be talking about some major pieces of Republican policy,” House Speaker Rep. Austin Knudsen, R-Culbertson, told Bullock during the meeting, pointing specifically to those three pieces of legislation.

“I think those are three big things that really, at the end of the day are enough that the Speaker Pro Tem and I can go to the Republican caucus in the House and say, ‘Look guys, I know we have to do bonding … but we got you something.’ And I think they would flip.”

Bullock’s budget director, Dan Villa, argued that earlier concessions had appeared to yield a consensus, but the Republicans had failed to deliver the votes.

“The governor is given a list. He agreed to four, we came back and he agreed to two more and the list continues to expand,” Villa said. “At some point, show us the votes.”

Republicans opposed to the bonding proposals have repeatedly underscored the $219 million in two-year infrastructure spending — to be paid in cash — already passed by the Legislature, including a number of projects throughout Northwest Montana.

A large portion of the state’s share comes from the coal-tax trust fund, via the Treasure State Endowment Program.

Whitefish’s new wastewater treatment plant, estimated to cost the city $17 million once construction wraps up in 2021, is slated to get $750,000 through the program.

Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman said the coal-tax money has been the main source of state funding to replace the current open-lagoon treatment plant to a mechanical plant capable of removing more pollutants like nitrogen, phosphorus and ammonia.

“The new permit standards can’t be met with a lagoon wastewater treatment system,” Workman said. “While we’re considering this an unfunded mandate from the state, we are proactively looking at ways to fund it in addition to grants and loans.”

The endowment program also will provide $500,000 to water system upgrades for the Bigfork Water and Sewer District, and more than a half million dollars each to Eureka, Thompson Falls and Sanders County for wastewater and water infrastructure improvements.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.