Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 2.25.15

10 | FEBRUARY 25, 2015 NEWS
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Whitefish Voters to Decide Resort Tax Increase for Haskill Basin
Just
The Whitefish City Council voted 5-1 to seek
to how the current 2 percent works. Supporters of the resort tax increase gathered in Whitefish on Friday after-
“Let’s do the math. Should we spend $8 million to purchase a conservation ease- ment and divide it among 5,200 house- holds – that’s all we have – or add 1 percent to the resort tax and divide it out among the 511,745 visitors who spent at least one night in Whitefish last year. They too drink water and flush toilets and they need clean water,” Metzmaker said. “Spreading this very large cost to a much larger audi- ence for 10 years is more equitable.”
Last year, Stoltze and the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands reached a deal that would keep the land permanently protect- ed for water, wildlife and recreation uses, while still allowing Stoltze’s sustainable timber management to continue.
Stoltze values the land at $20.6 mil- lion, but the company has offered to sell it for $17 million, according to Alex Diek- mann, project manager for the Trust for Public Land, which is the nonprofit orga- nization working to raise money from fed- eral programs, private donors and public funding sources in order to bring the deal to fruition.
Earlier this year, the project received a funding boost from the U.S. Forest Ser- vice, which ranks such projects for fund- ing through its Forest Legacy Program, awarding grants to states to purchase per- manent conservation easements.
The agency has given the Haskill Ba- sin Watershed Project its No. 1 spot, posi- tioning it to receive $7 million in Legacy Project funding. An additional $2 million will come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Program. Together, the grants give the project significant purchase to- ward raising the $17 million needed to buy the development rights from Stoltze by the end of 2015, leaving a balance of about $8 million.
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Sayin’...
“He always had a smile on his face and he was just one of the happiest children I have ever known.”
Jeremy Juntunen, the grandfather of the 2-year- old boy who was allegedly murdered last week in Evergreen.
“I did not want
children’s blood
on my hands
because I didn’t do
everything I could
do.”
Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset talking about David Lenio, the 28-year-old Kalispell man accused of threatening to open fire inside a local school and assassinate Jewish religious leaders on Twitter.
“Right now it
seems like beetles
and forest fires
are the ones who
are managing our
forests.”
Sen. Steve Daines talking about forest management reform during a round table event in Columbia Falls last week.
noon.
voter approval for a rate “This conservation easement is of
increase to partially fund conservation easement
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
Voters in Whitefish will decide wheth- er to increase the city’s resort tax from 2 percent to 3 percent to help fund a conser- vation easement in Haskill Basin.
On Feb. 17, the Whitefish City Coun- cil voted 5-1 to seek voter approval for the rate increase. The special election will be held April 28 with mail-in ballots.
Councilor Jen Frandsen opposed the resolution while several business owners spoke up during the meeting raising con- cerns that the heightened rate would neg- atively impact retail businesses that incur the fee on goods and services.
Other alternatives could be raising the city’s water rates or approving a general obligation bond.
City officials are trying to find fund- ing sources to help acquire a conservation easement on prime land owned by the F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. and located beside Whitefish Mountain Resort on Big Mountain, a tract of land vulnerable to pressures of development and the source of 75 percent of the municipal water sup- ply in Whitefish.
If passed, the revenues generated through Jan. 31, 2025 – the date when the existing resort tax expires and goes back to Whitefish residents for a vote – would be used to fund the $8 million needed for the conservation easement. Twenty-five percent of the 1 percent increase would be rebated to taxpayers in a similar fashion
historic significance for Whitefish,” said Mayor John Muhlfeld. “For over 100 years, Stoltze has allowed the city to access their lands to manage our water diversions in Haskill Basin on little more than a hand- shake. This easement will permanently protect our water supply and make legal all the rights we require as a municipal- ity to operate, maintain, and deliver clean water to our residents and visitors.”
At the council meeting, numerous community members spoke in favor of the resort-tax hike, while some retailers said it would create a stumbling block for their businesses.
Mike Gwiazdon, president and CEO of Sportsman & Ski Haus, said it took his business four years to recover when vot- ers enacted the 2 percent resort tax in 1995, and with the Canadian dollar fall- ing in value, what once constituted a lion’s share of his business – 20 to 25 percent of his customers hail form Canada – Canadi- ans are not shopping as much in Montana.
“There are a lot of people in this com- munity who think the resort tax is against our principles. I’m not against taking care of our water. I’m not against doing what it takes to get that done. And I don’t think any of us are,” Gwiazdon said. “We just think the resort tax is not the answer and it is going to be very punishing to the re- tailers of our community.”
Jan Metzmaker, who served on the council when the resort tax was enacted and recently retired as the director of the Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bu- reau, said the 1 percent resort tax hike made more sense than the alternatives be- cause it allows all of the community’s visi- tors to help shoulder the burden.
“WE JUST THINK THE RESORT TAX IS NOT THE ANSWER AND IT IS GOING TO BE VERY PUNISHING TO THE RETAILERS OF OUR COMMUNITY.” Mike Gwiazdon