No smoke or mirrors in Whitefish budget

I was truly saddened to read the recent article from my friend Tom Muri wherein he made several attacking statements against me and the city. I was most troubled to find that he says things about me that are not true and, worse yet, that he selectively edited one of my written comments and then quoted the edited statement to make it appear that I said something that in fact I never said.

Muri wrote that I used statistics to explain how "affordable" it is to live in Whitefish. Say what? I have never tried to make the case that Whitefish is affordable. In fact, Whitefish is an expensive place to live.

What the Whitefish City Council and I have worked very hard to do over the years is adhere to a policy of not increasing the city's property tax rate as one way to help stem the rising cost of living in our fair community.

Apparently, when I inform the public on this policy, Muri somehow thinks or wants the public to think that I am saying that Whitefish is affordable. This is simply not what I said.

Unfortunately, Muri's attack does not stop there. He goes on in his op-ed piece to selectively edit and misquote me by attributing the following statement to me - "unlike many cities, (Whitefish) will see no (property tax) increase for the fifth straight year."

I did not write that. What I wrote was, "unlike many cities, the city's property tax rate for FY2007-2008 will see no increase for the fifth straight year."

My statement is absolutely true. Over the past five years, the city has successfully implemented a policy of no property-tax rate increases in an effort to avoid adding more to the cost of living in Whitefish. By selectively removing several words from my written statement Muri completely changed the meaning of it.

Clearly, overall property taxes paid to various levels of government (i.e. state, county, city and schools) in Whitefish have increased in recent years. No secret there. I pay these taxes just like every other homeowner in Whitefish, and I can attest that property taxes have increased.

The question to ask is, why have they increased? In the most recent issue of the Whitefish City Hall Newsletter, I wrote an article entitled, "Want to Know Why Your Property Taxes Keep Going Up? Read This."

My article addresses the issue of rising property taxes and the reasons for recent increases. Pick up a copy and check it out. I lay out the reasons for all to see.

I wrote the story because I want the people of Whitefish to understand this issue. The reasons for property tax increases include increases in property values as governed by the state legislature, and increased assessments and property tax rates from various levels of government.

The truth is that since FY2002-2003, the city's general-purpose property-tax rate has seen no increase. Meanwhile, the county's rate has increased about 17.5 percent and rates for education — inclusive of state higher education, community college and local schools — have collectively increased by about 7 percent. During that same period of time, the property tax rates for Columbia Falls and Kalispell have increased 19.8 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.

Muri also complains vaguely and without substantiation that the city is spending too much, yet he fails to address the obvious reality that the demand for Whitefish services and the need for new and updated infrastructure have increased dramatically in recent years.

This happened because the population of the city — those people who live here and rightly expect city services like fire protection, ambulance service, law enforcement, street maintenance, park and recreation services, water service, sewer service, etc. — increased by 31 percent over the five-year period of July 1, 2001 through July 1, 2006, according to the Montana Department of Commerce.

Show me an organization that has seen growth of 31 percent in the demand for its services, and I will show you an organization that is likely spending more to operate and, if prudently managed, is making new investments in infrastructure to support the growth.

So how much more did the city's spending increase to provide services and infrastructure for a population that is 31 percent greater as compared to the beginning of the five year period? The increase was only 16.6 percent, or about half of the rate of population growth.

In his op-ed piece, Muri also makes an unsubstantiated claim that the Whitefish city budget is "smoke and mirrors" and not understandable. Actually, the city's budget is much easier to understand and more transparent than most governmental budgets.

It is true that local governments are required to comply with a myriad of public budgeting laws that, by their nature, require these budgets to be more complex than the type of budgets that most private businesses use.

For example, the city is required to segregate most of its budget into various funds so that money collected for specific purposes can be tracked to assure that it is spent only for its intended purposes.

As a result, the city budget is actually an assemblage of 35 separate individually-balanced funds. So if a person can understand that (a) the city budget is basically a collection of 35 individual budgets (or funds) and that (b) each of these funds shows total revenues that are balanced against total expenditures, then they can pretty much understand the budget.

While the city must comply with state budget laws, we have also worked hard to make the budget document as simple and transparent as possible. Anyone who wishes to know more about the city's budget should plan to attend the Sept. 17 budget hearing at City Hall where the FY2007-2008 budget will be explained by me and considered by the city council.

No "smoke and mirrors" — just the city's budget presented for all to see and understand.

Gary Marks is the Whitefish city manager.