Resort tax feasible, committee says

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

After nine months of gathering information, interviewing and visiting with people in towns that have one and running the numbers for Bigfork, the Resort Tax subcommittee reported to the Bigfork Steering Committee last week that a resort tax could work in Bigfork.

The subcommittee gave a Power Point presentation to the Steering Committee that outlined potential pros and cons of instituting a tax and the steps that would have to be taken to make it a reality. It was estimated by a consultant that such a tax could bring in between $500,000 and $750,000 annually to Bigfork.

The information seemed to have won over not only the BSC, but also the resort tax subcommittee, who confessed that as they conducted their research, as member John Lang said, "the question changed from 'Why?' to "Why not?'"

Lang said that in talks with other communities around the state that have a resort tax, their leaders were shocked that a small, tourist-based community like Bigfork didn't have one.

"When we reached out to other communities, the first thing they said was, 'We can't believe you haven't capitalized on this,'" said subcommittee chairman Bruce Solberg.

The other communities in Montana with such a tax are Red Lodge, Big Sky, West Yellowstone, St. Regis, Virginia City and Whitefish. Seeley Lake is in the early stages of instituting one as well. The closest comparison to Bigfork, Lang said, is Big Sky, which is also unincorporated.

According to Montana law, an unincorporated resort tax district can include no more than 2,500 people. The resort tax group brought two maps showing potential districts here. Both maps used the Flathead River to the West, Coverdale Road to the north and the Lake County line to the south as borders. The difference was whether they used Swan River Road or Bigfork Stage Road to the east. The latter choice brought the population inside the district to 2,359 people, possibly too close for comfort.

All of the other resort tax districts in the state, with the exception of Whitefish, put a 3 percent sales tax on restaurants and bars, accommodation and "luxury items," which vary greatly from district to district. Items that would not be taxed include hardware, groceries, cars and automobile supplies.

The BSC voted unanimously to write a letter, which must be approved by the Flathead County Commissioners, to designate a resort tax district in Bigfork. After that, a list of taxable items must be created, and administrative strategy set up before a petition would need to be gathered containing the names of somewhere around 15 percent of the district. If a petition could be gathered, then a series of public meetings would occur, followed by the execution of the petition and then a vote. Lang predicted that the earliest a vote would be possible would be November of this year.

Because the resort tax subcommittee was officially tasked with exploring the feasibility of such a tax and since many of the members live outside of the proposed area, Land and Solberg suggested that BSC form another committee to shepherd the process from this point, preferably one that includes only people who live in the district to minimize potential conflicts of interest.

The group acknowledged that there is plenty of education to be done and that the tax is by no means a slam dunk.

"The word 'tax' is not a good word," Solberg said.