District funds construction budget shortfall with TIF

The Whitefish School District board Oct. 13 approved using tax increment finance funds to pay for a budget shortfall for the construction of the new Whitefish High School.

The board voted unanimously to suspend its TIF policy allowing for the district to spend $236,000 to make up the shortage.

The district uses its TIF funds for capital improvements, professional development and as a reserve fund. The board last year suspended its policy to allow for TIF to be used on the building project. The district has to secure the necessary funds by major completion of the construction, which is expected to be in the next 45 days.

Trustees noted that using the TIF money is a way for the district to borrow funds from itself with the plan to put the money back into the TIF fund.

“Down the road, if we discover we have the money to replenish what was taken for the building, we can put it back,” trustee Ruth Harrison said.

The shortfall is about $30,000 less than was originally estimated when the final bid package for the project was approved in July 2013. Since then, savings have been found within the project, but alternatives have also been added back into the project resulting in the final number.

Project manager Dow Powell has noted that the shortfall is only about 1 percent of the total project cost. The entire construction project for the new school is expected to come in at about $22.855 million.

The final shortage is largely the result of about 30 alternatives added back into the project during construction that had to be absorbed into the total cost.

Powell estimated that about $1.5 million in alternates were added into the project, some of which was covered by donations. Some of those projects included adding a kitchen and cafe, and a computer science room.

“We scrapped money from all sorts of places,” Powell said.

Fundraising continues for the performing arts and technology wing that makes up $2.8 million of the entire construction budget. The school district contributed $500,000 to the remodel of the wing and the gym lobby and roughly $2 million has already been raised or pledged toward that project.