'Roller coaster' year for resort tax

Whitefish resort tax collections are having an unusual year with fluctuations from month to month compared with the previous year’s collection.

“This year has been an up and down roller coaster,” City Manager Chuck Stearns said. “We haven’t seen that before.”

Collections in January were down by 4.2 percent, followed by February that was up by 15 percent. Then collections dropped 7.8 percent in March, were up 10 percent in April, and were up again 13 percent in May.

Finally, in June collections were down by 4.1 percent.

Stearns said June collections were likely impacted by a large number of delinquencies from bars/restaurants and lodging.

“I attribute most of the decrease in June to delinquencies,” Stearns said. “The airport had a record month and the Park was open.”

Glacier Park International Airport had a record-breaking first half of the year with record passenger counts in five of the first six months.

Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road had an early opening this year. The road opened to traffic on the west side of Logan pass on June 11 and the east side opened on June 19.

Finance Director Dana Smith said after speaking with business owners she believes some of the decreases could be coming from the retail side.

“Canadians are still coming,” she said. “They are staying and eating, but not spending in retail.”

This year in June the city collected about $88,000 in resort tax from retail businesses, compared with June 2014 at $101,000.

Collections from lodging was also down about $5,000, but bars/restaurants collections increased by just over $9,000.

City Councilor Jen Frandsen, who serves on the Whitefish Visitor and Convention Bureau board, noted that pleasant weather in June likely impacted shopping.

“Retail is not just about the Canadians,” she said. “June was one of the hottest we’ve had and that caused retail spending to be down.”

For the entire fiscal year 2015, which runs from July 2014 to June 2015, collections were up, Stearns noted. Collections increased by 5 percent or just over $100,000.

During fiscal year 2015, the city collected about $2.2 million in resort tax.

Stearns said it’s not unusual for businesses to become delinquent in paying the resort tax collections to the city during the busy summer months. He said he would be calling businesses to remind them they area behind and those that are late do pay interest.