City Council takes first look at budget

Whitefish City Council last week took its first in-depth look at the fiscal year 2019 city budget.

The draft budget shows an increase of about $1.6 million or 4 percent increase in spending over last year’s budget. The total budget is $42.6 million compared to the fiscal year 2018 budget of $40.9 million.

The budget factors in a property tax mill levy increase of 3.27 mills or a 5.7 percent increase in property taxes.

Increases in spending are coming with a plan to add new staff positions, along with increases in wages and health benefits for employees.

The increase in the mill levy is mostly in the permissive medical levy totaling 3 mills due to the increased costs of health insurance benefits, according to City Manager Adam Hammatt.

He noted that the state allows the city to use more mills for the medical levy than the city has been utilizing in the past and the change is a reflection of that.

Staff changes include adding a full-time information technology administrator to address the increasing IT needs for all city departments, adding a full-time housing program coordinator to assist with addressing the need for affordable workforce housing and adding a part-time customer service clerk.

“We’re a growing city,” Hammatt said of explaining the staff.

He noted that the IT administrator is necessary as demands for technology increase to assist with every department. The part-time clerk will assist with phone calls and walk-ins to City Hall and allow other staff to be freed up for tasks.

On the housing coordinator, Hammatt said the city will hire the position initially, but the goal in five years is to move that job to the Whitefish Housing Authority.

“The hope is that they will build the capacity to take on that role,” he said. “Things are happening rapidly and we want to be prepared to provide housing.”

Hammatt says the goal is to hire a housing coordinator this fall so they will be prepared in spring 2019 as affordable housing projects seek already vetted buyers for those homes.

During its discussion, Councilor Andy Feury said the housing coordinator position is critical for the city to fund for now, but he said it’s temporary.

“This is the role the city has to play because it’s an extremely intensive administrative position,” he said. “But we need to figure out a way to hand that off as quickly as we can.”

The budget also shows the addition of a full-time police officer to backfill a vacancy created when an officer joined the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force program. However, this item is budget neutral since the city received a grant to pay for the officer.

The budget proposes a 4 percent pay increase for city workers. Last year’s increase was 4.5 percent. In addition, the budget factors in the city covering 3.4 percent of a 3.7 percent increase in medical insurance premiums.

The proposed budget is projecting an ending cash balance in property tax supported funds 15.67 percent. Hammatt says the goal remains to push the reserves to 20 percent or 25 percent of annual expenditures.

City Council is set to hold a second budget work session on June 11 at 5:30 at City Hall. It will hold a public hearing on the preliminary budget on June 18, and hold a second hearing on Aug. 20 when it is expected to approve the final budget document.

Library

The Whitefish Community Library budget shows an increase in spending of about $20,000, along with an increase in revenue of about $5,000 as a result of property tax revenue increases due to anticipated taxable value growth.

The library is planning for an increase in part-time salary for one employee to add additional staff time to open the library one hour earlier. The cost is budgeted at $10,000.

Library director Joey Kositzky said the library plans to be open one hour earlier on Fridays as requested by patrons. She said there is already employees on site so that cost is negligible.

Anne Moran, library board trustee, said the library is also increasing spending for repair and maintenance services.

“The building is 30 years old and it’s time for rehab,” she said.

Fire and Ambulance

The fire and ambulance services budget shows an increase in revenue from some areas, including from an increase in property tax revenue from a voted mill levy, increase in ambulance free revenue of about $117,000 and a likely increase from the RescueCare Ambulance Program from a rate increase from non-residents.

The fire and ambulance budget also shows a decrease in spending of almost $22,000 in operating materials and services, and a decrease of just under $53,000 in overtime.

Spending includes $25,000 for purchase of a used command vehicle to follow a replacement schedule for vehicles.

Fire Chief Joe Page said the fire department continues to deal with stresses of increasing calls and providing mutual aid to neighboring districts. It responded to 1,8000 calls for service last year.

“The fire department is really an insurance policy,” he said. “The taxable value in Whitefish is the highest for what we protect. We protect an awful lot of property.”

Page pointed out that the department’s vehicle fleet is aging and the purchase of more expensive vehicles, such as fire engines, continues to be pushed back.

Parks and Recreation

The Parks and Recreation department budget includes a decrease in projected revenue from the After School Program of about $17,000 to better reflect actual collections and a decrease in revenue from the Summer Day Camp of about $11,000 as the program moves from a nine-week to an eight-week program.

The parks budget is planning on an increase of almost $40,000 in greenways and parkland assessment for capital and maintenance operations. The proposed fee increase equals about $2.50 per residential property with 50 feet or less of front footage.

Spending in the parks budget calls for increases in the seasonal staffing for aquatic invasive species inspection staff at $20,000 and a decrease of about $22,000 in operating supplies and repairs.

Three capital project purchases are planned totaling about $63,00 for a tractor with trailer, a safety cab and exterior door improvements at Stumptown Ice Den.

“We’re trying to focus on maintenance the next two years,” Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts said. “We’re taking a little break from new projects.”

Planning and Building

The building fund anticipates building activity to remain similar to fiscal year 2018 with no significant changes in revenue or expenditures.

Planning Director Dave Taylor said the number of reviews and permits for FY18 are trending as projected for Whitefish and Columbia Falls is higher than projected. Columbia Falls contracts with Whitefish for its building inspections.

Taylor said he does expect that permits will likely increase in FY19 with a number of potential large commercial and residential projects, including the construction of a new Muldown Elementary School, the new mixed-use building on Central Avenue, the redevelopment of the former Idaho Timber site and a number of residential projects.

“We will also continue to see the trend of single-family homes built,” he said.

The planning department budget expects an increase of $8,000 in revenue. Spending is expected for personal with the cost of a affordable housing coordinator and spending $17,500 for software maintenance for managing short-term rentals in the city.

Taylor pointed out that the planning department has been seeing an increase in the number of projects it’s reviewing.

Through March the department collected $111,000 in planning fees with a few months remaining in the fiscal year. Those fees haven’t totaled over $100,000 since 2008.

“We’ve been really busy this last year,” he said.

Tax Increment and Resort Tax

The city’s tax increment finance fund budget projects an increase in revenue of about $300,000 coming from an increase in property tax revenue.

Spending in the TIF fund calls for $210,000 for the construction of a near parking lot on Woodland Place near City Beach and spending $600,000 on improvements to Depot Park.

The fund is planning to potentially spend a net amount of $150,000 to purchase property for development of an affordable housing project with the Whitefish Housing Authority. The housing authority is partnering with the nonprofit Homeword to apply for low-income housing tax credit planned to be used for the development of a project on Edgewood Place.

The resort tax budget is projecting an increase in collections of about $242,000. The resort tax is expected to result in $255,000 in property tax relief.

Spending in the fund calls for $1 million for the reconstruction of Somers Street and $200,000 for engineering for State Park Road reconstruction.