City council adopts 2015 fiscal year budget
The Columbia Falls City Council unanimously approved its final fiscal year 2015 budget at their Aug. 18 meeting.
Property taxes to support the $7.6 million budget will increase by about $18 per year for a home with a market value of $200,000 and by about $25 when averaged across the city.
The number of mills the city will levy will increase by about 7.41 to 198.49 mills. Collected taxes citywide will increase by nearly 4 percent to $1.32 million.
According to city manager Susan Nicosia, most of the tax increase is due to a 50 percent increase in the permissive medical levy, used for city employees’ health insurance, and one mill that will pay for a local government review that voters approved in June.
The city’s lighting district fund will total $40,000 based on 237,651 linear feet of assessed street-front footage. The fund has been at that level for the past eight years.
The city’s street maintenance district fund will total $301,000 based on 39.2 million square feet of assessed property. That amount has not changed in five years.
A special provision to reduce the street maintenance assessment cost for large-lot owners reduced the total area by 1.9 million square feet and $15,212 in revenue.
Another provision removing city park land from the street maintenance assessment reduced the total area by 2.4 million square feet and $18,699 in revenue.
There were no public comments at the continued public hearing for the budget, and the council was out of the City Hall building in about half an hour — perhaps a record for them.
In other city council news:
• With most of their work done for the interim, the council agreed to cancel their next meeting, Sept. 2, the Tuesday following Labor Day.
• Nicosia said she attended a Flathead County Solid Waste District board meeting in Bigfork, where there’s strong interest to retain a greenbox site.
She said the county commissioners are considering creating a special district to fund the greenbox site that could cost area property owners in Bigfork about $30 to $40 per year on top of the current $80 per year fee.
Nicosia said locals at the meeting wanted to know why property owners in the Columbia Falls area were not being charged more. The greenbox site in Columbia Falls is the largest and busiest in the county, as it serves much of the North Valley.
She said staffing the Columbia Falls site and installing a paper compactor helped reduce hauling costs to the landfill by preventing illegal dumping and reducing bulk. She said the compactor installation was paid with federal money.
Mayor Don Barnhart noted that cross-contamination of materials intended to be recycled is the reason why some recyclables end up in the landfill.
That’s the fault of residents, and county staff can’t be expected to be responsible for reducing waste by sorting items left at greenbox sites, Nicosia said. The solution may be more education.
• Nicosia said the city has received several complaints of roosters crowing inside the city limits.. Roosters are not allowed inside the city, councilor Mike Shepard pointed out — and they aren’t needed to produce eggs.