Ponderay officials make case for 1% local option tax

By Reader Staff

Ponderay’s first five-year local option sales tax — passed by just one vote in 2019 — is set to expire at the end of 2024 after having raised approximately $14.7 million for improvements like the Field of Dreams facility and Front Yard Project. A replacement 1% LOT with a term of 10 years will appear on the ballot Tuesday, Nov. 5.

“We’ve learned through experience with the LOT that 5-years just goes by way too quickly,” said Ponderay Mayor Steve Geiger. 

A local option tax is a municipal non-property sales tax that must pass with greater than 60% approval. Only resort cities with a population of less than 10,000 are eligible to pass an LOT, and all funds return directly to Ponderay.

Courtesy image.

The replacement LOT will again limit the 1% tax to sales under $1,000.

“Passage of the local option tax was absolutely instrumental in bringing the first phase of the Field of Dreams to reality and moving the underpass design forward, but there is much more to do,” said Geiger.

According to him, though the city is the commercial workhorse of Bonner County — collecting between $20-30 million in sales tax annually for the state — due to the current revenue sharing formulas only about $150,000 of those funds return to the city annually for expenditures. The rest are distributed throughout the state.

“The local option tax is collected and filed monthly by [approximately] 420 local and online businesses; however, it takes a long time to raise the funds for a large project one month at a time and in the end that doesn’t leave a lot of time for the actual construction to occur,” said Geiger.

“It is very important to the city that we are able to show results when our community puts their trust in us and we’re hopeful that they’re excited about what’s been accomplished. I know we are,” he added.

Funds from the replacement LOT would go toward funding shoreline access, additional phases of the Field of Dreams project and a maintenance endowment fund for the facility utilizing the first $1 million.

“Those funds would continue to accrue interest until the fund contains $2 million in order to alleviate the taxpayer burden of covering those costs in the future,” said Geiger.

“We will also be designating $500,000 per year to street and stormwater projects. This number alone is nearly double what Ponderay is able to budget for streets annually.”

The street and stormwater funds would cover maintenance, necessary improvements and new facilities.

For more information, visit cityofponderay.org or call Ponderay City Hall at 208-265-5468.