Sandpoint City Hall considering local option tax for May 2026 ballot

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The city of Sandpoint is exploring the possibility of putting a new local option tax on the May election ballot, looking at a range of potential funding areas and gearing up to craft draft language to put before voters.

Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm kicked off the discussion at the Feb. 4 meeting of the City Council, recapping the unsuccessful 1% LOT measure in 2024, which asked voters to allocate revenues specifically to streets and related infrastructure but failed to garner supermajority support.

This time around, Grimm said, in addition to streets, dollars brought in by the LOT could be applied to pay down some of the future bond debt on the wastewater treatment plant reconstruction project in order to lessen the burden on ratepayers.

Other ideas included allocating some funding for the SPOT bus, EMS, securing public access to the waterfront and some form of support for affordable housing.

“If we had a broader, dedicated, consistent fund for roads, that might free up a little money from our General Fund that we could do some other things with; because, right now … [there’s] not a lot of playroom or new project money,” Grimm said.

City officials parsed through lessons learned both from the failed 1% LOT measure in 2024 and the successful wastewater treatment bond in 2025, with general agreement that the differing outcomes came down to marketing.

“The last option tax, I don’t think it was advertised well at all,” Councilor Pam Duquette said. “I think that’s why that one fell apart kind of.”

By contrast, the wastewater bond sailed through the 2025 election with nearly 90% approval — despite being a much bigger ask, granting the city authority to borrow up to $130 million.

“This time we’ve heard from the downtown business groups that they will support this,” Grimm said, going on to suggest that the city consider working again with Boise-based communications firm Portman Square, which managed the surveys and education components of the 2025 wastewater bond effort.

Councilor Joe Tate said he would support putting a LOT on the May ballot, but only with clear, transparent communication that ensures voters know “exactly where their money is going, and maybe an ongoing system of being able to help deliver that message.”

“In the climate of politics, there’s not a lot of trust,” he added. “I kind of ran on that platform of transparency and trust-building and relationships and all that stuff. So I would back this, but I would want some things in place where we can be very clear.”

Councilor Kyle Schreiber agreed, and supported proceeding with a narrow scope — specifically highlighting the broad community support for improving street and sidewalk infrastructure.

“I think that that would be something that would be pretty popular and not very controversial,” he said.

Councilor Joel Aispuro also felt that “less is more” in defining the scope of a future LOT.

“What is something we can put in there that your Republicans, your Democrats, your strange creatures in between are all going to say, ‘Hey, this is something we can get behind’?” he said. “Is affordable housing going to be it? I would say no. Is SPOT going to be that? I say no. I think gearing toward that would be roads and sewer.”

The clock is ticking, however, with approved ballot language due to the county in early March for inclusion in the upcoming election. Grimm suggested that draft language could be considered and approved by the last council meeting of the month, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

“Ideally we could get this across the finish line,” he said.