Ponderay sends local option tax to ballot

PONDERAY — After a narrow vote Tuesday night, the Ponderay City Council opted to send a proposed local option tax to the ballot in November.

A divisive topic among city council members, the local option tax would add a 0.5 percent tax to all sales within Ponderay if approved by 60 percent of the town’s voters in November. The planned tax was developed in tandem with a similar initiative by Sandpoint City Council members, who discussed the matter in their own council meeting on Wednesday night.

The resolution squeaked by, with Ponderay Mayor Carol Kunzeman casting a tie-breaking affirmative vote after councilmen Steve Geiger and John Darling voted no.

According to the resolution, if approved, the sales tax would finance several projects, including city street and circulation improvements in the commercial district, economic development investments, public park acquisition along Lake Pend Oreille, residential, street and sewer improvements south of Highway 200, the first phase of development of the Field of Dreams, a safe public crossing over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks, a property tax relief fund and the administrative costs for managing the tax.

The resolution is only the first step in moving the local option tax forward.

Next, Bonner County will need ballot language by Friday.

Finally, if Ponderay voters pass the measure, the City Council will have to approve an ordinance enacting the tax, according to Ponderay City Attorney Louis Marshall. That means that if Sandpoint votes down the tax while Ponderay approves it, council members have to option to not put it into effect.

Data presented by Ponderay City Planner Erik Brubaker and Sandpoint City Planner Jeremy Grimm at Monday’s meeting indicated that the proposed 0.5-percent sales tax could generate around $612,500 a year, with the lion’s share going to Ponderay.

A family making the county’s median income of $39,233 would probably see their tax burden increased by about $35 per year, assuming family members do all their shopping in Ponderay or Sandpoint, according to Brubaker and Grimm.