City asks voters to continue local option tax

PONDERAY — The city is seeking voters’ support to continue making a local recreation facility a Field of Dreams.

In 2019, Ponderay officials approached voters with a plan to make dreams a reality for the community by passing the city’s first five-year local option sales tax, which is set to expire at the end of 2024. On Tuesday, the city is asking voters to approve a 10-year term and is again limiting the 1% tax to sales under $1,000.  

While the initiative passed by a single vote in 2019, Ponderay officials said it has been a tremendous source of revenue for the city, bringing in approximately $3 million per year — roughly $14.7 million to date — for projects such as the Field of Dreams. It also brings the city closer to the creation of an underpass to nearby Lake Pend Oreille and Pend d’ Oreille Bay Trail through necessary property acquisitions and matching funds for the city’s $1.4 million BUILD Grant, city officials said. 

A local option tax is a municipal non-property sales tax that must be placed on a ballot and passed with greater than 60% approval by the Ponderay voters. Only resort cities with a population of less than 10,000 are eligible to pass a local option tax. The 1% tax is then filed directly with Ponderay, ensuring that 100% of the collected funds stay in our community.  

“While Ponderay is the commercial workhorse of Bonner County, collecting between $20-$30 million in sales tax annually for the state of Idaho, due to the current revenue sharing formulas only about $150,000 of those funds are returned to the city annually for expenditures. The rest is distributed throughout the state,” Ponderay Mayor Geiger said. 

With the 2019 local option tax set to expire in December, Ponderay residents are being asked to vote on a replacement LOT at the Nov. 5 general election.  

“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,” Geiger said. 

“We’ve learned through experience with the LOT that five years just goes by way too quickly,” Geiger said.  

Geiger said the local option tax is collected and filed monthly by about 420 local and online businesses. However, it takes a long time to raise the funds for large projects one month at a time, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for the actual construction to occur. 

“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,” he added. “I know we are.” 

The 2024 ballot measure would replace the existing 1% LOT and would retain the $1,000 cap for LOT collection. However, Ponderay officials said they have made a few changes in the second iteration of the ballot measure. While the funds will continue to be directed to additional phases of the Field of Dreams and continued efforts to fund shoreline access (known as the Front Yard Project), the city has added two line items to the list of allowable expenditures.  

The first $1 million collected will be used to create a maintenance endowment fund for the Field of Dreams. Those funds would continue to accrue interest until the fund contains $2 million to alleviate the taxpayer burden in the future, Geiger said.  

The city will also be designating $500,000 per year for street and stormwater projects.  

“This number alone is nearly double what Ponderay is able to budget for streets annually,” the Ponderay mayor said. “It will include maintenance, necessary improvements and new facilities and will allow everyone shopping in Ponderay to contribute to the ongoing costs of its infrastructure.” 

For more information, go online to cityofponderay.org/category/https-www-cityofponderay-org-news or call Ponderay City Hall at 208-265-5468.

    Ponderay officials and members of the Floyd McGhee and Mike Read families cut a ribbon to mark the formal opening of the Field of Dreams.