A road-funding challenge pitched a year ago stalled before it ever got off the starting line. But the Kalispell City Council is opting to give it another try.

“I am very interested in finding a funding mechanism that doesn’t burden 10,000 taxpayers with the transportation needs of the city when those roads are used by millions of people,” Mayor Tammi Fisher said Monday night, echoing her past statements on the issue.

Fisher said she would “not necessarily be opposed” to Kalispell adopting something similar to the local option sales tax in Whitefish. 

But that remains a fanciful goal without changes to Montana law that limits such taxes to only a handful of smaller resort communities. Past efforts to change the law to let more cities enact sales taxes have failed, most recently in 2009.

“If we can’t get the Legislature to do what perhaps one or more of us on council would like, we need to figure out locally what we can do within the confines of what we’ve got,” Fisher said during a work session on Monday. “I just want a funding source that is not just on the backs of our taxpayers. So whatever it is, we need to get on it.”

Fisher has targeted road funding and other capital improvement funding reforms as unfinished priorities before she leaves office at the end of this year. But crafting proposals and building public support may take months, City Manager Doug Russell cautioned.

Russell proposed a broad outreach campaign to define Kalispell’s road infrastructure needs and determine if or how the public is willing to pay for them — whether through reallocation of existing city revenues, a revised street maintenance property tax levy that raises more money, the issuance of bonds or some other mechanism.

Proposals could be rolled out and fine-tuned with 15 to 20 public meetings, possibly starting this fall. 

“I know there’s an emphasis, but I also know the reality of public resources available to apply,” Russell said. “We can get started on some frameworks, but I’m just trying to be somewhat realistic in terms of being able to apply resources to it and not let other things drop off.”

Kalispell’s road needs could include not only regular maintenance but major repairs and rebuilds and the construction of new and enlarged roads.

“We know we have issues that need to be taken care of, but we don’t know how we’ll pay for it,” council member Tim Kluesner said. “I look at infrastructure on our streets and the people using it — people from outside the city, county or state. I would like to see a way they can start funding the replacement of our infrastructure they are helping degenerate.”

Funding new roads is a big challenge, Kluesner said, pointing to a proposed extension of Grandview Drive from U.S. 93 to East Evergreen Drive. The project is in the city’s transportation plan and estimated to cost more than $12 million. 

“There are great challenges to that road, not only politically but financially. But building it would benefit everyone in this community,” Kluesner said. 

“So how can we rally and find the right way to pay for those things? Are we willing to tax ourselves or our visitors? Maybe [the street maintenance assessment] needs to be tweaked. Maybe it’s toll roads. I don’t know. But we know it needs to be something and we need the community involved.”

Council member Bob Hafferman suggested city staffers first develop a list of Kalispell’s roads and whether the city, county, state or federal governments are responsible for their upkeep, as well as a breakdown of city regulations that dictate what roads developers must build or upgrade in and around their projects.

Road-funding mechanisms and processes in Kalispell are not well-known or understood, he said.

Hafferman also suggested a committee of local business owners, homeowners and low-income residents to brainstorm ideas about ways to pay for enlargement of existing roads and construction of new roads.

“I’ll oppose any proposal that tries to have existing residents pay for growth,” Hafferman said at one point on Monday, referring to the road impact fees a slim majority of the city council voted to repeal more than a year ago. 

At the time council members were confident  they could find a better way to pay for growth-related transportation capital improvement needs.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.