Flathead County adopted a $102.3 million budget and a $14.5 million capital improvement plan on Thursday, but the vote wasn’t unanimous.

Commissioners Gary Krueger and Cal Scott supported the budget and capital expenditures while commission chairwoman Pam Holmquist voted no across the board.

This year’s budget is up about 26 percent over last year, largely because of $16.2 million in fund transfers to pay for a number of capital improvement projects.

County Administrator Mike Pence said the actual total property tax to be collected is up only 4.8 percent in actual dollars. The owner of a home valued at $200,000 will pay about $9.58 more in taxes this year.

The commissioners first voted 2-1 on a revised capital improvement plan that sets aside $52 million for building projects and other improvements over five years.

 It earmarks $14.5 million for the current fiscal year and creates a funding mechanism to allow the county to levy all of its permissive property-tax mills to begin setting aside money over the next seven years for an expansion to the long-overcrowded county jail.

Other projects added recently were a $3 million community gymnasium planned in the next five years and $200,000 to buy a piece of residential property on West Wyoming Street near the fairgrounds in an area the county uses for fairground parking.

Another major project in the five-year plan is a $6 million new south campus building for the Agency on Aging and county health services. Half the money, or $3 million, is budgeted for this year.

Holmquist said she couldn’t support the revised capital improvement plan because it’s “a small portion of a bigger puzzle that I do not support.”

Krueger said it’s crucial to have a working document that looks to the future to anticipate what the county’s needs will be.

“It’s very important that we have a document that is a culmination of a group of us to put forward to the public,” Krueger said. “Or do we just leave all that stuff out and pretend it isn’t there?”

When Krueger pressed Holmquist to explain how she would change the capital improvement plan so that it could win her support, she declined to offer details.

“I believe in our retreat we talked about this and I expressed my concerns over some of the projects in there, but it moved forward,” Holmquist said. “It’s not that I don’t believe in planning. I just don’t agree with the direction the county is going at this time.”

 Prior to approval of the final budget, Krueger asked commissioners to vote separately on major pieces of the capital improvement plan because of changes made since the preliminary budget was adopted.

Separate votes were taken in support of the gymnasium project, south campus building, jail expansion and overall capital appropriations. Krueger and Scott voted in favor of the all of the motions, while Holmquist voted no.

Holmquist also declined to support the final budget and another proposal that will raise the permissive medical levy from 5 to 8.98 percent.

“I don’t support picking up mills that were left on the table in previous years,” Holmquist said. “It’s not fair to the taxpayers ... the county needs to live within its means and I don’t think this budget does that. ”

She further stated she believes the county’s AA financial rating could be jeopardized if the county’s cash reserves are decreased.

This year’s budget calculates the county will have a 24 percent cash reserve — or $13.2 million — by next July 1. The maximum reserve allowed by law is 33 percent.

Holmquist said the Montana Association of Counties advised counties to budget their expected payment-in-lieu-of-taxes and Secure Rural Schools funding — money counties get from the federal government to compensate for national forest land — at 25 percent, yet Flathead County budgeted it at 100 percent.

“It’s not that I don’t support some of the [capital] projects,” Holmquist said following the budget hearing. “We just have too much money going out.”

Krueger said afterwards that if the county doesn’t properly deal with capital needs as time goes on, “we’re setting the stage for larger tax increases” down the road.

He disagreed with Holmquist’s assertion that the county’s financial rating could be negatively affected by the budget. If the county had numerous bond issues it was dealing with, something like that could affect the rating, he added.

Krueger said the 24 percent cash reserve is the figure that was mulled over during budget planning sessions. The projected $13.2 million reserve is higher than last year’s $11.65 million, he noted.

Scott, whose term ends at the end of the year, offered no comments on the budget.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.