The Taj-Ma-City Hall is back! The Whitefish City Council is about to prove yet again that liberal government far too often chooses to spend more instead of spend wisely.

While the council is preparing to ask for a huge tax increase for the Haskill Basin conservation easement, it also is proceeding with a grand City Hall. This $14.6 million (and climbing) government structure will be 1.5 times more expensive than the new three-story, 80-room downtown hotel. (Maybe we should hire the hotel developer to design and build City Hall?)

This monumental government building was a bad idea when we opposed it in 2011. Now it’s only gotten worse. First, it’s on one of Whitefish most expensive and desirable pieces of real estate.

By building on it, Whitefish will forgo forever: 1) profit from its sale and a new City Hall in a more cost-effective location; 2) all future property tax income a non-government entity would pay; and 3) the opportunity for a private building with far more exciting downtown tenants than city government.

Second, placing a huge parking garage structure on one of our most highly viewed corners is nuts. This corner already feels crowded. Picture it with a towering three story parking garage.

Third, almost $1 million in special funding is no longer coming from the Business Improvement District, which the City Council promised would happen. Instead, with the cost overruns (and construction has not even begun), the Council is planning a special improvement district tax that’s easier for them to impose on taxpayers.

But most importantly, the $14.6 million expenditure is insane when Whitefish wants to increase the resort tax by 50 percent to pay for a conservation easement in Haskill Basin. This Council fails to understand tax dollars do not fall like snow on Big Mountain.

Our city leaders like to pat their collective back about supporting water quality. But talk costs nothing.

The biggest threat to Whitefish Lake is aging septic tanks around the lake. One solution: extend Whitefish’s sewer system to more lakefront properties. However, for the last several years, the city has taken no steps to extend sewer lines to lakefront homes.

Worse, Whitefish’s policies actually discourage property owners from hooking up to existing city sewer lines. Property owners face astronomical connection fees. County property owners must agree to annexation and significantly increased property taxes before hooking up. The result — few property owners opt to hook up.

Sure we need a new City Hall. But if Whitefish’s leadership was serious about water quality, and not just politicking, it would spend some money to extend sewer lines and incentivize sewer hookups instead of building an overpriced City Hall on the town’s most expensive lot.

I’m sure there will be some bureaucratic reason why City Hall dollars can’t be used for the Haskill Basin conservation easements. But there are great options for a less expensive City Hall, leaving millions available for water improvements.... or funding economic development... or plowing the streets...

The same leaders that talk about water quality want to build a Taj-Ma-City Hall and make you pay higher taxes for it and their water priorities. This, sadly, has become the Whitefish Way.

— Rick Blake, Whitefish