SANDPOINT — A proposal to put a local option tax on the May ballot received a positive response from the City Council on Wednesday.

The item was put on the agenda by Mayor Jeremy Grimm, who said the LOT would primarily fund road and street repairs and maintenance. A focus of the discussion was other uses for the LOT, like helping pay for the renovations to the wastewater treatment plant, affordable housing programs or the SPOT Bus. 

“I'm hopeful that we could move fairly quickly over the next two or three meetings to come to consensus on whether we want to pose a local option, tax, the duration, and what projects would be funded by that,” Grimm said. “It would be a great way to come up with new revenue for our community, which I can tell you, is desperately needed.” 

The councilors indicated they would prefer the LOT to be narrowed in scope. Councilor Kyle Schreiber said he feels there is a large support for infrastructure projects in the community. He proposed the idea of a limited LOT, which would free up general fund dollars which could be used for other projects, like an affordable housing program. 

Councilor Joel Aispuro said the LOT had to focus on ideas that people could unite around across the political aisle, like roads and streets. He said adding SPOT Bus or affordable housing, might turn potential voters away. 

“If we had money to supplant our streets coming from this new sales tax, then that would free up some money in our general fund to spend on whatever the council directed that budget towards,” Schreiber said. "Whereas if we put too many ideas into the ballot language, I think it'll be much harder to get public support.” 

The city put a LOT on the ballot two years ago, which did not clear the necessary supermajority to pass. Multiple councilors criticized the advertising done by the city during that effort and said that was the reason it didn’t pass. 

Grimm said he learned a lot from that process and knows the city will need more buy-in from community groups to advocate for the LOT. He said downtown business owners have shown a willingness to advocate for the LOT and floated the idea of hiring Portman Square, the public relations firm which conducted the education push for the city’s wastewater treatment plant bond.  

Councilor Joe Tate said he supported the LOT but felt that transparency with the funds would be key. 

“The effort of being really transparent in communicating and making sure that the people that are voting for this will know exactly where their money is going,” Tate said. “Maybe an ongoing system of being able to help deliver that message... So, I would back this, but I want some kind of things in place where we can be very clear, with tangible stuff.” 

Grimm said LOT revenue sharply increases during the city’s tourism season and estimates visitors will pay around 40% of the total amount raised. He said any increase to residents’ grocery bills could be offset by how much it saves the city from drawing on the WWTP bond. 

“If we could allocate half or three quarters of this towards the sewer project, that would have a significant impact on our sewer rates,” Grimm said. “It would keep them from going up and have an outside source helping to pay for that. Since we're not getting any federal funds at this point.” 

The city has until 2030 to pass an LOT, when the new census will push Sandpoint over the 10,000-population mark, according to Grimm. Under Idaho Code, only cities under 10,000 people may pass an LOT. As of the 2022 census, Sandpoint’s population was 9,777. 

If passed prior to that date, the LOT would stay in effect for the duration listed on the ballot initiative, Grimm said.  

No decision was made at the meeting; however, Grimm said he would be bringing draft ballot language to the council at its next meeting on Feb. 18.