HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-20-20 Public Comment- M. Egge - public comment_ bozeman legislative agenda 2021From:Mark Egge
To:Agenda
Subject:public comment: bozeman legislative agenda 2021
Date:Thursday, August 20, 2020 10:45:16 PM
Mayor Mehl and City Commissioners—
I had to chuckle to see that a local option sales tax is once again the toplegislative priority for the City of Bozeman. The Chronicle article mentioned
that similar efforts failed in 2017 and 2019—but in fact cities and towns
across Montana have been trying—and failing—for legislative authorization
of a local option sales tax since 1981 (see the 2008 memo from theMontana League of Cities and Towns on this subject).
In our Republican dominated legislature, the hardline Republicans (see:
modern-day Greg Gianforte) oppose any tax and many more moderateRepublicans (see: Greg Gianforte, c. 2002) prefer a statewide sales tax.
Without the support of one group or the other, this nice sounding "they
pay, we don't" tax is basically a legislative nonstarter. No one in Helena
takes pity on Bozeman for the success of our tourism industry.
Rather than repeat the failures of yesteryear, I suggest we should instead
invest our lobbying efforts into new options that might prove fruitful.
The no-brainer is to join in partnership with Gallatin County in petitioning
for the creation of the necessary administrative support for the already-
authorized two-penny local-option gas tax (for more, refer to theresolution that Gallatin County has submitted to the Montana Association
of Counties for its legislative agenda). Four million tourists drive through
town each season; Missoula County just passed their two-penny gas tax
(without a clear administrative mechanism for collecting the tax); GallatinCounty could be next—with a little help. It’s estimated this would generate
$2m per year for Gallatin County in transportation funding—some half of
which would flow to Bozeman.
A more novel idea would be to lobby for authorization to assess an empty
home tax, modeled on British Columbia’s Empty Homes Tax that is
generating millions of dollars of dedicated funding for affordable housing
from empty vacation homes. The idea of taxing wealthy out-of-statebuyers to help offset the affordable housing problems created by emptyvacation homes just might appeal to some moderate republicans.
Sure, maybe things will be different this time. I’d love to be wrong. Butwith other viable options on the table, why put all of our tax-base-diversification eggs into a basket that’s failed repeatedly for 30 years?
Speaking of which, if we’re hiring a lobbyist to represent in Bozeman in thecoming legislative session, I’d suggest that either we hire a lobbyist who is
exclusive to Bozeman—or use our lobbyist to arrange meetings forBozeman City Staff and electeds to do the actual lobbying. I’ve heard
anecdotally that our lobbyist in the 2019 legislative session had so many
clients that none received a strong or clear lobbying effort and we didn't
get much value from our lobbyist.
Mark Egge
542 N Black Avenue
Bozeman, MT 59715