Taxes highlight ballot measures facing voters
By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: June 9, 2008
A number of city and county tax measures await area voters who will be casting ballots Tuesday.
People in the proposed service area of the Northwest Area Water Supply project will be watching Minot’s vote on a community bowl measure. The measure would temporarily redirect half of the 1 percent sales tax that supports NAWS to construction of a community bowl.
The tax diversion would begin in July and end June 30, 2011. It is expected to raise more than $9 million for a recreational facility estimated to cost $11 million. Remaining funds would come from a capital drive.
Elsewhere in the region, Divide County voters are being asked to double their farm-to-market road tax from 10 mills to 20 mills to keep up with rising costs of road maintenance. The increase will generate another $96,000 for the county.
Wells County voters also will decide whether to increase their road levy by 5 mills to gain about $96,000 more for road maintenance.
Another measure facing some Wells County voters would create a Fessenden Ambulance District with authority to levy up to 10 mills. The district includes eight townships and parts of three others in the Fessenden area.
Dawn Beck, ambulance squad leader, said the squad’s main source of revenue is medical reimbursements, particularly Medicare. Those funds haven’t been adequate, she said.
“We just never have any kind of cash flow,” she said.
Lack of funding to subsidize squad training hurts in recruiting volunteers, adding to the difficulties of keeping the ambulance service going, she said.
If the measure passes, the new district will establish a board of directors that will determine the budget and the levy. Beck said the squad likely will need just a portion of the allowed 10 mills.
“What’s really important to us is we would now know that every year we have this amount of money that we can count on,” Beck said. “We have put it off as long as we can. It’s just come to the point where we wouldn’t be fiscally responsible in not taking this next step. It’s certainly not going to fix all of our problems, but it should certainly help and make sure that we are able to maintain and stay here for a number of years to come.”
Williston voters will decide whether their park district should impose a 5-mill levy to replace the 5-mill levy that Williston Public School will no longer be levying for recreation after this year.
The school district has levied for recreation since 1948, turning the money over to the city Parks and Recreation. The levy has provided more than $100,000 in the park district’s $1.5 million annual budget, or about 13 percent of total tax income. Other than taxes, the department’s main option for recovering the lost income is raising program fees.
Williston voters also will be deciding whether to continue charging the second $1 a month on households to support mosquito control efforts. If the measure passes, the total charge will remain at $2 a month.
Stanley voters will decide whether to impose a 1 percent sales tax to support the local hospital.
Mitch Leupp, administrator for the Mountrail County Medical Center, said the hospital would be authorized to spend the money on its lease payments to the nursing home, on equipment and repairs and for information technology upgrades. The hospital should adopt electronic health records, but its current revenue doesn’t allow for it, he said.
It’s tough for all rural hospitals to make technology upgrades without a subsidy, Leupp said. Several rural hospitals in North Dakota now have a sales tax or mill levy to support their operations, he said.
“It will be a growing trend that you will see because so many of the rural facilities are not breaking even,” he said.
Washburn voters will decide whether to increase their city sales tax from 1 percent to 2 percent. The existing 1 percent is split between infrastructure and economic development. The new 1 percent would go to street, sewer and water projects. The tax raises around $100,000 a year.
Rolette residents will be voting to extend both their home-rule charter and an existing 1 percent sales tax.
Granville and Anamoose voters will decide whether to approve home-rule charters.
Anamoose voters also will decide whether to authorize the city council to sell the city’s water system to North Central Rural Water Consortium. The consortium then would contract with residents individually to provide water service in the city.
Anamoose City Auditor Stan Martin said the city, whose water just barely meets federal drinking water standards, is looking ahead at the potential for tougher federal standards and the need for future renovations at its water treatment plant. Access to rural water would head off those expenses.
The consortium would assume ownership of the city’s pipelines, tower and underground storage and may add more storage.
The actual change of ownership and new water supply would occur at an uncertain future date, Martin said. If the measure passes, North Prairie Rural Water District, a member of the consortium, first would seek funding to build a pipeline to serve residents in the area from Voltaire to Anamoose.
