Moves to online resort tax
applications
By Bay Stephens LOCAL EDITOR
BIG SKY – The Big Sky Resort Area
District board reviewed the woes and successes of the 2019/2020 allocations
process at the July 10 meeting in the resort tax office, agreeing that the
caliber of decisions made with the $8.4 million in collections this year is not
best done in one four-hour, evening meeting.
BSRAD District Manager Daniel
Bierschwale also announced that the district signed a contract with
Bozeman-based Foundant Technologies for grant software that will allow resort
tax applicants to apply for appropriations online, simplifying the process for
future years.
All board members agreed that the
current structure for allocating resort tax collections to area nonprofits was
not ideal for making the best decisions.
“The idea of doing 28 of these on a
stage in four hours is a preposterous way to manage the kind of money we’re
trying to manage,” Vice Chair Steve Johnson said. “If we could parse those up
and consider them and make decisions on them based on projections and then
finalize it once the final numbers come in, I think we can have a much more
meaningful process.”
BSRAD Chair Kevin Germain agreed,
citing the Gallatin County budget-setting process as a better model to emulate
as it allows reflection on preliminary decisions before finalization.
“I felt like it was a long meeting
and we started making brash decisions … There was a heavy fatigue factor in
that,” Germain said.
“No one in business anywhere sits
down and makes a budget and says, ‘OK, this is it,’” Director Mike Scholz said.
“It worked years ago [for resort tax], but it is a bigger and more complicated thing
now.”
Concepts such as reviewing the
larger requests earlier in the fiscal year and tentatively allocating funds, followed
by the smaller requests, or having a more stringent application for larger-sum
applicants were aired during discussion. The board tasked Bierschwale to return
to the board with recommendations on how the process could be improved at a
future meeting, which he said he’d do in concert with the incoming operations
manager, who is yet to be hired.
It wasn’t all bad, however. The
board, along with representatives from several applicant organizations in
attendance, agreed that sending out questions to applicants prior to the
Q&A session provided clearer and more substantive answers for the board as
well as less stress on applicants.
The board approved the final
resolution of allocated funds from the June 10 meeting, after clarifying
conditions attached to the monies allocated to the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce
and Big Sky Community Housing Trust.
The grant software the district
recently signed for, which may require a heavy lift for applicants in the first
year, will call for far less work in following years, according to BSRAD
District Manager Daniel Bierschwale.
“I think that’s going to
drastically improve the [application] process both for the board and for the
applicants as well, so I’m excited about that,” Bierschwale said.
The board also outlined how it will
approach ordinance revision, a months-long process ahead intended to clarify
what is subject to resort tax in the district. The board has their sights set
on definitively elucidating whether alcohol sold at Big Sky convenience and
grocery stores should be taxed, among other items.
Prior to the meeting, Bierschwale
had solicited feedback from board members on how they thought the ordinance
ought to be amended, which he then submitted to BSRAD’s attorney Kimberly A. Beatty,
who was in attendance. The current timeline for the revision process involves
the board providing a “guiding document” that will clarify their intent by July
18, which, along with the written feedback provided by Bierschwle, Beatty will
use to draft a revised ordinance for board review at the August meeting.
The
board had an additional meeting on July 18 that did not align with EBS press
cycle, but will be covered in the next edition of the paper, as well as online.
