By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
In the May 6 mail-in election, voters will decide whether to renew Big Sky’s 3% resort tax until 2065.
The 3% tax on luxury goods and services is currently set to expire in 2032, but the Big Sky Resort Area District aims to renew this year to improve long-term bonding capacity.
Part of the Livable Big Sky campaign, a BSRAD press release stated that renewal will not only preserve a “vital” funding source for essential services and infrastructure, but the extension will help BSRAD enact long-term financing tools such as bonding, which allows BSRAD to issue debt based on future resort tax collections.
“A longer-term commitment provides greater flexibility and stability to support Big Sky for years to come,” the release stated.
For months, BSRAD has emphasized that neither the 3% renewal nor voter-approved bonds will increase the tax rate or impose any new taxes on residents or visitors.
“Bold, underline, exclamation—this is not an increase in taxes… this is not an increase to the sales tax that you are paying today, of 4%,” said Daniel Bierschwale, BSRAD executive director, during an April 1 voter education event, Ballots and Brews with Explore Big Sky. Bierschwale answered questions on a panel during the event.
Ballots will be mailed to voters starting April 18 and if a voter does not receive a ballot, they are encouraged to contact their county’s elections office to file late registration.
The full Ballots and Brews event, including presentations for each ballot initiative, can be viewed on YouTube.
Explore Big Sky: Livable Big Sky had the goal of connecting with all of Big Sky’s 3,100 voters… How is that process going of connecting with all the voters here in Big Sky?
Daniel Bierschwale: Well, it certainly hasn’t been for a lack of trying to reach all of those folks. We’re probably around 500 or 600 people that have actually been engaged with … We’ve got a long ways to go. And if you could just talk to your neighbors, friends, anyone you feel comfortable with. And if you need any help doing that, like I said—don’t care which way you vote, we need more voters to turn out to the polls.
EBS: What are the biggest challenges you’re finding in educating voters for this upcoming local election.
DB: I’d say the biggest challenge is, it’s just a lot of stuff on the ballot. Like, holy smokes … trying to understand them all, and so much information, that’s probably been the hardest thing.
EBS: It sounds like the 3% renewal won’t change resort tax, it just extends resort tax, right? … So why would anyone here not want to vote for the 3% renewal to help extend that?
DB: Well, you know, I would say there’s some people who just don’t like having a sales tax. Montana doesn’t have a statewide sales tax, taxes is a four-letter word to most people. I personally believe this is the best thing the State of Montana legislature has ever done for local communities. I was just up in Helena, and people were bickering all over the place about state dollars, county dollar—this resort tax is an extremely powerful tool.
… I will say this, it’s a pain in the ass to collect. For a collector, they do get a remittance, I think each business receives… 5% as an administrative check that is cut, or admin fee that is part of that process. So that’s a negative on that front.
And then, we’re all paying it a little bit. Even tonight, when we’re buying drinks here, you know, it’s intended to be passed along to the tourist so that the residents don’t shoulder that property tax burden, but—some people just don’t like tax, Jack, and I can respect that.
EBS: Just talk quickly about the impact of [Senate Bill 172].
Editor’s note: SB 172 allows resort tax communities to fund housing projects using collections of the 1% for infrastructure tax.
DB: It’s so important to this project… It’s going to allow us to utilize funding that doesn’t touch our grant cycle.
So, our grant cycle is out of that 3% pocket of money. And the 1% for infrastructure, now that it [allows] us to be able to take debt on and then pay that back using those 1% funds… [SB 172 is] mission critical.
Editor’s note: The following questions are audience submissions asked by EBS after the Ballots and Brews event.
EBS (audience question): Can you talk about how resort tax dollars go towards enhancing health care in Big Sky? Many families have to drive to Bozeman to get basic health care.
DB: The allocations from our annual grant cycle are on [resorttax.org/allocations/] … You can see our total commitment from last year, and the way that our impact areas are broken up, it’s “health and safety.” So you can see what went to Wellness In Action for the behavioral health program, the food bank, the fire district operations, which includes ambulance service, the sheriffs, and then the animal shelter. So that award last year was $2.1 million. You could probably argue some of those things aren’t necessarily perfectly aligned with this question, but that’s probably the best, best way to address it. And the fire department, most of that is ambulance service.
I guess I could use it also as a plug to say that is why… we are focusing and have focused our efforts on the formation of a wellness district at Big Sky.
EBS (audience question): Are there similar resort tax rates in other areas, or ones that are higher to support these kinds of projects?
DB: Every community is different in how it implements the resort tax. Some choose to do it seasonally. Some have chosen to implement up to the maximum amount of 3%, and some have chosen to add the additional 1% for infrastructure on top of the 3%.
Many of the communities throughout Montana have implemented the 1% for infrastructure and have … executed their authority to the maximum rate of 4%.
EBS (audience question): Are there any examples of areas that have higher resort tax rates to support these large projects?
DB: No. The maximum amount that can be taxed is 4% according to Montana code annotated.
Jen Clancey contributed reporting to this Q&A.
