Street levy fails again

A proposed mill levy increase that would have brought in an additional $15 million over 20 years to redo the city streets was rejected by Havre voters in Tuesday’s city elections.

The proposal failed 1,199 to 1,090, despite having the support of all council members and all candidates on the ballot.

The proposal received majority support only in Ward 3, where it passed 365 to 316 votes.

It received the least support in Ward 2, which includes the Highland Park area, where it failed 282 to 179.

Ward 1, which includes the area east of Fifth Avenue and Glo-Ed, rejected the proposal 413 to 388.

In Ward 4, which includes the downtown First Street region and northeastern Havre, the proposal failed 189 to 158.

The proposal, if it had passed. would have brought in an additional $15 million in property taxes over 20 years, or an extra $750,000 each year during that period to upgrade the city’s aging streets.

The proposal would have cost the owner of a property with a taxable value of $100,000 an additional $89.50 a year and properties valued at $200,000 an additional $179.

Upgrades to sidewalks, waterlines, sewer lines and other infrastructure that runs alongside or beneath the streets would also have been covered in the plan.

Many Havre streets have not been redone in decades.

A similar $30 million proposal that went before votes in 2015 failed 1199 to 948 votes.

Council member Terry Lilletvedt, a major backer of the proposal, said at an Oct. 18 meeting that the amount of money asked for in the latest proposal was reduced in the hope of winning more voter support.