Council talks about street levy failure

Current and incoming Havre City Council members and members of the public discussed Monday why they think a proposed mill levy that would have covered the cost of redoing some of the city’s streets failed.

The discussion took place after a meeting of the council’s Streets and Sidewalks Committee adjourned.

Voters in last month’s city elections defeated the proposed increase 1,199 to 1,090. The increase would have brought in an additional $15 million over 20 years. If it had passed, the proposal would have cost owners of a property with a taxable value of $100,000 an additional $89.50 a year in property taxes, and properties valued at $200,000 an additional $179.

Council member Jay Pyette said many voters looked at the proposal and thought their own street would not get redone despite the levy having the support of the full council and its holding meetings meant to educate voters.

“They feel like after 20 years, their end of town is never going to be touched,” he said.

Pyette added there was some truth to that, as the city had a list of streets that would have been done.

State Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, who is also chair of the Hill County Democratic Central Committee, said he wished he had done more to send people out to knock on doors and advertise support for the proposal.

“When the east end is turning out to vote against the mill levy more than the other side of town which really doesn’t have as bad of infrastructure issues, I think there is an issue there,” he said.

Council member Caleb Hutchins said he supported the levy but he talked to many people who didn’t. People, he said, often told him they opposed the mill levy because they don’t feel like they are getting their money’s worth from the city.

He added that many property owners saw their taxes increase this year. Property values in Montana are now reappraised every two years, and as they increase, that will present an ongoing problem for future levy increases, he said.

Another problem, Hutchins said, is the city officials often fail to highlight the positive things city departments, such as Havre Public Works, do.

“To me that is all about communication,” he said. “It is about explaining what we are doing with their money, and I don’t feel like we do that well enough. And until we do, I don’t think we are going to get different results if we put this mill levy back up for a vote in two years.”

Lindsey Ratliff, an incoming council member who was elected to fill the seat Pyette is leaving, said the council should reach out to voters about the need for infrastructure improvements through social media or producing an entertaining video that highlights the problem and the levy.

“I feel like we need to think outside the box,” she said.

Brekke said the problem is more than messaging, but that people are confused about how their tax dollars are used and distrustful about how the city manages them.

The levy, he said, would not have generated enough money to redo all the streets.

“You are asking a whole lot of people to pay for a small gain,” Brekke said. “That is difficult and it is unpalatable for many people to take. It’s about education, but it is also about dollars and cents,” he said.

Commercial property owners, he said, are often forgotten in the equation and they have to pay for the increase in taxes on often more expensive properties.

He added that, historically, infrastructure projects have been financed through self improvement districts or SIDs. SIDs are when a majority of property owners in a region neighborhood agree to an increase in property taxes to pay off the cost of a project in that region.

Brekke said the city in the past has worked with neighborhoods who have needed improvements and he thinks the city needs to take better advantage when people want to do an SID.