Wolf Creek moves forward with luxury sales tax with consultant

The town of Wolf Creek is moving ahead with plans to seek a sales tax for luxury goods and services within its newly created resort area.

Mona Jamison, the consultant hired by the Lewis and Clark County commission to help guide the town through the process to obtain the designation, said she met with town residents on Monday night.

Before a sales tax can be created, a petition must be circulated in town to gather support and ask the county commissioners to place it on the ballot, said Jamison who is preparing the petition.

She said she anticipates it will be ready within a week to 10 days for town residents to use as they begin seeking support.

The petition must be signed by 15 percent of those who live within the resort areas boundary, which is the same as the towns sewer district boundary.

County officials have told Jamison there are 36 registered voters in the towns resort area boundary so six people would have to sign the petition to garner the required minimum level of support.

Jamison, however, said she would like to have 15 people signing the petition just in case any of those who do sign it are disqualified during a county review of the signatures.

Those who could vote on whether to have the 3 percent sales tax the maximum allowed by state law would be the registered voters who live within the resort areas boundary.

The few people who attended the meeting with Jamison agreed they wanted a 3 percent sales tax, the same as the town of Craig enacted when its resort area ordinance was approved by the county commission in June 2010.

They also agreed the tax should be in effect from April 1 through Nov. 15 of each year, Jamison said. This, too, is when Craig has its resort area sales tax in effect.

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Wolf Creek moves forward with luxury sales tax with consultant