While it's quiet in the West Yellowstone area right now, firefighters with the Hebgen Basin Fire District sometimes tend to get overwhelmed by the number of calls that come in during the busy summer tourist season. So now, their fire chief is getting creative, hoping to use tourist dollars to fund their fire district.
“It's the only way that we can maintain our streets. Sewer, water,” says Jerry Johnson, owner of Back Country Adventures.
Johnson has owned Back Country Adventures since the early 90s. Johnson’s customers pay West Yellowstone’s resort tax.
“That's also why I pushed for another 1%. It was 3%. We pushed for another percent for infrastructure,” says Johnson.
The tax dollars that flow into West Yellowstone are part of the reason why Hebgen Basin Fire Chief Shane Grube is looking to create a rural resort tax district.
“Tourists that come to this community that provide the lifeblood for our community—along with that lifeblood, they're also the biggest impact,” says Grube.
Grube is proposing the district use the boundaries of the fire district excluding West Yellowstone.
“Seventy-five percent of the people that we transport and take care of in the hospital or even on an EMS call are tourists,” says Grube.
Aiming to tax 3% on goods and services, Grube estimates that the tax revenue would be in the hundreds of thousands.
“I'm anticipating this will bring somewhere around 500,000 additional dollars into that resort tax,” says Grube.
Residents like Johnson say if the new tax is approved, he would like to see the money be used throughout the district.
“I think this money needs to go to a number of places,” says Johnson.
Grube would still need to ask for money from an elected board which would oversee the tax revenue. He wants to ask for funding to help increase staffing.
“If this passes, I will be having to go to that governing body and asking for a percentage of that,” says Grube.
Residents in the Hebgen Basin Fire District would vote in the May election to create the district. If passed, tax collection is expected to start in June.
