Bemidji City Council Sets Legislative Priorities Before Annual ‘Day at the Capitol’

Next Wednesday, March 5th is Bemidji’s annual Day at the Capitol event, which gives city officials the chance to present what they believe to be priorities for the city to state legislators. In order to provide concise and consistent information to those lawmakers, the Bemidji City Council held a work session to discuss exactly what the city needs before they head to St. Paul.

The city council felt a bonding request for either major renovations or the possible reconstruction of Bemidji’s main fire hall is very needed, citing a need for co-ed locker rooms for privacy concerns as well as an overall size expansion. The building was built in 1970 and has had zero renovations since.

They also considered a bonding request for City Hall itself, with accommodations for those with disabilities being a concern as well as a needed update to the building’s air system. But not every councilor was on board with reconstructing either of the buildings.

“I’m not convinced yet about that, so that that wouldn’t be a priority for me,” says Ward 3 Councilor Mark Dickinson. “It seems to be the way of the world, after 50 years you tear down and you build new, and it’s hard for me to get my arms around that,” “So I’m more in favor of a sales special tax to help us maintain what we own.”

Ward 4 Councilor Emelie Rivera offered to the council, “In this request, it’s possible for us to go and say, ‘We’re considering finding ways to reuse what we have, but in the event that that can not happen, we’re looking [for] up to this amount, we’re going to give you this upper amount, we’re going to be spending our time doing the thing to figure out what’s the best way and how we can best use our moneys.'”

The council members then discussed possibly implementing a sales and special use tax as one of their priorities, which, again, some councilors were against.

“While I am interested in exploring [a] special use tax or a food and beverage tax, I am not in favor of a sales tax or even considering it for the simple fact that a handful of businesses have reached out and I’ve talked to a few of them,” said Josh Peterson, Ward 2 Councilor. “Our sales taxes are already significantly high. And I know a handful of people that actually purchase things and have it shipped out of town so they can avoid paying that sales tax. It just further pushes businesses just into Hubbard County, over that county line, and so that is concerning.”

“I agree with the special use tax, I’m more in favor of a food and beverage tax than I am a sales tax,” said Mayor Jorge Prince. “We have infrastructure issues. We know our roads are on a 100-plus-year rotation. We know we don’t have sufficient funding for some of our maintenance in our buildings, and that’s why we’re having the conversation we’re having about Fire Station 1 and City Hall. So we need to get ahead of this and so to me, I think that’s the simplest, easiest way.”

Housing development funding was also listed as a priority for the council, but some councilors felt they should spend some of the money that is already there before asking for more.

“I would really like to encourage us to have a conversation about how we would like to start using some of these housing dollars, because that is the best way to be able to go back to the legislature and say, ‘We’ve these dollars in this way, that is why we would like to encourage you to provide more of these sort of unrestricted housing dollars,'” said Ward 1 Councilor Gwenia Fiskevold Gould. “That is what people find very frustrating about government, is when we just sit on dollars that we’re supposed to use towards some of these issues.”

Mayor Prince also wants to remind state legislators that the rail corridor project is officially underway and hopes the council can find other means of development funding for that project while they are at the Capitol next Wednesday.