Thank you for investing in infrastructure

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the residents and voters of Missoula County for supporting the two-cent local option fuel tax. This new funding helps us complete much needed road maintenance and improvements – and distributes a portion of the cost to the folks who visit Missoula County. The results were close and we recognize our responsibility to use this funding in an impactful way that benefits all residents of the county.

For many years, we’ve struggled to keep up with the cost of providing good roads. The federal gas tax hasn’t increased since 1993. The state Legislature in 2015 raised the statewide gas tax by four and a half cents but this still fell well short of the needs. The local option fuel tax will help close that gap and put money in local hands, where we can decide how to use it most effectively.

The new fuel tax will generate an estimated $1.1 million in revenues annually that will be equally split between Missoula County Public Works and the City of Missoula’s Public Works Department. This will allow both the city and county to work on projects that have had to wait because funding was not available.

The new funding will allow the Road and Bridge Division at Missoula County Public Works to better maintain the county’s road and bridge infrastructure. Additionally, the funding will help purchase new vehicles and equipment to perform this work.

There are 450 miles of roads in the county, with many of those miles in the Seeley Swan Valley. Past budgets have allowed for limited maintenance and repair of our county roads. The additional funding will allow for more roads to be repaved or resurfaced, and, when leveraged against federal grants that require a modest local match, will allow the county to parlay several hundred thousand dollars into several million dollars.

The Federal Land Access Program is a prime example of how this could be used in the Seeley area. With $500,000 in local funds, Missoula County could match $3.8 million in federal FLAP funding to improve roadways leading to any federal lands in the county.

Thank you for choosing to invest in our public infrastructure. It is the backbone of our economy and our livelihoods. We promise to use the funding wisely.

Shane Stack, Director of Missoula County Public Works