Wolf Creek resort tax clears hurdle

Wolf Creek is now able to move ahead with plans to tap tourist and visitor spending to help finance the towns new wastewater system.

A Jan. 16 letter from Meg OLeary, director of Montanas Department of Commerce, said the town met the resort area designation criteria, which call for a population of less than 2,500 that derives the major portion of its economic well-being from businesses catering to the recreational and personal needs of persons traveling to or through the area for purposes not related to their income production.

Joe Ramler, a department senior economist, prepared the report that supported granting the resort area designation.

Some of the data in Ramlers analysis is confidential as it contains data on specific businesses and wont be released.

However, a summary of the report, without that individual business data, will be released, he said.

Protection for the financial information of a business is part of the state law on the granting of resort area designations. The law says that the reporting coupons submitted by businesses when remitting the sales tax are not open for public inspection unless required by resort areas governing body, which would be the county commission or a district court decision.

That conclusion, Ramler said, came from three sources of data.

Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks prepares monthly fishing reports for every body of water in the state, he said.

The FWP data was evaluated for trends in fishing on both the Missouri River, from the Wolf Creek bridge to Cascade, and Holter Lake.

Data gleaned from a traffic counter on the frontage road that leads from Wolf Creek north to the bridge over the Missouri River was examined too.

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Wolf Creek resort tax clears hurdle