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KALISPELL- The Kalispell City Council has voted to eliminate a transportation fee they believe is keeping developers from wanting to build inside city limits in an attempt to stimulate growth. But the decision has left council members debating over who will pay for the difference.

City officials are constantly looking for ways to stimulate growth in this economy and in a 5-4 vote earlier this week city council members decided that eliminating a one time transportation fee would help bring more business and jobs into town.

"Right now, the economy is in real bad shape. The city doesn't have a lot of tools. This is one of the steps that we can take to help tell that business, 'take a shot on us'," Kalispell City Council member Phil Guiffrida said.

But not all the council members' including Bob Hafferman, are sold on this idea. "There's so many factors that go into determining whether a site if feasible or not. Impact fees are of course one of those. But they're a very small percentage in comparison to land cost, the cost of putting in the infrastructure that they have, etc."

Taxpayers have helped pay for Kalispell roads and for the last two years, if a developer came in, they're required to pay a transportation impact fee to pay for new roads or road upgrades related to the growth of their new development.

But if developers are no longer required to cover the fee, it then becomes the responsibility of taxpayers.

"We're here to serve the public. The public that's already here, and I don't want to see them having to pay for newcomers. I want to see newcomers coming in, but they have to pay their fair share," Hafferman explained.

But, Guiffrida says this decision does not necessarily mean taxpayers will see an increase in their taxes because of the transportation fee. He is working on a plan, which would ultimately put the city in charge of paying for various expenses and repairs, including ones consistent with the transportation impact fee.

Guiffrida says the city needs to see more growth, for that plan to be successful, though.

" We want you to come in, we want you to build, and we want you to employ the citizens of our city. And by doing so, you're going to take a bare lot, you're going to build on it and that's going to create taxable revenue which will come into the city," he said.

"And we want to use that money to fund these projects. The key to making this plan work though, would be economic growth inside the city, Guiffrida concluded.

The Kalispell City council will make its final decision on February 6th on whether to put an end to something that the majority of council members say was bad legislation.