McCall council reviews draft 'Streets' LOT ordinance, narrows language and asks staff to prepare ballot materials

At a Friday workshop, the McCall City Council and staff reviewed a draft Local Option Tax (LOT) renewal aimed at funding streets- and transportation-related projects and gave staff direction to refine the ordinance and prepare public outreach and ballot materials.

The draft presented by city staff keeps a 10-year term and, as one staff member summarized, makes one substantive percentage change: "The one change ... is changing 3% to 4%," which reflects council direction from earlier discussions. The draft also ties LOT-eligible projects to the city's five-year capital improvement plan and to the city's approved plans while calling out compliance with ADA standards and protections for Payette Lake.

Council members and staff spent the bulk of the meeting debating the wording of the ordinance's purpose section. Staff said the language was designed to be "flexible, broad enough to account for things that are gonna come up over the course of 10 years while being specific enough so that you and the public can understand where the money is going," and emphasized that every individual project would still require council approval…