Fremont County, Wyoming, residents and visitors have invested $14.7 million of their tax dollars in economic development and transportation services since April 2021, and many of them aren’t happy about it .

During the 2020 general election, county residents passed an economic development measure to levy a half-percent sales and use tax. The ballot text allocates 20 percent of revenue to Riverton’s air service, 10 percent to ground transportation such as local bus service, and the remaining 70 percent is allocated to the county and cities based on population for “development economic “.

This means anything that retains or creates jobs or brings money into the community.

It’s a massive package that has caused heartburn for many residents because it resulted in many private companies, entities and projects receiving public money – often tens of thousands of dollars each , and sometimes hundreds of thousands.

“There is a general problem with subsidizing private businesses with government funds,” Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, told Cowboy State Daily Friday. “The government has programs all the time. I know that. But it’s very specific, very targeted and very wrong; and it’s based on some sort of misguided feeling that the government can spend your money better than you can.

Case is part of the political action group Citizens Affirming Sensible Taxation (CAST) which opposes the renewal of the tax in the 2024 general election.

He called the half-percent tax “regressive,” meaning it also taxes the poor to give to the rich.

Subsidy to private companies

Case is not alone in his discomfort.

Community outcry over subsidies given to private businesses, including those operating in competitive markets, pushed local governments across the county this summer to revamp how they distribute the tax.

If voters pass it again, cities and counties will allocate 43% instead of 20% to air service, and 17% instead of 10% to mass transit – plus another 20% to the private ambulance company which serves Fremont County.

According to this proposal, only 20% would be devoted to “economic development”.

It’s still not enough, Case said.

“They should have completely removed subsidies to private companies and then I would be happy to support them,” he said.

None of the new numbers, nor the new subsidy for ambulance service, were part of the original 2020 ballot provision passed by voters. But advocates of change say local governments are not violating their contract with voters. They can place the new figures under the umbrella of “economic development” which dictates their discretionary granting of subsidies.

Critics have expressed doubt that local governments can change their responsibilities without running into legal problems.

Fremont County Prosecutor Patrick LeBrun declined to comment on the legality of the new outage.

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Julie Buller, president of the Forward Fremont County political action committee, which advocates for the tax, said it’s a needed influx into the community.

She noted that local governments’ changes to the allocation took place in public meetings and that the city council and county commission members who give final approval of the tax grants are elected officials.

This was in response to critics calling the tax distribution “non-transparent”.

“It’s really frustrating that people can’t see the big picture here: that there are a few people who don’t want to pay taxes,” she said. “This is an investment in our community, and we want our community to survive and thrive, and attract new businesses here.” »

Buller cited specific examples.

Riverton approved an $80,000 grant in 2022 to Kifaru Holdings LLC, a hunting equipment company that has in turn created about 50 jobs in the community, she said.

The Riverton Medical District, which is not a public district but rather a nonprofit group trying to build a second hospital in Riverton, received about $1.2 million in economic development grants, which it taken advantage of for secure several million dollars in federal financing and loans, Buller said.

Companies are looking for air, ground transportation and ambulance services, she said.

“If we don’t have these things, our businesses won’t survive here,” Buller said.

Whether public or private, the county has had an ambulance service for several years, although he often had difficulty. Local bus service and air service also predate the tax, although they complained of financial concerns before its passage.

Break it down

Fremont County consumers have paid $14,699,238 for the tax since it took effect April 1, 2021, according to Wyoming Department of Revenue figures compiled Friday by the Cowboy State Daily.

Of that amount, nearly $10.3 million was allocated to city and county governments in discretionary grants to support economic development. Many of these grants went to private businesses and groups, although some went to public entities, such as Central Wyoming College.

That leaves about $2.9 million for air service and about $1.5 million for ground transportation or bus transportation.

The average of calendar years 2022 and 2023 results in an annual tax average of $4.35 million. Even generously assuming that tourists and travelers contribute 19 percent of the tax, residents would still pay $3.524 million per calendar year.

This represents approximately $90 per year per resident.

Neither the state Department of Revenue nor the Fremont County Treasurer’s Office have been able to set a percentage for travelers’ contributions.

For aviators

By calculations by local businessman Rick Bestul, the county’s commercial air service billed the city of Riverton (which oversees its subsidies) about $1.6 million less than it paid. received in taxes.

He found that number by comparing figures from Wyoming Department of Transportation invoices, which he provided to Cowboy State Daily on Friday, with figures from the Department of Revenue.

In other words, commercial air service has a surplus of public money.

“Yet every time you listen to them present, they are broke,” said Bestul, who opposes the tax.

He pointed to the recent funding push for commercial air service, another factor that has local governments rethinking their dispatch plan.

Riverton City Administrator Kyle Butterfield acknowledged the excess Friday to Cowboy State Daily. By his calculations, it’s closer to $2 million, according to an email he sent to Bestul earlier this month.

Butterfield’s numbers include additional money local governments have given to air service on top of the 20 percent allocated to them.

Even with the surplus, air service could probably only survive another year, perhaps more, without the half-percent tax, unless local governments found another way to keep it going, Butterfield said.

The subsidy requested by the department doubled during its recent contract negotiation, Butterfield wrote in an email to Bestul.

The new contract provides for two daily flights to and from Riverton, whereas the service provided only one flight per day for much of the COVID-19 era, he added in his interview.

He pointed to a Wyoming Department of Transportation study showing the economic benefits of air service and said rural communities generally can’t offer that service without providing public money.

It was nothing

Bestul said he hopes the county will vote against the half-percent tax and later pass a better tax to support air and ground transportation and infrastructure for youth.

But like Case, Bestul cringed at the idea of ​​giving tax money to private businesses.

“My biggest problem is taking money from people who live paycheck to paycheck and giving it to business owners,” he said, noting that he also owns a business. Bestul runs a successful auto parts business.

He said subsidies may look like economic development, but they are just a rewiring of the economy: Without subsidies, business owners would have gotten bank loans and paid interest to banks, from which local populations benefit.

“I came from nothing. I borrowed and borrowed and borrowed money. And I don’t come from money,” he said. “I don’t think it’s up to the taxpayers to pay additional sales tax to fund me.”

Bestul added that despite the tax controversy, he hopes the community does not divide into camps of businesses willing to accept the subsidies versus those that have not.

“I just think mistakes were made, and now it’s time to correct those mistakes and come up with a better plan,” he said.