Emma Marsing, [email protected]
SWEETWATER COUNTY, WYOMING — Although the change is happening on April Fools Day, this is not a joke. Sweetwater County businesses will be required to begin collecting 6% sales tax beginning April 1, 2023.
The Specific Purpose Tax was voted on in the November 2022 election stating an additional 1% tax increase to help fund many projects around Sweetwater County. Once all funds for these projects have been collected, the Specific Purpose Tax will sunset and go back to 5%.
Based on the ballot language in the 2022 election, the Specific Purpose Tax will go towards the following projects for a grand total of $83,511,570:
- “$2,310,215 to the Town of Bairoil for the repairs/replacements needed for the water and sewer lines, including replacing all defective valves, upgrading old chlorine system, street repairs from decay and excavations, upgrade obsolete mapping for water and sewer system, engineering costs with the above projects”.
- “$1,343,148 to the Town of Granger to reconstruct and pave the currently unpaved town streets with 3” asphalt, including curbing and gutters”.
- “$22,027,627 to Green River for the following: (1) paving, curb, gutter, sidewalk, and rehabilitation of water, sewer and storm sewer infrastructure in various locations on the following streets – westbound Riverview Drive (from Hackberry Street to Locust Street), eastbound Riverview Drive (from Locust Street to Fir Street), Bridger Drive (from East Teton Boulevard to West Teton Boulevard), Faith Drive, Evans Drive (from Faith Drive to Faith Drive), Easy Street (from Hutton Street through Easy Circle), Wilkes Drive (from Hutton Street to Evans Drive), and Indian Hills Drive (from Shoshone Avenue to Uinta Drive); and (2) Cape seal selected streets to preserve the integrity of the asphalt surface”.
- “$9,670,666 to the Jamestown-Rio Vista Water and Sewer District, Sweetwater County, for installation of a sewer trunk line through the district to connect to the City of Green River sewer system”.
- “$1,998,604 to the Town of Superior for water system upgrades and improvements including water well testing and maintenance and a new transition line and valves, sewer system updates and a new water well”.
- $6,662,014 to the North Sweetwater Water and Sewer District, Sweetwater County, to rebuild its over 50 year old lagoons and replace about 12,000 linear feet of collection system piping in order to address compliance, capacity and structural issues such as cracked, collapsed and misaligned pipe”.
- “$35,093,771 to the City of Rock Springs the following five (5) water, sewer, wastewater, storm water, and building repair infrastructure projects: a. Water facility odor control and improvements – Design and construction of a processing facility that will utilize solar and supplemental heating sources to dry and process biosolids produced from the wastewater treatment process. The year around processing of the biosolids will reduce the odors released during this operation. In addition, air scrubbers will be installed to reduce the odors emitted from the facility. b. Northeast Rock Springs detention basin – Design and Construction of two detention basins near Century Park to reduce flooding impacts in the area. These basins will decrease the peak storm water outflows from the natural drainages flowing into them”.
Based on the 2021 report on the Specific Purpose Tax, residents paid 21% of the sales tax, 5% was paid by travelers, and 74% came directly from businesses. More information about the tax and the projects can be found here.
