Cities continue to see lower revenues

Sales-tax revenues have declined for the past several years, which has resulted in the county’s two cities to budget more conservatively.

According to the mayors of Rock Springs and Green River, economic indicators from the Wyoming Association of Municipalities suggests the picture won’t improve anytime soon.

For Green River Mayor Pete Rust, the current financial situation now is much different than when he served on the Green River City Council.

“We had all kinds of programs we were starting,” Rust said about his time as a councilman. “We had the money.”

Now, both the municipalities association and the state are emphasizing fiscal responsibility Rust said, sending a conservative message to towns and cities across the state. As a result, the city has budgeted more conservatively for the 2015-2016 budget year.

Rust said the city plans to assess the land it has to determine if selling portions of undeveloped property can help bring in some additional funding. For example, the city may have a water tank on an 8-acre parcel of land, but only utilizes two acres for the tank itself, Rust said some of that land could be used for development. He said such sales would only provide a few hundred thousand dollars, but that amount could be used as security for the budget. Also, Rust said the city may make smart land purchases, such as along the river corridor, that could be used for commercial development at a later point. However, he emphasized that such sales and purchases would be conservative and carefully made. Also, any purchase or sale would have to come before the Council before it would be finalized, giving residents a chance to comment on the transactions.

In Rock Springs, Mayor Carl Demshar said the city has worked under an operations and maintenance mode since 2011. He said the city has seen a 3-5 percent decreases in sales tax revenues, resulting in the city opting to focus on maintaining what it has, as opposed to using funds to embark on new projects.

“The thing we had to be careful of was that we don’t reduce maintenance line items to the point we can’t fix roads,” Demshar said.

The projects Rock Springs has started, such as the Bunning Freight Depot have been paid for using grant funds or the Sixth Penny tax. Both mayors said the Sixth Penny tax, most frequently used for infrastructure expansion and maintenance, has eased the pain cities normally feel during the boom and bust economic cycle the county experiences.

Without that funding, Demshar argues, the cities would have tougher choices to make come budget time.

While the two cities continue to weather the economic storm, Rust believes while the area’s economic outlook is unclear, it isn’t something people haven’t seen before.

“It’s not something we’re not used to,” Rust said. “Everyone knows about the boom and bust economy.”