Sweetwater County is going to receive about $2.37 million due to a tax error.
In July, the Sweetwater County Commissioners were notified by the Department of Revenue that a Sweetwater County vendor mistakenly reported its taxes to Natrona County instead of Sweetwater County. The error was discovered during a regular audit.
Kim Lovett, administrator of the Excise Tax Division of the Department of Revenue, said in a previous interview an audit on a Sweewater County vendor, which will remain confidential, was completed for a 27-month period. Of those 27 months, 20 involved payment reported to Natrona County. The audit also discovered the vendor overpaid on their taxes by $600,000 and paid Natrona County roughly $2.37 million.
In a recent interview, Lovett had the breakdown of how the money was distributed available.
Amounts received
Sweetwater County: $749,348
Green River: $483,480
Rock Springs: $896,077
Wamsutter: $17,565
Superior: $12,969
Granger: $5,375
Bairoil: $5,089
One Sweetwater town wasn’t listed -- Farson. Lovett said even though Farson has a population on the census, it isn’t an incorporated town, which means it doesn’t have its own governing body. Without a governmental agency to flow the money through, it will not receive any funding.
When Green River received the additional funding, they thought it was an error.
“We expected our sales-tax revenue number to come in around $800,000 and we got in just over $1.3 million,” city administrator Reed Clevenger said. “We of course thought it was a mistake at first, but after vetting it out the revenue department had done an audit and found the mistake that was being made.”
As for what the city is going to do with the additional fund, that’s still up in the air since the Green River City Council had already approved its 2018-19 budget.
“We do not have any plans for the extra funds, but will continue to monitor how the revenues come in the first half of this year and look to possibly do a mid-year resolution based on needs,” Clevenger said. “We have continued to work on setting up accounts and saving and putting away funds for large capital expenses that need addressed in the near future.”
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