GR to get $1.59m in excess taxes

Green River and other municipalities should have received their excess sixth-penny funds on Friday. Green River’s share is about $1.59 million.

The 2012 specific purpose tax, also known as the sixth-cent tax, terminated on April 1, 2018, however, the county collected more than the projects needed.

During a recent Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter gave the commissioners an update on what is going to be done with the excess sixth-cent penny collections.

Slaughter said by Wyoming state statutes, the county is required to hold those excess funds for at least one year. At the end of that year, it’s up to the county treasurer to distribute those funds to where they should go as specified in the original resolution.

“It’s my intention to distribute the excess tax and interest on April 5,” he said. 

Slaughter requested that all funds for the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, Castle Rock Hospital District and to each municipality be distributed at that time.

“I wanted you to be aware of what we’re doing with this,” Slaughter said.

The funds that need to go to the MHSC and CRHD have to flow through the county, deputy county attorney John Deleon said.

Slaughter said the numbers he was going to give the commissioners may change because he was anticipating an additional $34,000 in interest to come in.

Estimated amounts

Green River: $1.59 million

County: $440,000

CRHD: $238,000

MHSC: $2.4 million

Granger: $227,000

Superior: $271,000 

Wamsutter: $358,000

Rock Springs: $2.9 million

Slaughter said the original request was to raise about $81 million in the special purpose tax.

One project was $21 million for the MHSC and infrastructure work was completed with the funding for the other municipalities. Once the full amount is collected, the treasurer’s office is responsible to shut that tax off, which it done 60 days prior to when Slaughter believes the amount will be reached. 

They acted accordingly, however a big vendor was paying taxes to the wrong county and that money was then given to Sweetwater County, which is where it should have gone in the first place. That, along with the debt service reserve fund reimbursement, gave the county even more money to disburse.