(Lander, WY) – The Lander City Council continues to mull its options for use of the city’s remaining half percent sales tax funding for economic development.
The city still has about $960,680 left in its half percent fund, Mayor Missy White reported during a work session last week, noting that the council has already discussed potentially using some of the money to help support commercial air service and ground transportation in Fremont County.
Recreational infrastructure
Councilmember Julia Stuble expressed support for both of those options last week, but she also suggested an additional idea: set some of the money aside for ongoing investments in recreational infrastructure in Lander.
“If we could save a portion of this and dedicate it towards City of Lander recreational infrastructure, there would be a lot of benefits – for not only economic development in town, but also our future generations,” she said. “It strikes a chord with me and our duty to our constituents here.”
The city council just passed a new parks and recreation master plan that contains some “pretty cool ideas” for the “expansion of infrastructure on existing parkland,” she pointed out.
Those projects would “benefit economic development” by attracting things like athletic events and concerts to the area and enhancing the quality of life for local residents, Stuble said – but the city currently has “zero plan for how we’re going to fund” the work.
“It worries me to have that kind of aspirational master plan out there (with) nothing in the kitty to dedicate towards that,” she said. “So I wanted to propose that we set aside … $200,000, let’s say, in a dedicated fund to gain some interest, and we use it (for) recreational infrastructure projects on our city parks.”
Ballot language
Stuble’s proposal prompted a council discussion about the allowable uses of the half percent sales tax funding, with Councilmember Josh Hahn questioning the “legality” of her idea.
“It wasn’t proposed on the ballot that way,” he said. “We should stick with what the people voted for – not just make up rules as we go.”
When local voters approved the optional sales tax, the ballot language said 30 percent of the revenues would be used to support commercial air service and ground transportation, while 70 percent would be proportionally distributed to Fremont County and its municipalities to use for economic development – defined as anything that creates or retains jobs or brings net income into the community.
Councilmember Melinda Cox echoed Hahn’s concerns about the ballot language, but she also expressed “excitement” about Stuble’s proposal and “what that could look like in our community.”
“I remember our conversations with the Lander Girls Softball (League) and the excitement in our community around the thought that we could actually spend the money on that,” Cox said. “There was a lot of support … and it was the first time that we had these real in-depth conversations about why that was so valuable to our economic development.”
Councilmember Chad Cassady said his interpretation of the ballot language was that the 70 percent distribution was meant to go toward “exceptionally local” items within each community – not necessarily towards countywide amenities like commercial air service and public transportation.
Councilmember John Larsen read the ballot language differently, however.
“I can see where that 70 percent could very easily go to public transportation (and) the air subsidy,” he said, but “I struggle to make (Stuble’s proposal) jive with what the language of the bill itself says. … I’m a little bit more reticent there.”
Local voters
After hearing the comments from the council members in attendance, White said she would be “hesitant” to use the money for anything other than commercial air service and ground transportation, based on conversations with constituents who said they voted against the optional sales tax last year because of the way the 70 percent discretionary funds were being spent.
Those same people told her they would have supported the tax “if it were strictly for the transportation element,” she recalled.
But Stuble pointed out that, while the majority of Fremont County voters elected not to renew the optional sales tax last year, local Lander voters did support the measure.
“The voters we represent were in majority in favor of the half cent tax,” she said. “So I think we have a strong mandate from our voters that the way it was being spent and the projects that (we) chose – as well as the transportation – are what Lander voters are interested in. So I don’t want us to overweigh the tax failure across the county. I want us to look at the voters we’re accountable to. … Five out of six precincts said, ‘Yes, keep this tax.’”
Regardless, when it comes to recreation infrastructure, White said there might be “other funding sources coming down the pike” that could be used to create the kind of “corpus (for) city projects” that Stuble had proposed.
White pointed, for example, to the city’s revenue recapture agreement with Maven Outdoor Equipment Company, or the Tourism Asset Development grant that the Lander Chamber of Commerce currently distributes.
“The City of Lander could follow suit with what Riverton’s doing and do the distribution for (TAD),” White said. “And then I also think there’s a possibility to have conversations with the Lander District Rec Board about what’s the highest and best use of those funds.”
Other ideas
During last week’s discussion, Cox said she would like to talk about potentially allocating some of the half percent sales tax funding to the Lander Economic Development Association, and she asked whether the city was allowed to invest the money.
There are also other opportunities for use of the funding “that we probably don’t even know about,” Cassady pointed out, advising the council to hold off on making a decision “immediately.”
“This is probably something that is worth chewing on,” he said. “If we fixate on the things that we know about now … it might be an error. (Let’s) go back to the drawing board on how we can execute better on behalf of the municipality and spend that 70 percent in a way that’s more in line with their desires.”
White said she had hoped the council might take action on the funding decision next month, but by the end of last week’s discussion, she acknowledged “that might be a little premature” and agreed that “we’ll be continuing this conversation.”
For more information, call the City of Lander at (307) 332-2870.