(Fremont County, WY) – One of the items voters will see on the ballot for tomorrow’s (August 20) Primary Election is the Senior Citizen Service Formation / Mill Levy Propositions for both Lander and Riverton.
If passed for either Lander and/or Riverton, a Senior Citizen’s Service District would be set up that the two mills would fund.
Jane Nolde, the Executive Director for the Lander Senior Center, explained to County 10 that the Senior Center mostly utilizes matching grants for local funding, and that grants are getting “smaller and smaller.”
The hope is that the mills would provide a more “permanent” source of funding for the services they provide, Nolde shared.
“We think the Senior Center is vital to the City of Lander,” Center volunteer Charlie Smith commented. “We provide a variety of services. It’s pretty extraordinary.”
Nolde and Smith went on to share what some of those services are, which range from health and wellness programs at the Center, to providing 200+ meals a day served at the Center or delivered throughout town.
They also shared that the Center provides transportation not just for senior citizens, but community members as well.
If the proposition passes, a maximum of two mills ($2 per $1,000 of assessed property value) will be imposed on taxable properties.
This means the yearly tax increase for a property assessed at $100,000 is $18 per year, (or $36 for $200,000; $54 for $300,000; $72 for $400,000; $90 for $500,000) for both in Riverton and Lander.
County Assessor Tara Berg told County 10 that each entity will have to submit a yearly budget, and “the request for county funding cannot calculate to more than two mills.”
Berg explained that “using the 2024 certified values, which for both are the school district boundaries of Lander and Riverton, the total monies could be: Riverton – $478,809 and Lander – $571,650.”
You can hear more about the mills (and all of the services the Lander Senior Center provides that the mill would help pay for if passed), in the County 10 podcast interview below with Nolde and Smith.