‘Relief’: Fremont County voters approve .75 percent sales tax for commercial air service, public transportation, EMS

(Fremont County, WY) – Fremont County voters approved an optional .75 percent sales tax on Tuesday to support commercial air service, public ground transportation and the local ambulance system. 

Unofficial election results show 5,525 people voted in favor of the tax, while 4,513 voted against it. 

Fremont County Association of Governments Administrator Tim Nichols said the result was a “relief” – and not just for his team at the Wind River Transportation Authority.

“(It’s a) relief … for the people we haul everyday,” he said. “Finally, after two years, (we’re) able to see stability for the organization – at least for a four-year period.”

According to a funding distribution agreement that Fremont County, Lander, and Riverton have signed, 54 percent of revenues from the tax will support emergency medical services, while 31 percent will go toward commercial air service and 15 percent will support public ground transportation. 

That 15 percent portion will benefit WRTA as well as other public transit providers in Fremont County, which will all see a “huge increase (in) their ability to meet their local match for the federal funding we receive,” Nichols said. 

Funding from the sales tax won’t start coming in until next spring, however, he noted, and WRTA is still looking for a way to “bridge the gap” financially until then.

“We’re not out of the woods just yet,” Nichols said. “We have to make it past November, which (is) when both WRTA and the airport no longer have sufficient funds to continue operations.”

Riverton City Administrator Kyle Butterfield confirmed that, while the passage of the .75 percent sales tax will allow the city to maintain commercial air service in the future, there is still a financial “gap” between the time “when the proceeds of the optional .75 percent (sales tax) will come in” and the time when the city is projected to “run out of the funds that we have currently in our account” to support commercial air service at Central Wyoming Regional Airport.

“What we’re hoping is that Fremont County and the City of Lander will consider (using) some of their unobligated funds from the defeated half percent tax to help us get through that gap period,” he said. 

The City of Riverton already allocated its remaining half percent sales tax funding to support commercial air service, and on Wednesday, Lander Mayor Missy White – a member of the Fremont Air Service Team – said she plans to bring a similar idea to the Lander City Council now that the primary election is over.

White’s proposal for Lander’s almost $1 million in remaining half percent sales tax funding would benefit public ground transportation and the local ambulance system, too, however.

“My hope is to (provide) sufficient funding for that bridge for WRTA and commercial air service – and ambulance if needed,” she said, adding that any remaining half-cent money could be placed in a “corpus” for “continued economic development projects” in Lander.

She also expressed optimism that the Fremont County Commission might use some of its remaining half percent sales tax money to help “bridge the gap in funding” for the groups that will benefit from the .75 percent sales tax now that it has passed, citing conversations with commissioners who said “they wanted to see whether or not the community wanted to support these three services before allocating funds.”

In the meantime, Nichols said FCAG will be busy facilitating a “fundamental shift” in the way the local ambulance system is administered. 

“FCAG is planning to oversee EMS (and) usher it back into a publicly run and publicly overseen organization,” he said. “Personally, I’m really excited to see … this transition from where the county is representing and overseeing the program to where now you have the opportunity for each municipality, the county, and the tribes to be involved in overseeing these programs – and that’s unprecedented. (It’s) absolutely huge.”

Follow County 10’s election coverage here.