Shoshoni votes not to join proposed three-quarter percent sales tax distribution agreement

(Shoshoni, WY) – The Shoshoni Town Council voted this week not to sign on to an agreement outlining a funding distribution plan for the potential three-quarter percent sales tax that Fremont County voters will consider passing in August to support commercial air service, public ground transportation, and the local ambulance system. 

The agreement indicates that, if the tax passes, local governments will send 54 percent of the revenues to the Fremont County Treasurer to support emergency medical services, while 31 percent would go to the City of Riverton for commercial air service and 15 percent would go to the Fremont County Association of Governments to support public ground transportation.

If Shoshoni doesn’t sign the agreement, the revenue the town receives from the tax still has to be used for commercial air service, public ground transportation, and emergency medical services – but the town would be able to distribute the money “in whatever determination (it) decides,” Police Chief Chris Konija said.

For example, Councilmember Jordan Whitener said the funding could be used to support public ground transportation offerings through the Shoshoni Senior Center.

The tax revenues could also help fund Shoshoni’s new local ambulance operation – instead of going to support the countywide system that is currently run by a private, for-profit company and doesn’t provide service in town, Konija said. 

“We’d be able to hire a full-time crew besides just the police department,” Konija said. “We could do a lot.”

Councilmember Jake Stetler was skeptical that local voters would approve the three-quarter percent sales tax option, but if it does pass, and if Shoshoni signs the revenue distribution agreement, he said the town will “have no say” over how the funding is used.

“If we join that agreement, our town gets nothing out of that tax,” he said. “All we are is a middleman who gets the revenue from the state treasury and sends it right back out … with no guarantee of any services whatsoever in Shoshoni.”

Alternatively, he said, if Shoshoni doesn’t sign the agreement, “we keep the money” and use it to support the senior center buses and the local ambulance.

“I move that we decline to join the (agreement),” Stetler said. 

The council approved the motion, with Whitener noting that “we still encourage (people) to vote for” the three-quarter percent sales tax. 

Konija – who is a member of the Fremont County Association of Government’s new Regional Ambulance Service Evaluation Committee – agreed, pointing out that the countywide ambulance system is currently “at a critical junction point,” and if the tax fails “we are looking at possibly going backwards.”

“You think services are bad now – just wait,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but here we are.”