A Wyoming legislative committee is looking into ways to help cities, towns, and counties raise more money, but a localized food tax failed to gain support Thursday.
State Senator Ogden Driskill of Devils Tower said the state will likely not be able to keep providing money for local government at the rate it has in the past. Lawmakers approved 105 million dollars for local entities for the next two years, a decrease of 78 million from the previous two years.
Driskill offered a proposal to let cities and towns approve a local sales tax on food. Lawmakers removed the food tax several years ago and Driskill said communities in northeastern Wyoming wanted the option to add it back on.
Wyoming Association of Municipalities Director Shelley Simonton opposed the local option. She said it could hurt communities if one town passed it and a nearby community did not. Simonton added that WAM would prefer something that helps all cities, towns, and counties. That could mean adding the food tax for all communities, or more options within the current sales tax structure. She said the energy downturn is forcing many communities to cut their budgets.
"Some of the communities who are members right now are seeing 50 percent, 52 percent, 53 percent reduction in this fiscal year in sales tax. Now if that were your private business, and you saw a 50 percent reduction in revenues for your private business, you’d be making some very difficult decisions about your future."
Representative Sue Wilson of Cheyenne agreed that the solution may be to give local governments more flexibility when it comes to their current sales tax options. The committee will continue to discuss the matter this summer.
