On the back page of ballots this year Teton County voters will find bubbles approving or shooting down a new sales tax and a constitutional amendment.
While the national outcome of the presidential race might not be known by Tuesday night, election night will show whether county residents want to raise taxes temporarily by one penny for a new courthouse building, which would house the jail and dispatch center under one roof. Voters statewide will decide if future lawmakers can tweak property tax rates with a precision that’s currently unconstitutional.
Defending the courthouse tax, County and Prosecuting Attorney Dick Stout said the county has long felt the current building is no longer adequate and started conversations about constructing a new one in 2018.
“The county has fought every option for a remodel, and it was ultimately determined that the bones just weren’t there,” Stout said, “the only way to go was to do a completely new reconstruction.”
Stout, along with county electeds, are pushing for voters to approve the additional penny of sales tax under the proposed Special Purpose Excise Tax. The sales tax would be a seventh penny on everything but groceries and unprepared food. Stout said it would shift some of the construction costs onto visitors. Otherwise, the county would have to borrow the money or raise property tax, which it said would significantly increase the costs. The tax would disappear after enough has been collected, unless voters chose to approve the penny again with another capital project.
If voters pass the tax ballot initiative, they would unlock the sales tax funding that seeks to raise $88 million of the estimated $120 million in construction costs. That number is significantly less than the $200 million the county estimates cost would be without the tax ballot funds. If passed, the county estimates the $88 million would be collected over about four and a half years.
Stout said a new courthouse will be built no matter where the funding comes from.
Statewide voters will also decide one piece of the future for property taxes with a constitutional amendment.
Property taxes fund public goods like K-12 schools and roads, but have ballooned across the state in recent years.
Right now, homes and apartments are in the same tax category as commercial and industrial property. Representative Mike Yin, a Jackson Democrat, initially brought the idea to fellow lawmakers to tweak taxes on just homes.
If over half of voters say “yes” to this year’s constitutional amendment, future legislators could lower or raise property taxes on homes alone, and assessors could tax second homes at a higher rate than primary residences. Leaving the question blank is a “no” vote.
Voting in Wyoming’s general election continues through Nov. 5.
