ROCK SPRINGS –– The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners continue to express frustration with the Wyoming Legislature’s impacts on government funding and local legislators who they say did not communicate with them during the legislative session.

The Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce hosted its Coffee with the Commissioners Thursday evening to allow residents a chance to listen to the county commissioners speak about the work they’re doing and answer questions from residents. The commissioners are working on the county’s 2025-2026 budget, though face funding shortfalls from both lower mineral values and revenue reductions related to the 25% property tax relief the legislature passed earlier this year. Chairman Keaton West said he disagrees with some of the tax cuts the county faces, though the drop in mineral valuation will impact the budget more. He assured residents the county will adapt and survive them as it has before because of how the county has prepared during years of higher revenues.

I had sent an email to that particular legislator about two weeks before that … I still don’t have a response to my email.

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Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones

Chairman Keaton West pushed back against claims the county should cut back its spending after discussing the various cost-saving measures the county and some of its departments have undergone since 2010. For example, in 2010, the county had 323 full time employee positions, a number that has dropped to 246 currently, with 216 filled. 

“To say local governments and, in particular Sweetwater County, need to tighten their belts is clearly an uneducated bandwagon,” he said. 

A question was posed about how decisions in Cheyenne and Washington, D.C. impact the county, which a few commissioners used to talk about legislators needing to be educated about what’s happening with local governments in their district.

Commissioner Taylor Jones said decisions at the federal and state levels impact the county and while everyone has their own opinion on if decisions are good or bad, the main thing that has recently frustrated him is a lack of communication between legislators and commissioners. He said the legislature’s decisions that impact the county and the county’s residents. He argued the only way legislators can really educate themselves is by talking with local governing bodies.

“At the legislative town hall, they were asked what’s the best way to communicate with them, and one said email,” Jones said. “I had sent an email to that particular legislator about two weeks before that … I still don’t have a response to my email.”

Commissioner Island Richards said the legislature has forwarded a direct distribution ideology that has caused local governments to beg for funding from the state. He said the legislature had provided a number of direct revenue streams, such as a sales tax on groceries, but had cut some of those funding streams in favor of direct distribution from the state. With the grocery tax, he said the legislature said it would backfill the revenue lost to communities, but stopped providing that funding in favor of direct distribution. He said there have been discussions about replacing backfill from the residential property tax bill with more direct distribution. Richards said the counties have been forced to go to Cheyenne “with hat in hand” and lobby against other local governments to serve their residents.

“We should have fixed revenue streams,” Richards said. “When the state has too much money, it doesn’t solve the problem by taking away local funding.”

Richards was critical of the legislature favoring a direct distribution funding model while legislators have floated bills to prevent county and city governments from joining organizations like the Wyoming County Commissioners Association that help them lobby in Cheyenne. He argued those bills would force local officials to travel to Cheyenne throughout the legislative session to ensure their governments would get funding. With fewer legislative committee meetings scheduled, Richards said counties will have less opportunities to pitch their cases.

“Instead, I guess they want all 75, 90 commissioners to be in front of the legislature at the reduced committee meetings they have this year,” Richards said. 

Richards said “it’s a shame” they’re not consulted on decisions that impact residents.

Richards also commented on Wyoming House members claiming the county needed to operate at 100% efficiency, saying the figures unnamed members were using claimed the county had $72 million in revenue, which was not correct.

There needs to be an understanding that these decisions do affect us and … we should be in the loop with respect to those things so that we have the opportunity to address them upfront, rather than doing it after the fact.

Sweetwater County Commissioner Robb Slaughter

Commissioner Robb Slaughter also commented on incorrect numbers being used in the legislature. He said the situation was disconcerting because a lot of information coming from the legislature was misinformation about what was going on. He said percentages were used regarding what impacts different bills would have on county budgets.

“I don’t like to think of things as percentages, those are real dollars that affect our local services,” Slaughter said.

He said just looking at property tax relief and saying it doesn’t impact counties does a disservice to local governments and residents. He said the 25% property tax relief will amount to about $900,000, but the county also will see another $300,000 decrease from the long-term homeowners exemption. Coupled with a decrease in sales tax revenue and mineral valuations, Slaughter said the commissioners have areas they will need to cut funding to. He re-iterated the points made by Jones and Richards that commissioners need to be contacted regarding decisions at the state level.

“There needs to be an understanding that these decisions do affect us and … we should be in the loop with respect to those things so that we have the opportunity to address them up front, rather than doing it after the fact,” Slaughter said.

Commissioner Mary Thoman expressed fears that the legislature’s work in reducing property taxes will lead to a state income tax. She said Wyoming already has low property taxes compared to other states and reducing the amount of property tax collected will create a situation where revenue will need to be made up elsewhere. 

“And that is what is going to happen,” she said. “If the legislature doesn’t understand that, they are really remiss in their duties.”

Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, was at the event and responded to some of the criticisms the commissioners voiced. Brady disagrees with the assertion that local governments like the county commissioners are the closest government to the people, saying the house and senate districts are closest to the people. She also claimed she attempted to contact a commissioner for comment on a bill, but never got a response from them. She said the Wyoming House did have a bill that would provide $72 million for hardship counties and special districts to help address shortfalls, but it was killed in the Senate. 

Brady said the 25% property tax relief can be declined if people are concerned it will lead to a state income tax.