SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Commission will consider approval of disbursement of excess 2013 Special Purpose Tax Funds during its meeting Tuesday morning.
The Sweetwater County Commission will meet at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, August 2, at the Sweetwater County Courthouse. According to meeting documents, Sweetwater County voters approved two ballot propositions to be paid for with a 1 percent Specific Purpose Sales and Use Excise Tax (SPT) back in 2012.
“The first, $60,506,091, was for municipal and county projects. The second proposition was $21,310,321 for county sponsored
projects at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County and Castle Rock Hospital District. The final disbursement of SPT funds was on April 5, 2019,” the meeting documents state.
Since then, Sweetwater County has received excess SPT funds.
“These are tax dollars collected by vendors when the tax was in effect but not reported to the Wyoming Department of Revenue (DOR),” the documents go on to say.
According to the documents, former County Treasurer Robb Slaughter kept these funds in reserve to pay for SPT refunds requested by the DOR. Current Treasurer Joe Barbuto said that as these requests are declining in frequency, he is going to disburse the excess funds per Wyoming Statute and the original resolution.
Section 8 of the resolution states: “… excess Tax funds (less any refunds), plus any interest earned thereon, shall be distributed to the County and the Municipalities based on the respective ratio which the principal amount of each Project approved bears to the total principal amount of all Projects approved. All Tax funds, and interest thereon, shall be used for construction, operation, equipment and maintenance of the specified Projects.”
As of July 18, the total excess SPT funds was at $169,123.17. Of that total, $111,034.88 is for municipalities and $58,088.29 is for to the county, which includes Memorial Hospital and Castle Rock Hospital District.
To pay for any refund requests from the DOR, Barbuto said he will withhold $10,000, leaving a total of $159,123.17 to be allocated. In accordance to the original resolution, the following is a breakdown of what each entity will receive in excess SPT funds.
To view the full meeting agenda, click here. To view the full meeting packet, click here.
