GOSHEN COUNTY – The general election is quickly approaching and some of the incentives which appear on the ballot this year have officials in Goshen County and its small towns on edge. 

Under ballot propositions reads county sales and use tax: Shall Goshen County, Wyoming continue to impose a 1% sales and use tax upon goods and services subject to such tax, to raise revenue for distribution to the general fund of Goshen County and the incorporated cities and towns within Goshen County?

The voter is given two opinions. One, is to vote in favor of the sales and use tax and the other option, is to vote against the revenue funding. 

The tax, which collects taxes for a four-year period, is commonly referred to as the “5th penny tax” as it adds an additional 1% to the current 4% state sale and use tax according to the Wyoming Economic Development keeping the total tax the same. The additional ¼% tax was passed by the county constituents.

According to Lynette Strecker, City of Torrington Clerk-Treasurer, the 5th penny sales tax was passed by voters in the November 2, 2004, general election and it has been renewed every four years since its inception.

Residents and non-residents, such as tourists and visitors passing through the community pay the “5th penny tax,” according to Strecker. Strecker also mentioned the tax won’t increase the cost of groceries. She also noted there are many tax exemptions including agriculture fertilizer, farm equipment, livestock feed and seed. 

The “5th penny tax” affects the budgets of Goshen County, the City of Torrington, the Town of Yoder, the Town of La Grange, the Town of Lingle and the Town of Fort Laramie. 

“We are all in this together,” Strecker said. 

“In 2024, the county received $1,111,994 from the tax. The total amount collected is divided up between the City of Torrington, the Town of Fort Laramie, the Town of LaGrange, the Town of Lingle, the Town of Yoder and Goshen County, with the amount being figured by population,” Mary Feagler, Goshen County Clerk, said. “The tax is a crucial funding stream for the county and for the incorporated towns within the county. Goshen County uses the funds toward the overall general fund which provides funding for necessary services such as the sheriff’s department and detention center, road and bridge equipment, wages and benefits for all employees, courthouse maintenance, fair and library funding, IT funding and other operations,” Feagler continued.

“She (Strecker) did me a huge favor and she broke down, like if I look at this 5th penny tax, the state’s legislature set it at 4% and the counties have an option to add a penny which is what this is,” Torrington Town Mayor, Herb Doby, said. “This thing’s been here since ’04. This is the 20th year. Every four years the voters have to reapprove it. So, just for intense, in FY24 1.1 million [dollars] to Goshen County, just with this penny. Fort Laramie $43,000, La Grange $78,000, Lingle $85,000, Torrington $1.2 million and Yoder $27,000. So, this is important,” Doby stressed.

“There is over $2M coming in from taxes that are used for services and purchases of equipment and essentials,” Strecker said.

The 5th penny tax will not increase the current tax, but the funds allotted are used for valuable resources within the community.

“We may use them (the funds) for different things, but Torrington tries to use them for essential maintenance or capital, or equipment needs,” Strecker said. “We try not to use it or wages. But I do know the county does use theirs towards the payment of wages because they just don’t have another choice.”

Doby explained one of the best uses for the funds was as a “matching money for grants.”

“If you go out to the slip-board or anywhere to look for a grant, they’re wanting skin in the game, so you are able to say, ‘We have this much,’ then they see that you’re serious and you have skin in the game then you get grants,” Doby explained. “So, we can take this money and use it for matching.”

“We can leverage it and to bring in even more money into the community,” Strecker echoed. 

Strecker and Doby both stressed this is nothing new. 

“The main thing is, it’s not a new tax. It is just to continue what we have now. The tax will stay the same at 5.25%,” Strecker explained. “This isn’t a new or an additional tax. This tax is paid not just Goshen County residents. It’s paid by visitors and whoever is coming through the community spending money. It’s basically based off sales. It doesn’t have to be a Goshen County resident.” 

Strecker and Doby both stressed the grocery bill won’t go up because food is exempt from the tax. 

“Because we are ag, a good portion of ag is exempt from this, machinery, fertilizer, seed, those sorts of things are exempt from this sales tax,” Doby explained. “We are a hardship county and what I mean by that is a lot of our sales tax goes to Nebraska because people go to Walmart or even Cheyenne.”

“This is a huge help to us, this sales tax,” Doby said. “And like Lynette said, it’s not new. I think some people will confuse it. Last year, it was on the ballot for economic development for their quarter penny tax. This has nothing to do with that. It is its own separate thing. It was done two years ago.”

The Town of Yoder also relies heavily on tax revenue. 

“We lost $54,000 in revenue from the year before and it had to do with direct distribution, the mineral royalty tax, severance tax and other things,” Yoder’s mayor, Norm Feagler explained. “The only thing that we really gained on that, that kept us in the ballpark is our 5th penny tax. It went up $400 thank goodness because we need every penny of that.”

Yoder uses their funds for infrastructure, the mayor explained. 

“Like the park and streets and other items in town,” mayor Feagler said. “So, an extension of that 5th penny tax is crucial to us. A lot of people don’t realize, they think, ‘tax, tax, tax,’ they don’t realize it is an extension of a tax that we already have.” 

The mayor also wanted voters to know, it isn’t just Goshen County residents who are paying the extra tax.

“The beautiful part of it is, is that it doesn’t only tax the residents of Goshen County, it taxes everyone who comes through and buys things,” the mayor said. “It taxes everybody.”

The population of Yoder has declined, according to the Yoder Maintenance Supervisor, Rod Weyrich.

“Another thing is, we went from 153 people to 131 people during our next, so we lost like 22 people, in the 2020 census which kind of hurt us on mineral royalties and it dropped us some dollars. We lost money and then inflation goes up. It’s kind of hard,” Weyrich explained. “We still have the same town to run. Because we still got a school with probably 250 people over here we’ve got to take care of too. It’s not like we are getting an extra fund just to run the school. It’s like having a town the size of 400 people but the school really doesn’t get counted. We don’t get tax money from them.” 

Feagler stressed Yoder is the smallest town, which receives the tax revenue, in Goshen County. 

“The distribution is based on population, and we are the least populated town in Goshen County, so we get the least amount of monies,” the Yoder mayor said. “We have to make do with a lot of things. Rod is very good at it.”

“We have to have a pretty fine-tuned budget because we don’t have any extra,” Weyrich said. “But we have gotten along. We’re still going. But if we lose that, what do you cut next? You start cutting things like the real good things like you won’t get your streets graveled maybe or you might not have a community building. You kind of have to decide now what goes first. We still got to operate this town with a certified water operator and a secretary to run the town, but what do you cut out when you don’t have anything things to cut out?” Weyrich explained.

The Yoder mayor added nothing will change should the 5th penny tax pass. 

“I just think it is very important to stress the fact in this existing tax, it is just an extension of that tax so that people don’t think it is a new tax or some additional tax,” the mayor explained. “I think that’s really important to stress.”

“The biggest thing is, people see ‘tax’ and they are like ‘ugh,’ I even do that but you look at Scottsbluff or Cheyenne and anywhere outside of Goshen County, we are one of the smallest tax counties. Which is great, let’s keep it that way, Cathy Stoddard, Clerk for the Town of La Grange said. “Five and a quarter verse even Scottsbluff and Cheyenne you’re at six or seven percent.”

Stoddard went on to say, if this tax was increasing what residents currently pay, she may think differently about the proposition.

“If it was going up to six or seven percent, I would say, ‘Do you really want to do that?’ But this tax isn’t changing a thing. If going down isn’t going to make a huge difference to us (as citizens) anyway, other than our communities are going to suffer,” Stoddard explained. 

After looking at her computer, Stoddard explained the budget just for streets and roads in the town of La Grange was almost the exact amount of money the small town brings in with revenue from the 5th penny tax. 

“We use that just for the overall operation of the town,” Richard Reyes, Town of Lingle Clerk/Treasurer explained. “If we did not have those funds, it would be really hard to do the things that we do for the residents.”

Reyes explained most of the funds are used for basic maintenance or projects. 

Each town stressed there would be no change to the current tax.

“That’s the biggest thing, letting people understand it’s not something new,” Stoddard concluded. “It’s something we are already taking care of. We are always less than everybody else with sales tax at 5.25%.”

It’s clear to many throughout the county, the “5th penny tax” is more than just five cents; to many towns, the tax is everything.

The Telegram was unable to receive a response back from the Town of Fort Laramie; however, Strecker noted the town received $43,000 during the last four-year cycle.