Extra sales tax to end Oct. 1
By Martin Reed
Staff Writer

County Treasurer Scott Harnsberger said the optional 1 cent tax funding voter-approved library and hospice projects will run through the end of September.
“It’ll be cut off Oct. 1,” Harnsberger said in an interview Friday.
He said he based the decision on “the way (tax) distribution wasn’t quite large enough to give me any comfort level to cut it off earlier.”
For people making purchases in Fremont County, the result is the sales tax will drop to 4 percent from 5 percent when collection stops.
Harnsberger last month told commissioners the specific-use tax approved by voters would stop at the end of an annual quarter either in June or September.
With the state government requiring a 60-day notice for termination of the tax, Harnsberger needed to decide by the end of last month when to end collection.
Harnsberger he based his decision in part on May’s lower-than-average tax collection.
“I think the distribution was only like $602,000, and we’ve been averaging around $690,000” per month, he said.
The dilemma he faced in determining when to end the tax involved stopping its collection on July 1 and possibly not securing the full $10.3 million amount authorized by voters.
On the other hand, stopping the tax on Oct. 1 to ensure proper funding for the new Help for Health Hospice Home in Riverton and Fremont County Library in Lander expansion would mean exceeding the collection amount.
Harnsberger said the tax will collect possibly $2 million or more for the projects voters approved in November 2006.
Some county commissioners last month worried about the reaction among voters and taxpayers for collecting more than the authorized amount.
“I guess, Mr. Chairman, if I was a voter I would be troubled” if the tax collected more than intended, Commissioner Pat Hickerson said last month.
“I think that really sends a bad message to the voters: Oh, by the way, we’re going to collect an extra $2 million,” Hickerson said at the April 22 meeting.
“It’s a tough thing (to decide), but I think it’s also tough to go to the taxpayers and say we’re going to take an extra $2 million because of the rules.”
Leaders’ concern about public reception of the tax issue arrives as Fremont County’s local governments are considering asking voters to approve a similar optional tax question in the fall.
In the meantime, funds collected beyond the amount authorized have been earmarked for purposes outlined in the voter referendum from the 2006 election.
“The additional money for the hospice goes to the escrow fund,” Harnsberger said Friday. “The library’s can be used for maintenance and operations.”
The division of the extra money, based on the collection authorized, means about 43 percent will go to the hospice and 57 percent to the library, Harnsberger said.
He added that commissioners are weighing the best use of the extra funds for the library.
“With respect to that, that kind of opens up to allow the commission to at least look at subsidizing the library’s operation and maintenance budget with that sales tax money,” he said. “That allows the use of the 12 mills for other things. That’s just one alternative.”