Platte County Commissioner Steve Shockley told the Wyoming Legislature Appropriations Committee that local governments depend on the state’s direct distribution of sales tax to maintain essential services, saying, “Local governments deliver where it matters.” He said Platte County’s budget this year was approximately $14,800,000 and that a proposed reduction in the local-government share would have immediate effects on staffing and programs.

"Counties receive over 25,000,000 annually," Shockley said, and warned that a proposed reduction from 8% to 5.76% — described in committee discussion as roughly a $105 million biennial shift statewide — would cost Platte County an estimated $214,500 and could force cuts to the county fair, branch libraries and discretionary staff. Shockley described statutory duties that counties must fund — issuing vehicle titles and license plates, recording land documents, operating jails and answering 911 — and contrasted those with discretionary programs such as the county fair and extension services.

Ashley Harp Street, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, told the committee that municipalities seek "reliable, sustainable funding," citing prior state actions that reduced local revenue, including the food tax exemption, lower severance-tax receipts and reduced federal mineral royalty payments. She and county representatives said predictability matters for small incorporated towns that rely on distributed funds for basic infrastructure such as public water systems.

Brett Fanning, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, explained that the department does not compute the Madden formula that adjusts distribution for certain "hardship" counties and that Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI) performs the final calculations. Fanning described the timing of payments (half on Aug. 15 and half on Jan. 15) and gave examples of local sales-tax-rate changes — Casper raised a municipal option tax from 5% to 6% and Teton County moved from 6% to 7% — noting the department did not observe an immediate, material decline in local sales after those increases but cautioned many factors affect behavior.

Committee members pressed witnesses on how local governments would respond in an economic downturn. Witnesses pointed to the COVID-era experience, when federal aid altered local budgets, and said responses would depend on the severity of a downturn and decisions made by state and local policymakers. The panel also discussed the Madden formula and identified the counties that currently receive hardship weighting: Bighorn, Crook, Goshen, Hot Springs, Niobrara, Platte, Washakie and Weston.

Representative Sherwood reminded the committee to include the revenue loss from the food sales-tax exemption in any modeling of replacements; witnesses and legislators discussed two key figures they were using in committee analysis: a historical approximate annual direct-distribution average of $55,000,000 and the 2007 food tax exemption backfill estimate of about $33,400,000. Committee leadership said they would not issue staff directives on the proposal the same day and asked staff to follow up with data requested by commissioners and presenters.

The committee did not take formal action on the proposal during the session. Members asked the Department of Revenue and legislative staff to explore whether a dynamic economic study — using outside economic modeling to estimate behavioral responses if property taxes were replaced with sales-tax revenue — would be feasible and what it would cost. Fanning said the Department can partner on work already done ("how much a penny raises") but recommended outside consultants for an in-depth dynamic analysis.

The committee scheduled further consideration and asked staff to collect requested property-value and distribution details from counties before issuing directives.