Laramie council hears options for Albany County specific-purpose excise tax; staff outlines $84M–$97M scenarios

At a work session on Oct. 14 at the Municipal Operations Center, the Laramie City Council received an overview of the Albany County specific purpose excise tax, commonly called SPET, and how different term-and-forecast assumptions would change the total amount presented to voters.

"This is absolutely not a city tax. This is an Albany County tax, and it benefits the county, the city, and the town of Rock River," said Jennifer Wade, the city's finance director, summarizing a central point of the presentation. Wade and Assistant City Manager Todd Feazer told councilors the bodies will negotiate a maximum tax amount and a list of projects to appear on a future ballot.

Wade reviewed how sales and use taxes are structured in Albany County: a 6% combined rate that she broke into 4% state sales tax, 1% local general-purpose tax (the "fifth cent") and 1% specific-purpose option that must be voter approved and tied to named projects. She said the city uses conservative forecasting and suggested a 10-year planning horizon is historically common in Albany County.

Staff presented four methodologies for setting a maximum tax amount on a 10-year term. Using a conservative, median-collections approach with an inflation adjustment, staff said a 10-year tax would yield about $85,900,000. Using a median-plus-wind-energy adjustment produced $92,100,000; an average-collections (more aggressive) scenario produced $97,300,000; and simply inflating the 2018 approved tax by CPI produced $83,900,000. Municipal adviser Todd Bishop, who advised county staff, recommended against proposing a tax over $100,000,000; Wade said city staff agreed with that advice.

Wade and Feazer warned councilors that accelerated one-time revenues (notably wind energy development) distorted the most recent collection history and urged the council to base expectations on the ongoing sales tax base, including the post-2019 taxation of online sales.

The presentation also outlined financing choices. Wade said funds from a voter-approved SPET are available as collected but can be bonded to access money up front. She noted interest rates have changed since the last issuance: 2018 bonds averaged well under 1 percent, while staff now expect market rates closer to 4 percent. "If we were to bond around $21,000,000 for specific purpose tax projects in 2026, the cost of interest on that debt would be $5,000,000," Wade said as an example of how financing lowers net project proceeds.

Feazer described the city's preliminary project list and said departmental requests initially exceeded $100,000,000; staff trimmed that to roughly $51,000,000 for the city's internal list pending council direction. Staff grouped potential projects into four broad categories: public safety (new or joint public safety center, fire station 1 replacement, animal control facility), public works (streets, stormwater, Bill Nye Drive phase projects), quality-of-life (parks, pool/wading pool replacements, Laramie Community Recreation Center maintenance) and community projects (Laramie Regional Airport requests and Pilot Hill operations).

Representatives from the Laramie Regional Airport and from the Pilot Hill project presented brief requests. Airport leadership said airport gross revenues have risen from about $1.1 million in earlier years to about $2.9 million in the most recent year and requested consideration of short-term revenue-generating projects such as a hangar. "We have maximized all of our revenue streams at the airport," the airport representative said, and asked to present a fuller proposal to council. Pilot Hill Executive Director Sarah Brown Matthews asked the council to consider a SPET carve-out or endowment to cover long-term operations and maintenance of the 11-square-mile Pilot Hill area; she estimated annual operations at roughly $250,000 to $300,000 and said an economic analysis projects about $5.5 million in added sales-and-use tax revenue tied to development and use of the area.

Councilors asked about term lengths, whether a new SPET can overlap with a still-collecting prior SPET, and the negotiation process with the county and Rock River. Wade said the county adopts the SPET ordinance under Wyoming statute, that municipalities sponsor eligible organizations, and that the governing bodies together determine term, amount and sponsored projects. She reiterated that specific-purpose taxes cannot fund ordinary operations unless tied to a defined project or reserve allowed by statute.

Next steps: staff asked council to consider a desired term and a maximum amount to carry into joint negotiation sessions. Council members were told to expect several joint work sessions, beginning with a joint meeting with the Albany County Commissioners and the Rock River town council on Oct. 20; staff said the county will recommend whether the question would go to voters in May or August 2026. Feazer recommended the council designate a negotiating lead (traditionally the mayor) and later adopt a council resolution to prioritize projects in time for negotiation.

The work session produced no vote or formal council action; it was an informational briefing and a call for council direction on terms and priorities ahead of intergovernmental negotiations.