Wyoming revenue director outlines how statewide 4% sales tax is split, explains municipal option and lodging allocations

Director Brett Fanning of the Wyoming Department of Revenue told the Revenue Committee that Wyoming’s mandatory statewide sales-and-use tax is 4 percent and that the state’s distribution system splits the revenue between the state and local partners. "About 69 percent of that statewide 4 percent goes to the general fund," Fanning said, adding that the balance is returned to counties and municipalities under established formulas.

The distribution system matters because the statewide 4 percent is only the base: local voter-approved “pennies” — commonly called the fifth penny (general purpose) and sixth penny (specific purpose) — are added on top where voters approve them. Fanning said those voter-approved pennies carry a small administrative fee to the state, but 99 percent of those collections go back to the local jurisdictions that imposed them. He also reviewed lodging and resort-district levies and a municipal option that the City of Casper recently approved and implemented.

Why it matters: Sales and lodging taxes are a major revenue source for Wyoming counties and municipalities. The mix of state and local receipts, the presence or absence of voter-approved pennies, and municipal options directly affect local budgets and services.

Fanning walked the committee through four primary buckets: the statewide 4…