Wyoming lawmakers weigh shifting more state sales tax to local governments; counties, cities propose 8% carve‑out

Members of the Joint Appropriations Committee heard hours of testimony in Gillette on revising Wyoming’s sales and use tax distribution, including a proposal from county and municipal groups to route a slice of the state’s share back through the existing local direct distribution formula.

The proposal from the Wyoming County Commissioners Association and the Wyoming Association of Municipalities would keep the current 31% local share intact and take roughly 8% of the state’s 69% share to run through the Madden-based direct distribution model. Jeremiah Grama of the County Commissioners Association said the 8% proposal would “generally allocate $77,000,000 based on 2024 figures,” and that the change would “eliminate the biannual wrangling over direct distribution.” Ashley Harpstreet of the Association of Municipalities emphasized the unequal county-by-county collections and said the proposal seeks to “support those second and third tier counties.”

Why it matters: the state sales tax is still 4%; the current split routes 69% to the state general fund and 31% to local governments. LSO budget fiscal administrator Don Richards told the committee the local share is reduced first by a 1% administrative carve‑out and a guaranteed minimum ($40,000 per county) before the remainder is distributed by point of sale and…