Sheridan County Commission to vote on employee buyout

SHERIDAN — Sheridan County employees could receive a buyout option in the coming weeks as the county grapples with a budget shortfall.

At a special meeting last week, the Sheridan County Board of County Commissioners directed department heads and elected officials to rework their proposed spending for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins July 1. The board requested departments reduce their proposed spending to at least 8% less than what it approved for FY2025.

A drafted summary of each county department’s requested budget and anticipated revenues, prepared May 7, showed requests totaled just less than $25.07 million, or $3.73 million more than anticipated revenues for FY2026.

Commissioner and board Chair Lonnie Wright last week attributed the revenue shortfall to the county anticipating a decrease in its property tax revenues.

Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature approved a 25% exemption on the first $1 million of all single family residential properties’ fair market value from taxation for tax year 2025.

Every county department cut from its initial requests; proposed spending totals just less than $21.48 million, which is about $141,000 more than the county’s anticipated revenue, and $500,000 of cash on hand, for FY2026. That figure does not include eye or life insurance for all county employees, as well as benefit costs for fairground and library employees.

Still, as department heads and elected officials made extensive cuts to their budget requests, most were unable to meet the commissioners’ request to slash 8% from their proposed spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

Sheridan County Assessor Paul Fall, Sheridan County Attorney Dianna Bennett, the county’s public works department staff, Sheridan County Treasurer Katie Araas, Administrative Director Cameron Duff, University of Wyoming Extension educator Emily Swinyer and Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez all wrote memoranda stating the only way to make sufficient cuts for their departments would be to reduce staffing or office hours.

Dominguez wrote in his memo he was able to cut the sheriff’s office request by 7.29% by reducing staffing.

“This comes with a disclaimer; our ability to deliver the services needed and required by our office may be jeopardized and negatively impacted. This equates to one less Patrol Deputy patrolling Sheridan County, one less Administrative Secretary in our office performing statutory requirements, and the inability to backfill the courthouse with additional deputies as needed,” Dominguez wrote.

Dominguez wrote a similar message for the detention center’s reduced budget request.

The county last approved a buyout for its employees in 2015. That buyout, according to the 2015 resolution, resulted from a decrease in properties’ assessed values at the state and county levels. Employees who accepted the buyout were offered between one and three months of salary and health insurance, depending on how long they worked for the county.

In an email to The Sheridan Press, Sheridan County Human Resources Manager Kenny Custis said four county employees accepted the severance buyout in 2015; he added the county lost another 9.5 full-time equivalents “during that time as additional positions were consolidated or open positions were not filled.”

A drafted resolution to potentially offer current county employees a severance buyout would take a similar structure to the 2015 offer; employees this year would be offered between one and four months of salary and health insurance, depending on how long they’ve worked for the county.

With the buyouts could also come reduced hours at the courthouse to help mitigate the increasing workload with fewer employees and as the county’s population continues to increase.

According to Wyoming Division of Administration & Information estimates, Sheridan County’s population increased by about 400 people from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024; the same estimates indicate the county’s population has increased by more than 2,000 people from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2024.

“We obviously have as much, or more, work than we’ve had in the past for our departments,” Commissioner Nick Siddle said. “I certainly think we’re going to have to take it one step further, and we’re going to have to go to reduced hours of the day for some of our office… for the situation that they’re going to have more work and less people.”

During the special meeting Tuesday morning, commissioners requested the resolution to offer county employees a severance buyout be drafted.

“The goal with this is that someone would need to voluntarily accept this buyout this fiscal year, it would need to be paid by June 30 out of funds from this fiscal year, so that those individual positions would not be replaced in the next fiscal year,” Duff said.

It’s currently unclear when the board will vote on the resolution, though it has two regular meetings and four staff meetings in June. The board could also schedule a special meeting to vote on the resolution.

This story was published on May 22, 2025.