Sweetwater County faces tough decisions, makes budget cuts

GREEN RIVER — Sweetwater County has a budget for the new fiscal year, but it comes at a cost.

Facing less funding this year due to factors like property tax cuts and decreased mineral revenues, the county has had to make a number of budget cuts, especially to outside agencies that serve the community.

"Unfortunately, some of those outside agencies have been faced with a 50% reduction, some 40%. We realize those aren't easy," Commission Chairman Keaton West explained.

During the June 17 Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners meeting, West spoke to some of the challenges of this year's budget. The meeting was one week before the final budget was approved, when the commissioners were wrapping up the budget process. West explained that many of the outside agencies and component units had expressed their concerns over the budget cuts and admitted that these groups may think the commissioners were being harsh or too tough.

"They're quick to forget how much less revenue we're dealing with, and obviously that's going to roll downhill, and we do the best we can," West said.

Going over some of the specific numbers, West pointed out that the county is losing roughly $1.3 million this year due to tax cuts from recent legislation. This year the county is losing $777,000 due to the 25% homeowners tax exemption, $344,000 due to the long term homeowners exemption, and $176,000 from the 4% residential cap, according to numbers provided by County Assessor Dave Divis. 

West added that the county is also down about $4 million in mineral revenue this year, meaning it has to make up for a roughly $5.3 million difference in revenue from last year, in addition to increased costs.

Trying to make up the difference, the county is using 100% of its carryover from last year and using sources like industrial siting funding and capital reserves.

"We're having to dip into funds we otherwise wouldn't," West explained.

While cuts to outside agencies have been difficult, they still don't come close to making up $5.3 million, West said. 

He expressed appreciation to the agency directors who said they understand and will tighten their belts for the next year, and he expressed concern over those that said their only immediate option would be cutting staff. West said he believes this is an unfair reaction, and there should be other options first. Despite the concerns, and the fact that making cuts to organizations that serve the community is never easy, West maintained that the county was faced with limited options.

"At the end of the day, it's more about numbers, and if the numbers aren't there, then we have no choice but to make cuts," he said.

Cuts were ultimately made in the final budget, which was approved during a special meeting on June 26.

Golden Hour Senior Center will receive $165,000 from the county this year, compared to $205,000 last year. YWCA of Sweetwater County will receive $158,000, which is $61,000 less than last year. The Sweetwater County Food Bank is going from $27,810 last year to $14,600 this year. Castle Rock Hospital District is receiving $1,550,000, but this is still $50,000 less than last year.

Organizations facing a full 50% cut to their budget include the Sweetwater County Boys and Girls Club and Climb Wyoming.

The county faced ups and downs with the budget for core county departments, agencies, and component units this year as well. 

While the commissioners did approve a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment increase for county employees, West pointed out that the county is down three positions from this time last year, meaning that its total employment costs have only gone up 1.35% from last year, even with the COLA and health insurance increases.

During the July 1 county commissioner meeting, several of the commissioners commented on passing the budget, expressing their gratitude to be done with the difficult process.

"The budget is always a difficult few months, especially when revenues are as constrained as they are this year, but I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish," Commissioner Island Richards said. "I know a lot of organizations had to absorb some difficult cuts, but that's the nature of it. When there's less money to go around, we all have to make due with less."

"I'd like to thank all the organizations we help fund for being understanding and knowing we didn't have a choice but we had to make some pretty drastic reductions in funding," Commissioner Taylor Jones added. "I would also like to remind our constituents that we didn't decide to have this reduction in revenue. In part, our state legislators made that choice for us."

Jones noted that the 25% property tax reduction was originally proposed as a 50% reduction, and said that many of the people who supported it are now proposing to reduce all property tax language in the Wyoming state constitution.

Going over rough numbers, Jones pointed out that sales tax and property tax together amounted to roughly $3.3 billion in Wyoming last year. 

Were these taxes to be eliminated, it is possible a state sales tax could be put in place to make up the loss, which would be about a 15 cent tax for everyone in Wyoming.

"I don't feel the people pushing this idea have been forthright or transparent about the implications of such a change," Jones said, adding, "I don't think they've really thought it through."

West noted the difficulties of a reduced budget but remained optimistic for the future.

"We hope it rebounds. It will," he said. "The sky isn't always falling. We'll find a way. I believe we've been pretty open throughout this process that it's going to be difficult, people are going to feel some of the effects, but that we'll survive, and we will."

This story was published on July 10, 2025.