City leaders are looking for direction from local residents about the ways Riverton should spend its portion of the county’s half percent sales tax for economic development.
Several members of the Riverton City Council voted against the most recent allocation of half percent funding in Riverton, citing feedback from constituents who say they want more of the money to go toward smaller projects in town.
“We’re not allocating that money the way that the community thought we were going to allocate it,” said Julie Buller, a member of the Evolve, Diversify and Grow our Economy Committee that guides half percent sales tax distributions in Riverton.
Buller approached the Riverton City Council during a meeting this week to ask for more information about the “recommendations that the community thinks that we should be making.”
“I am concerned that that tax won’t pass again because we are making maybe not the (right) recommendations,” Buller said, adding, “There are a lot of people that are not planning on voting for (the) tax when it comes up again.”
She asked the council to help gather feedback from residents in the coming months about smaller projects the tax revenue could fund.
Janet Winslow, another EDGE Committee member, also asked the council to “educate our public, or re-educate them, on what the letter of the tax was when it was written.”
The 2020 ballot question said economic development tax revenues could go toward “any project that retains or increase(s) employment and/or results in a net gain of money into the community.”
“That is (what) the EDGE Committee makes their recommendations based on,” Winslow said. “It’s important that we explain that … so that we aren’t looking like we’re just giving money to favorite or pet projects, or whatever the misconception is. Because that’s not the case.”
She added that Fremont County could modify the ballot language for the next vote on the optional half percent sales tax so the revenues could go toward a wider array of local organizations.
For more information or to offer feedback email [email protected] or call the City of Riverton at 856-2227.