Tax growth continues

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Weston County’s annual sales and use tax collections increased by more than 25% over fiscal year 2018, according to a Nov. 19 report from the Economic Analysis Division for the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information. Collections also increased in 20 other Wyoming counties,
“Converse County recorded the fastest increase of 53.4%, followed by Platte County’s 28.3%, and Weston County’s 27.4% from the fiscal year 2018 level,” the report says.
Carbon, Crook and Goshen counties all showed boosts of over 20% as well and the division’s chief economist, Wenlin Liu, said that the strong expansion in these counties was “mainly driven by increased oil drilling and utility structure construction activities.”
Total taxes in Weston County for fiscal 2019 totaled $8,400,812, with $5,587,609 of that coming from 4% taxes. This tax collection is up from the $6,598,665 collected in fiscal 2018, which was down slightly from fiscal 2017, when tax collections for Weston County totaled $6,777,841. 
Statewide, total tax sales and use tax collection reached $1,018,916,734 in fiscal 2019, up 11.8% from 2018’s $910,742,157. The four percent tax during the same time totaled $767,510,401 for the state. 
Statewide, the most significant increases were seen in the financial activities sector with an increase of 21.7%, mining at 19.5% and transportation and warehousing at 16.3%. Sectors statewide that experienced decreases in sales and use tax collection were agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting with a decrease of 2.2% and education and health services with a decrease of 5.8%. 
Also included in the report is a breakdown of lodging tax collections by county. Weston County had the second-highest increase in lodging tax, behind Converse County’s 48.1%, with an increase of 30.4%. Lodging tax collections in Weston County totaled $86,341 in 2019. 
Statewide lodging tax collections totaled $21,563,412, up 6.7% from the previous year.