• Funding would be specific to a project. City administrator noted pool and rec center in Star Valley. 

Kemmerer City Administrator Brian Muir hopes to have the Six Penny Tax on the ballot for the presidential election in 2024. The addition would apply to all of Lincoln County.

In an interview on the SVI Media Weekday Wake-Up program he advised the purpose of the tax is to have a temporary uptick in sales tax from five pennies on the dollar to six to raise money for a specific project.

“For a specified amount,” Muir said. “For a specified time period.”

The administrator explained the tax then goes away once the project is funded and completed. He says he knows City of Casper did something similar to raise funds to build an amphitheater in a local park for that Wyoming community..

Muir said the Kemmerer City Council and the Mayor have instructed him that infrastructure is the top priority.

“I see infrastructure for us as economic development,” Muir said. “You want to get people to join and stay in your community, you need to have good streets and sidewalks and those kinds of things.”

With the changes planned for the power plant, he said people are coming in and proposing subdivisions. He said the investors advise that it’s important for a community to have good roads.

Muir said this is what the tax would be used for, but he understands this same tax also needs to be beneficial to those in northern Lincoln County.

The city administrator says he has talked to leaders in Star Valley to identify a need to make sure the people thought “they were getting a good deal” with the additional penny.

“I don’t know that is what  happened last time,” Muir said of previous failed proposals for the tax. “That was before my time when it did not pass.”

Muir noted one proposal that has “been tossed around” is the idea of building a rec center with a swimming pool. The tax would help raise funds to build that in the Star Valley area.

“I haven’t heard from everyone,” Muir said. “But I’ve heard lots of positives.”

He says he has talked to a lot of elected officials that seem interested in the idea.

“I hope that’s something that will be attractive to the folks up north,” Muir said. “Given your population … there certainly seems to be a huge need.”

He pointed to the Kemmerer  Diamondville swimming pool and recreation center and  it has brought a good mental and physical benefit to the community.”