JACKSON, Wyo. — The Teton County Board of County Commissioners discussed the $110 million Teton County Courthouse reconstruction project during the July 24 meeting after an application to borrow $80 million from the Wyoming Office of State Land and Investment Board (SLIB) was denied July 18.
The county has already put aside $30 million in this year’s budget for the project, which is in the design phase.
Sarah Mann, Director of General Services, explained that per the Wyoming constitution, a county can’t borrow more than its annual tax revenue per year. According to Mann, property taxes bring in $29 million and total taxes are $50 million.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Keith Gingery clarified that this stipulation was not clear until the July 18 meeting.
“You can never borrow more than 2% of your assessed valuation for your whole county; we knew that rule,” Gingery said. “We didn’t know that you could never borrow more than what you take in for taxes for the current year.”
“I’m not sure anyone at the state lands office understood what the qualifications were,” Gingery said.
Mann and Gingery explained that it’s still unclear what the maximum borrowing amount is, and what tax revenue they specifically consider. If the max loan amount is $50 million, there is still a $30 million dollar shortfall.
“All of this is probably moot because I don’t think they were going to give us the money anyways,” Gingery said. “They have $175 million sitting in this program, the debate was, do you give half the money to one county, so that’s the other thing that’s going on. How do they take this fund and distribute it to all the counties fairly?”
Those answers will have to wait until the Aug. 3 SLIB meeting, but the Board went on to discuss alternative options to make up the $80 million.
“Legislative appropriations are always there, SPET is always there, property tax bonds are always there, this one was just a great option,” Gingery said.
Wyoming law allows counties to borrow more than they take in through taxes, but it has to be approved by the voters, Gingery explained. The next vote could be May, August or November of next year, something none of the commissioners seemed too keen on.
“If we choose not to go to the voters, we could go for $50 million through the SLIB loan, but still be $30 million short,” Mann said. “You could allocate $10 million per year in FY25, 26 and 27 to make up the extra $30 million.”
Commissioner Wes Gardner was supportive of this option but said, “What I’m really looking to find out is if $50 million is on the table without going to the voters.”
Another option, if the $50 million is secured through the SLIB, would be to separate the detention center project from the Courthouse. Mann estimated that the Courthouse will cost $75 million but also noted that the detention center facility would need several million dollars of updates. “The HVAC alone is $800,000 to replace,” Mann said.
“Maybe the first step is to decide to swallow the whole enchilada and do both the jail and the courthouse,” Commissioner Mark Newcomb said.
He suggested the Board could raise property taxes through the mill levy. “That’s the very final ugly alternative, but we do have almost five mills of leeway before we hit the 12 maximum,” Newcomb said.
An extra penny or half a penny of SPET could also be levied to fund the project but a SPET election would also need to be held. The last time an item sat alone on a SPET ballot was for the Budge Drive landslide, the commissioner said, and it was about $6 million, Commissioner Greg Epstein and Chiar Luther Propst agreed.
“It sounds to me, if we really need to expedite this, and stay on a bit of a schedule that isn’t three or four or five years from now, we are going to have to go to the voter,” Epstein said.
Propst said he was interested in learning more details about what it would look like if the Courthouse and detention center projects were separated. He also said the Board would discuss the topic again at the Aug. 7 meeting.
“In the meantime, I think we just need to sit tight and not get too far over our skis,” Propst said.
“I think the optics to the community on all of this, is going to be really a hard pill to swallow,” Epstein said. “I think everyone is going to look at it as their taxes are going to get raised.”
