JACKSON, Wyo. — One of the items that voters will see on the ballot this election season is a funding mechanism for the Teton Conservation District (TCD).
Listed as “Proposed continuation of the conservation district tax,” it is a mill levy that must be approved by a majority of county voters every four years. The money is drawn from local property taxes to support the staff and programs of TCD, and it is capped at one mill. A majority of the organization’s funding has come through the mill levy since 1998.
“I think it’s important that we, every four years, make our case, and if we can’t justify our existence then I think the voters are justified in pulling the plug,” current TCD boardmember and incumbent candidate David Adams told Buckrail. “But I will say, the kind of stuff that we do, it’s really important to have continuity.”
If continued, TCD will create a budget for the upcoming year using projected expenditures and taking into account other income like grant awards. The budget is then submitted to Teton County, and TCD requests a certain fraction of its mill levy. TCD Executive Director Carlin Girard told Buckrail that the agency prefers to keep funding consistent and does not typically ask for the maximum allowed mill. TCD currently receives 0.49 mills, and that number would be adjusted no earlier than July 2027 when the new fiscal year begins.
The district asked for 0.67 mills in 2025 and 0.52 mills in 2024. “As property values have increased, Teton Conservation District has chosen to maintain a consistent level of funding by reducing our mill levy request,” TCD states on its website.
Cate Watsabaugh is currently serving her first term on TCD’s Board of Supervisors, and she is running for a second term. She told Buckrail that, without the mill levy, she is unsure what the district model would even look like.
“It would cause huge reductions in staff – and the staff are who carry out the programs, so then staff reductions will lead to program reductions,” Watsabaugh said. She believes TCD offers programs for a variety of community members, not solely those in agriculture: “I think it’s due to the nature of where we live and how [many] conservation initiatives and considerations there are in this district. … More people benefit more directly in this district because of the robustness of our our team and the services that they provide.”
In fiscal year 2026, which ran from July 2025 through June 2026, the mill levy contributed over $2.7 million to TCD. The district’s total revenue for the year – from the mill levy and grants – was nearly $3.5 million. That money was spent in three main ways:
- Operations, $1 million: Staff salaries, benefits and housing stipends; administration; office rent; and communications.
- Programs, $1.86 million: Water ($1.37 million), vegetation, land, GIS/mapping, wildlife, sustainability. These categories include free programs for the community like well test kits, rangeland monitoring, wildfire risk assessments and more.
- Pass-through grants, $580,000: Grants that are given out directly to other local agencies to spend on initiatives related to the program categories described above. Grant partners include Bridger-Teton National Forest, Coombs Outdoors, Friends of Pathways, Hoback Water and Sewer District, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and many more.
“Our board hasn’t chosen to grow staff, grow our internal capacity, pretty much since I’ve been here,” Girard said. “And what they’ve chosen to do instead is to be a granting agency so that our reach can be extended through the mill levy at times, through grants to outside entities. And I just think that that’s a really important part, is that we’re working behind the scenes within other conservation organizations, and there’s just many, many examples. … It’s just another aspect of what we’re doing that I think is incredibly meaningful in the community.”
Newcomer candidate for TCD’s Board of Supervisors Lee Bauknight told Buckrail that the agency’s budget appears to be pretty well balanced. “I think it’s great how transparent the TCD is and their budgets and their ins and outs,” he said. “As far as funding the TCD, I think it’s imperative; it would be a shame to see this county vote that down.”
Read the full report from fiscal year 2026 here.
