Ron Warpness: The Genesis of the 1% Tax

 An Idea Whose Time Had Come

I just had the pleasure of attending a recent RECDA meeting at the Holiday Inn. The presenters were Mr. Andy Strike and Mr. Uriel Shelby with HDR Engineering. They have taken it upon themselves to get involved with the 1% political action committee (PAC) in support of the road tax that will be coming up for reapproval in the November election. It brought back a flood of memories I would like to share with you before they get washed away with time.

In 2011, I was honored by Riverton’s citizens to be elected as Mayor of the City. We had a very competent city administrator, Mr. Carter Napier whom I had been involved in hiring when I was a council member previously.  Unbeknownst to me, Carter was planning to leave the city, and so when I took office, my first duty was to find his replacement as I did not know anything about that job. Through the help of a “search” group, we found a wonderful replacement in Mr. John Darrington. A very experienced and well-trained administrator who was a “gift from God” in my eyes.

After a County Commissioners meeting where members of FCAG had been trying to get PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) monies from the Commissioners, with marginal success as I recall. We (Mr. Darrington, Mr. Bill Urbigkit, public works director, and I) were returning to Riverton. In the conversation, John said that the only thing that all of the mayors in that meeting had in common was the need to fix their roads and the infrastructure under them. He suggested the idea of a local option tax that he felt was doable in this county. That was the genesis of our 1% tax as we know it today. As I had a great deal of respect for John, his experience and wisdom as well as miles of bad roads all over Riverton that needed work and no money in the budget to come close to helping with them this idea was very welcome.

We all got to work in the City fleshing out what it would take to get such a tax passed. A “local option tax” had never been passed as far as anyone could remember. Capital facilities taxes had passed but not a local option. Through our efforts, we got strong help from Mayor Mick Wolfe of Lander as well as Mr. Kyle Lehto and Mr. Dave Meyer of HDR. That is why I was so happy to see Andy and Uriel from HDR still making things happen in our community. There are too many other citizens to list who got behind this effort and made it happen. One that I will call out is Stephen Weaver. When John Darrington left, as he was just temporary, Stephen took over those reins as city administrator in a most professional way. He and I went all over the City and spoke to any group that was willing to listen. It was not easy, and I could tell you stories about some of those encounters. We have very strong feelings in this county when it comes to taxes of any kind. Stephen and I gave our solemn vow that those monies would not be abused. I have tried very hard to live up to that pledge. I have failed in some areas, but overall, we have done a pretty good job, and I strongly support this tax in the future. At this time, it is my understanding, this tax has brought in about $19,388,946.51 that has been used on projects in Riverton alone. I would imagine that the county total is more than $50,000,000 million.

One glitch that came up after the tax was passed, and I have tried my darnedest to correct, with no success, is the fact that in the county many miles of roads are county roads that have not been accepted as “county-maintained roads.” Due to this fact, there are many taxpayers that live along those roads that do not even have a seat at the table when it comes to the distribution of the 1% monies. This is not fair or right. I have suggested that a small percentage of those monies could be set aside to help these taxpayers wherever it might be needed. The commissioners have taken the position that they cannot spend county monies on roads that have not been “accepted for maintenance” even though those roads are in the county. I feel this is a bureaucratic and lazy response. Let’s solve this problem!

Ron Warpness