Dear editor:

Buffalo Bill Cody and George W. T. Beck were great entrepreneurs and promoters of Cody and northwest Wyoming.

Together they breathed life into the town of Cody and the Buffalo Bill Dam that helped nurture and grow the Powell Valley and its agricultural economy that has helped shape the communities and culture that we cherish. We have honored Buffalo Bill’s legacy with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, The Scout statue, and preserving the western way of life he lived. We should be worthy of our heritage and continue to support and promote our communities and businesses that rely on tourism to sustain Park County. Voting FOR the lodging tax is a great way to achieve this goal.

The lodging tax has been in place since 1986, and tourists pay 85% of the tax.

The Wyoming Taxpayers Association recently published an analysis of the average Wyoming family’s taxes paid and the services they receive. See wyotax.org. For a Wyoming family of four based on county data from all 23 counties, for every $1 the Wyoming family pays in taxes they receive $13.83 in services. The Wyoming family receives $56,834.36 of state and local government services they do not pay for, which is supported by mineral and non-mineral sources of revenue.

The Wyoming family’s total state tax paid for 2023 is estimated to be $4,429.08 and this amounts to 3.54% of the family’s household income and is itemized as follows: property tax 54%, sales and use tax 28.2%, fuel taxes and fees 17%, and excise taxes of 0.8%. The Wyoming family received total services for 2023 valued at $61,263.44 itemized as follows: K-12 education $31,176.63 or 50.9% of total services received; state services of $11,032.30 or 18% of total services received; special districts $8,862.56 or 14.5% of total services received; city/town services $5,735.94 or 9.4% of total services received; and county services of $4,456.01 or 7.3% of total services received.

We continue to be very fortunate to have many of our services paid for by mineral and non-mineral sources of revenue, including tourism. Property tax increases certainly deserve our best effort to address, and the Legislature continues to wrestle with the problem, but the lodging tax is largely a tax nonresidents pay. Please join me in supporting the lodging tax and our local economies.

Colin Simpson

Cody