KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, SportsSixth Penny Cutting Ballot

Sixth Penny Cutting Ballot

The Sixth-penny sales tax ballot is set to take a significant cut.

The decision was made Thursday night by a countywide committee.

The city's projects combined with the rest of the county had a price tag of $185.6 million going into the meeting.

By the end, the committee had decided to set the ballot limit at $105 million meaning more projects will need to be cut from the ballot.

The committee projected that they would be able to pay off the $185.6 million dollars worth of projects in about 10 years. But factoring in inflation or looking at bonding costs, it didn't make sense.

"Instead of being maybe a ten year or 11 year ballot issue it was looking like it was going to take 15 years to pay it all back and that was just longer than anyone wanted to commit to," said Mark Rinne, who represents Cheyenne on the committee.

The ballot cut will force the Cheyenne to cut it's sixth-penny projects from $105 million to $57 million.

"Now that we're only given $57 million to work with we're going to have to prioritize and not get everything that everybody wants. there are many worthy projects, but they're not all going to fit into that," Rinne said.

A prioritized list was something city council had originally decided against. A new police station and the rec center are the two most expensive projects the city had on the ballot. It seems inevitable one will now have to be cut.

"Those two items on there already goes over our $57 million so it really comes down to can we pay for both of those this time around and I don't see how we can. So that makes it a really difficult decision," Rinne said.

Laramie County had already made a prioritized list so they have a good idea what projects will ultimately make the ballot.

"The 9-1-1 communication equipment. The equipment's getting old, we're having trouble finding parts for that. So that's on there. Sheriff's department equipment. The fire districts, they're in need of new stations," said Troy Thompson, Laramie County Commissioner.

Thompson also expects the new $22 million Laramie County fairgrounds to make the cut.

The committee agreed that the $5 million new terminal at Cheyenne Regional Airport will be on the ballot because it benefits everyone.

"Instead of saying hey, Albin this comes off of yours of Cheyenne it comes off of yours. We just said hey this is important for all of us," Thompson said.

Cheyenne hopes to have it's final list of projects on February 7 and the county believes they will have theirs the first week of March.