CFD cancellation brings loss of sales tax revenue to the city, county – Wyoming Tribune

CHEYENNE Every summer for the last 123 years, Cheyenne Frontier Days has brought a western sense of wonder to the city of Cheyenne, allowing residents and visitors to indulge in the citys rich rodeo history.

But along with the experience, CFD also brings in about $600,000 in sales tax revenue to Laramie County. With the events historic cancellation that was announced Wednesday, the city and county are preparing to see declines in both sales tax and lodging tax revenue.

This is part of the decrease in sales and use tax revenue that we budgeted for. We anticipated a definite loss, Mayor Marian Orr said.

In the budgeting process for fiscal year 2021, the city took a conservative approach for sales tax revenue projections and prepared for a 25% drop worth about $6 million. The revenue losses from CFDs cancellation wont worsen the problem any more than the city has already accounted for, according to Orr.

Normally, the city of Cheyenne receives 65% of those CFD sales tax funds, which wouldve been about $390,000.

During a series of budget work sessions, City Treasurer Robin Lockman said, The golden rule of revenue forecasting is to be conservative. This will lessen the danger of spending money that we do not have based unattainable revenue projections.

While the county will see a slightly smaller impact than the city, Laramie County Board of Commissioners Chairman Gunnar Malm said the commissioners will still try to prevent increases to the countys bottom line in fiscal year 2021 given the current financial situation.

For us looking forward, were taking this into account and trying to prevent any long-term increases in the budget, Malm said.

For both the city and county, CFDs cancellation, paired with the slow in sales tax collection as a result of COVID-19, will likely cause sixth-penny sales tax collections to stretch into the fall or winter of next year.

Initially, the county commissioners expected to finish collections for their voter-approved sixth-penny projects by June 2021, but now that could stretch into October of next year. That means the next round of sixth-penny projects will likely go before the voters later than initially planned.

What thats going to do is allow us even more time to really take a look at what projects are really necessary to put forward to the voters, Orr said.

While the city and county will see trickle-down effects from CFDs cancellation, local retail, restaurant and hotel owners will see the effects on the front end without the influx of paying customers CFD brings to the county.

For local business owners, Malm said CFD is like a second Christmas.

Hopefully, therell be some community efforts to try and prop up and support local businesses, as they go through this summer without Frontier Days for the first time in 124 years, Malm said.

I think that if theres any community in the state and the nation that is prepared and is capable of ingenuitive thinking and community support, its ours. Im hopeful and optimistic that well be able to do something to at least help offset a little bit of the tremendous loss that our community is going to see.

Last year, the total attendance at CFD events was 559,930. With so much foot traffic and so many out-of-town visitors, many local businesses rely on the boost from CFD and the summer tourism season. Having occurred for the last 123 years, CFD served as a reliable source of revenue for businesses and the city and county until this summer.

Its so incredibly critical that people shop local as much as they can. Everybody might have cabin fever and might want to head south, but really, now more than ever, to shop and eat locally is so critical, Orr said.

Margaret Austin is the Wyoming Tribune Eagles local government reporter. She can be reached at maustin@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3152. Follow her on Twitter at @MargaretMAustin.

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CFD cancellation brings loss of sales tax revenue to the city, county - Wyoming Tribune