News – Sheridan Media
Total sales and use tax collections in FY2023 increased at a strong pace, according to the State of Wyoming Economic Analysis Division’s annual publication “Wyoming Sales, Use, and Lodging Tax Revenue Report.”
In the report, total sales and use tax collections for FY 2023 reached $1.2 billion, an increase of 15 percent from FY 2022.
The state’s 4% tax collection grew 14.1%, the second consecutive year of double-digit growth.
Dr. Wenlin Liu, Chief Economist with the Economic Analysis Division, said “With this strong expansion, the amount of total sales and use taxes for fiscal year 2023 reached a new record. However, it’s still 11.1 percent less than FY 2015 level if measured in inflation-adjusted dollars.”
Wyoming’s economy continued to rally in FY 2023, with a rebound in oil & gas drilling, robust payroll job additions, low unemployment rate, and strong income growth.
Compared to FY 2022, nearly every major industrial sector experienced an increase in sales and use tax collections.
Retail trade (excluding motor vehicles), the largest industry sector in terms of sales tax collections, increased 8.7 percent. Wholesale trade, transportation, and machinery and equipment leasing and repair industries that act in tandem with mineral extraction operations each grew more than 20 percent.
Wyoming’s pivotal industry, mining, demonstrated the largest growth of 55.8 percent due to the continued rebound in exploration activities. However, the amount collected from this industry is still 14.8 percent lower than FY 2019.
As a result of increased activities in wind power projects and general rate increases in utility gas service, collections from the utilities sector grew 32.7 percent.
Finally, sales and use taxes from online shopping (a sub-sector of retail trade) increased 17.4 percent.
Across the state, year-over-year statewide sales and use tax collections increased in 22 counties, led by Converse at about 43% and Carbon at roughly 35%. Albany, Campbell, Niobrara, and Sublette counties each experienced over 20 percent increases.
Persistent and still elevated broad-based inflation across most goods and services played a large role in the overall robust sales and use tax collections.
Teton is the only county that experienced a decline in collections in comparison to FY 2022 at -0.1%).
This was mostly attributed to the reduced sales in accommodation and food services.
Yellowstone National Park was temporarily closed in June 2022 due to the unusual flooding, and then reopened with limited admission until December of 2022.
Total lodging tax collections (including the statewide lodging taxes), $57.1 million for fiscal year 2023, were down slightly from the $59.1 million collected in the previous year, or -3.4 percent. The year-over-year change for the state-imposed 3% lodging tax collections was -4.0 percent. Attributing to record breaking outdoor and park visitations, and substantial increase in lodging prices, total lodging sales in the state increased substantially, 47 percent in fiscal year 2022.
Converse County (21%) showed the fastest growth, followed by Campbell County (18%). A rebound in mining activities was perhaps mostly responsible for the strong increases. Two other counties, Natrona and Carbon also demonstrated over 8.0 percent growth rate, each.
Teton County, which collects more than half of Wyoming’s lodging taxes due to its geographical inclusion of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, experienced a decrease of 7.5 percent from FY22 to FY23.
Park County, the second in lodging collections in the state, declined 11.2 percent, and was also affected by the summer flooding event. Overall, 14 counties showed declines in lodging taxes for FY2023.
More Like this
Last modified: November 20, 2023