When it meets this month, the Wyoming Community College Planning Task Force will begin tackling one of its more difficult topics: A possible statewide mill levy to help support the state's seven community college districts.The 2008 Wyoming Legislature, when it created the task force, instructed members, among other things, to explore governance, revenue generation and representation for the statewide community college system.

Task force members last year decided not to deal with the mill-levy issue, as they felt they should begin sorting out college planning and governance first.

But at a meeting in Casper last month, task force members said it was time to take the issue on.

“We're looking at a statewide level, so we should look at a statewide mill levy,” said task force member Sen. Kathryn Sessions, D-Cheyenne.

The issue is a controversial one aimed at a more equitable local funding system in which all residents served by college districts help pay to support those colleges.

Residents in counties where the seven college districts are based — Park County (Northwest College), Sheridan County (Sheridan College), Laramie County (Laramie County Community College), Natrona County (Casper College), Fremont County (Central Wyoming College), Sweetwater County (Western Wyoming College) and Goshen County (Eastern Wyoming College) — pay property tax to support the colleges. Park County residents pay the required three-mill property tax to support Northwest College, as well as an optional fourth mill.

But each college also has a multiple-county area for which it provides outreach services, and none of the residents in those counties currently pay taxes to help support the colleges.

The issue became especially contentious when two colleges expanded during the past few years to build auxiliary campuses in neighboring counties.

Laramie County Community College, based in Cheyenne, now operates a campus in Laramie (Albany County) as well.

Sheridan College District is now known as the Northern Wyoming Community College District after building a campus in Gillette (Campbell County). That campus operates as Gillette College.

But no resident in either Albany or Campbell county is taxed to support those colleges or their services.

Administrators and boards for the other five Wyoming colleges have expressed frustration that those extended campuses are draining resources from the college system as a whole, and thereby from their own budgets as well.

Previous proposals, which were defeated, sought to create a one-mill tax for residents in counties served by college outreach services. The latest one also provided representation on college boards for outreach counties.

“I think we would be way off if we didn't have a discussion,” said Tom Kinnison of Sheridan, who represents small businesses on the task force. “We need to have a serious discussion from all parts if we're going to have any credibility whatsoever.”

Rep. Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson, agreed. “It should not be a mystery,” he said. “Identify possible sources and list obstacles, real and imagined, to each source. This should not take a long time ... something's got to come out.”

“I totally agree,” Sessions said. “We need to get all the issues out on the table so we can move forward with some consensus.”

Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, who co-chairs the task force, added, “We need a college system that serves the entire state.”

“If we don't deal with funding, saying it's too complex, we're going to do funding — and it's perhaps going to be irrelevant,” Jorgensen said.

Added Kinnison: “It's always loomed there, the revenue question. We as a committee have to address it. I think if we don't come up with some sort of a compromise here, its' going to get jammed up, and it's not going to be pretty.”

Pete Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, advised, “We have the best chance to make a good decision in the next few months. After that, it's ‘Katie bar the door.'”

But Sen. Michael Von Flatern, R-Gillette, noted that a one-mill tax would provide a total of only $17 million annually.

“That's not going to solve that problem of making them self sustaining,” he said. “Maybe we need to look at other ways to make them self-sustaining. Governance would be my biggest question.”

Co-Chair Rep. Dell McOmie, R-Lander, noted that the task force's first matter of business for the July 23-24 meeting, also in Casper, will be reviewing the strategic planning process for the community college system.

“We won't discuss funding in July unless there is time. This is really the bear in the room; we want to look at more than one option, and we can't do it well in four hours.”

Other topics the task force plans to consider before November include continuity of education services from K-12 to community colleges and on to the University of Wyoming.