Roughly 53 percent of Park County voters supported the tax in November’s general election

If you notice an extra couple of cents on your purchases this weekend, it’s no April Fool’s joke.

A new 1 percent sales tax — approved by Park County voters last fall — kicks in on Saturday and will push the county’s sales tax rate from 4 to 5 percent.

The extra tax will stay in place until $13.68 million has been collected for new bridges, sewers, roads and other infrastructure projects in Powell, Cody, Meeteetse and rural Park County.

By County Treasurer Barb Poley’s projections, all the money should be collected and the tax wrapped up by no later than September 2019.

Poley is assuming that the 1 percent sales and use tax will bring in an average of $526,150 a month; that would basically mean that there’s an average of $52.6 million worth of taxable sales in the county each month.

“I was pretty conservative,” Poley recently said of her estimates.

Her projections assume that the economy will slow down a little. If sales instead continue at the pace that they did from July 2015 to June 2016 — the most recent fiscal year — the tax could come off several months earlier than Poley has estimated.

She expects the first dollars from the tax to start arriving in local governments’ coffers in June, and the money will be proportionately divvied up between the local governments on a monthly basis:

• The City of Cody will get 36.5 percent of each month’s receipts, eventually collecting $5 million. That money will be used to upgrade the city’s sewer lagoons, add wheelchair ramps and crack and chip seal a number of streets.

• The City of Powell will receive 31.1 percent as it gets $4.25 million to widen and improve Absaroka Street.

• Park County will get 17.8 percent, ultimately receiving $2.43 million for upgrades to the South Fork Road plus two replacement bridges in the South Fork area and a new box culvert to cross a canal northwest of Garland.

• The Town of Meeteetse is in line to get 14.6 percent and $2 million. That’s to overhaul the town’s sewer lagoons.

Last week, Park County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution formally setting the plan for distributing the money. Commissioner Tim French — a vocal opponent of the tax last year — seconded the motion.

“It’s water under the bridge now,” French explained to his somewhat surprised colleagues, who gave him some good-natured ribbing.

Roughly 53 percent of Park County voters supported the tax in November’s general election.

The local governments can only spend the money on the projects that were specifically listed on the ballot.