Powell will widen Absaroka Street, Cody can upgrade sewer lagoons, Meeteetse can overhaul its sewage lift station and some rural bridges will be replaced after Park County voters agreed to pass a $13.68 million sales tax.

In Tuesday’s general election, roughly 53 percent of voters — some 7,772 of them — voted to temporarily raise Park County’s sales tax rate from 4 to 5 percent until the money is raised. The other 47 percent, or 6,904 voters, were opposed.

Local businesses will start charging the additional cent of tax in April. All of the money raised by the tax must be spent on the specific list of projects that were laid out on voters’ ballots — Powell’s estimated $4.25 million upgrade of Absaroka Street being among them.

Speculating on why the tax succeeded, “I think most people could identify with at least something that they see could be improved — or they see the value of those projects,” said Powell City Administrator Zane Logan, noting that the planned infrastructure upgrades will take place across the whole county.

The tax was supported in 18 of Park County’s 29 precincts.

Though a survey administered earlier this year found that about 52 percent of residents would definitely or probably support a 1 cent tax for infrastructure, proponents of the tax were a little surprised by the 6-percentage point, 868-vote margin of success; a consultant who analyzed the survey results for local government leaders had warned them that “you’re not going to win 55 percent” of the vote and projected a best-case scenario as “like 50 percent plus one vote.”

Park County’s rural residents generally voted against the tax, but they were outnumbered and not as united against the measure as the in-town residents who favored it.

Of the roughly 7,500 Powell, Cody and Meeteetse residents who participated in the election, nearly 60 percent of them supported the tax, while only about 54 percent of the roughly 7,100 rural voters opposed it.

The strongest support came in Cody precinct 25-1, which is in the general vicinity of West Park Hospital and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. There, almost 70 percent of the precinct’s 670 voters backed the tax.

Meanwhile, the tax fared the worst in Clark, where slightly more than 70 percent of the community’s 356 voters opposed it.

Supporters have said all of the projects were going to have to be done at some point and that by using a sales tax, tourists will pay as much as a third of the money raised by the tax.

Critics argued it was the wrong time to raise taxes, would be unduly hard on people living off a fixed income and that governments could do without the extra money.

Government leaders asked for a general purpose tax in 2012 and were shot down, with almost 61 percent of voters opposing the proposal. A general purpose tax would have given local leaders more flexibility on how to spend the money. However, this year’s survey found residents were more open to the idea of a specific purpose tax — where voters could see exactly what would be done with their money.

“It was obvious that there was information out there. It wasn’t a case of the public not knowing and certainly not a case of the public not caring,” Logan said. “So then the important stuff was getting the projects defined and being really forthright on that and just being upfront about what were going to specifically do with the money.”

Cody Mayor Nancy Tia Brown — whose city will do $5 million of improvements to sewer lagoons, sidewalks and streets — said her first reaction to the results was gratitude.

“I just am appreciative and grateful that the people in Park County saw fit (to pass the tax), because ... times are not easy right now, they really are not, but we’ve got to take care of ourselves and this is certainly a way we can ease the burden for the government and for the citizens as well,” Brown said. She thinks switching to a specific purpose tax in response to voters’ concerns and taking a more “ground-up” approach helped persuade voters.

Heidi Rasmussen of Cody, who helped lead support for the tax through a group called “A Penny for Park County” also welcomed the tax’s passage.

“I’m just really proud of Park County, I guess I would say, in that nobody likes a tax, nobody wants to pay more tax, but we stepped up to the plate, we’re going to fix some infrastructure and we’re going to take care of our communities for generations to come,” Rasmussen said.

The Tribune was unable to reach Park County Commission Chairman Tim French — a leading critic of the tax proposal —  on Wednesday.

Park County Treasurer Barb Poley said the first dollars will likely start arriving in local governments’ coffers in June. The tax hike won’t start until April because “we have to give the vendors 60 days (notice), and then you have to start on a quarter,” Poley said.

In addition to Powell and Cody’s projects, Park County will receive $2.43 million to replace bridges and upgrade roads on the South Fork and replace a small bridge northwest of Garland, while Meeteetse is getting $2 million to upgrade a sewer lift station and install some water, sewer and electrical infrastructure.

Exactly how long the tax will have to remain in place to raise the $13.68 million remains to be seen, as it depends on sales.

“Hopefully we’ll get rid of it in about 30 months,” Rasmussen said. “And our communities will be better for it.”