State revenue for Powell will be about half of what it was in recent years, so city officials are prioritizing expenses with infrastructure tentatively at the top of the list. Ultimately it will be up to the Powell City Council to decide.

The Legislature approved $105 million for Wyoming’s 99 cities, towns and counties for the upcoming biennium. Powell’s share comes to $530,897, about $5,000 more than the current amount.

But there will not be any consensus funds from the state, setting Powell back $380,000 per year — about $760,000 for the biennium.

Those funds were traditionally used for capital construction projects, street repairs and maintenance, said Powell City Administrator Zane Logan.

For now, the tricky part is nobody knows for sure what other state revenues will be, such as sales tax which is down from recent years’ totals as well, he said.

“That is a double whammy for us, no consensus and we are down on sales tax,” Logan said, noting that the Wyoming Association of Municipalities will issue a spreadsheet of totals around the end of the month that will help the city council decide on Powell’s next budget.

WAM was “pretty excited” the Legislature approved the $105 million, said Councilman John Wetzel.

“Most of the sales tax burden is the oil and energy stuff and that is all down,” Logan said. “When energy is down, it affects a lot of things — our revenue is down because the state is down and we get hit twice because revenue from sales tax is down.”

At this point, no decisions have been made until other revenue sources have been reviewed, Logan said. Fortunately for the city, a reserve account was built up just like the state’s rainy day fund.

Powell’s reserves currently sit at about $3 million — which is not as much as the city would like, but it’s better than when the city’s savings account was less than $1 million, he said.

In the past, Powell was losing about $400,000 annually but that was reversed and the city started adding $400,000 to reserves each year, said Powell Mayor Don Hillman.

The city’s budget was $22 million last year and generally runs around $17-18 million, Hillman said. One-time-only projects partially funded with grants made the budget higher some years than others, Logan said. 

In the last few years, Powell cut down expenses such as sanding the streets and snow removal, Logan said.

“We find ways to reduce overtime and other expenses,” Logan said. “We have been doing that for years and there isn’t a lot of extra.”

It is difficult for cities to increase their revenue, so state funds and sales taxes are relied upon along with grants, Logan said. Grants helped get a new cruiser for the Powell Police Department last year and city hall is using a grant for a new wheelchair ramp at the front entrance.

But even grant programs are limited since their sources are down, Logan said.

“Until we get the numbers, I won’t say we need to cut this or that,” Hillman said. “We will do the best we can to keep what we got.”

Considering what is happening with Wyoming’s primary industries — oil, coal and natural gas — it is hard for municipalities to “think forward,” Hillman said.

“We are in survival mode,” Hillman said. “We are going to have a heck of a time maintaining what we got.”

The first step was to find out what the minimum amount of funding will be needed to maintain Powell’s infrastructure, Logan said.

It’s possible that Powell’s current seven-year rotation for chip and slurry sealing could turn into 10 years, he said. This option, and other budgetary items, will be left up to Hillman and the city council to decide as the city’s budget is formed in May.

Slurry and chip sealing prolong the life of streets so that the more expensive route of replacement can be put off for as long as possible. Considering it costs about $1 million per mile to build a street and Powell had about 40 miles of paved road in town, that adds up quickly, Logan said.

The city council will have to look at its priorities and decide if they are willing to use reserve funds for projects such as slurry sealing, Logan said.

“However it turns out, we will have a balanced budget one way or another,” Hillman said.

Being progressive and planning for future needs isn’t going to be possible until state funds increase, Logan said.

“We knew it was going to be tough and I understand the state is in a tough situation,” Logan said.

“The only thing I can tell is obviously it won’t be as good as it was last year,” Hillman said. “Some things will need done, I am an infrastructure guy and that is my No. 1 priority — streets, water and sewers — until we get the numbers, won’t cry wolf.”

The city’s elected officials and employees all agree that infrastructure is the core priority, Logan said.

There would be no point in trying to attract businesses to Powell if the city was unable to provide the infrastructure to support it, Hillman said.

“We are on the same page and overall Powell is fortunate we have the same views so we don’t have internal discussion that keeps us from accomplishing goals for infrastructure and services to the community,” Logan said. “It is a good team that works together — that is a positive.”