Amendment votes reflected statewide

Crook County’s thoughts on the two constitutional amendments that appeared on last week’s ballot were broadly reflected by voters across the state.

Like local voters, Wyoming as a whole supported the idea of allowing towns invest money in stocks, but did not support increasing the retirement age for judges.

A total of 1270 people in Crook County voted for increasing the retirement age, while 1923 people voted against. No county in the state voted for the amendment, with the totals ending up as 74,633 people who believed judges should be able to stay on the bench until the age of 75 and 115,812 believing they should still be required to step down at the age of 70.

Only two counties disagreed with Crook County’s opinion on Constitutional Amendment A, which allows local governments to invest in equities. Supporters of this amendment – which included the Wyoming Association of Municipalities – argued that towns, cities and counties need more ways to increase their revenue.

The amendment reflects Enrolled Joint Resolution 2 as passed by the Wyoming Legislature in 2021, which provides by law for local governments – also including school districts and “any other political subdivision” – to invest in capital stocks.

Converse (by a very small margin) and Sublette counties did not support the measure. All other counties voted to approve the amendment, including Crook, which tallied 1618 votes for and 1369 votes against.

The third measure to appear on the general election ballot was a purely local one. Voters strongly supported a renewal of the 2% lodging tax in Crook County for another four years, with a total vote of 2034 for and 1173 against.

The 2% lodging tax is applied to sleeping accommodations for guests to the area and stays within the county where it was collected.