When leaders of the Evanston Parks and Recreation District in Uinta County, Wyoming determined that the community’s aging pool needed more than a facelift, they proposed a sales tax increase to pay for a new multimillion-dollar aquatic center. But in their zeal to win at the ballot, government officials crossed the line—they’ve repeatedly used public resources to campaign for the tax hike.
That’s illegal—so the Goldwater Institute is warning them to stop this taxpayer-funded electioneering.
To get the new aquatic center off the ground, the director of the Evanston Parks and Recreation Districtconsulted engineers, formed a nonprofit, and started fundraising. She also developed a plan to ask taxpayers to shoulder most of the financial burden.
The price tag—$28.8 million.
That’s a difficult sum for the Parks and Rec District to raise because it cannot place a special sales tax proposal on the ballot unless a majority of the municipalities in the county agree. And, county voters rejected a smaller tax proposal just last year.
So, District officials convinced local municipalities to support a 1% “special purpose excise tax” with a plan to divvy up the tax dollars. Various projects were tacked on, including $3.3 million to purchase two fire trucks and two ambulances for the county. Altogether, the projects will cost taxpayers over $40 million, about 70% of which will go to build the aquatic center.
Under the plan, the tax hike wasn’t placed on the regular 2026 ballot. Rather, a special, off-cycle election was called for November 2025. Off-cycle local elections have notoriously low turnout, which gives tax proponents a chance to enact controversial measures with far fewer votes needed for passage. This type of gamesmanship is why states like Arizona have taken steps to consolidate local elections with regular state and federal elections.
Even though extra elections mean extra costs to taxpayers—more than $65,000 this year for a county of just over 20,000 people—that expense was worth it to District leaders for a better shot at getting the tax passed and cutting a year off the project’s timeline.
But even that wasn’t enough for the District. So, government officials began using public resources—resources funded by the very taxpayers they needed to convince—to campaign for the tax hike.
The District-formed nonprofit primarily responsible for the “Yes” campaign used the local rec center address as its headquarters and even distributed pro-tax campaign signs from the public facility during work hours.
That wasn’t all. The official Evanston Parks and Recreation Center Facebook page was repeatedly used for pro-tax campaign posts. That included promoting four campaign-style “Town Hall Meetings” held throughout the county (including two at the Rec Center) to promote the tax.
And the District wasn’t the only entity to actively campaign for the tax. The Uinta County Fire and Ambulanceexplicitly called on readers of its social media page to “VOTE YES” for the tax. That post was made just one week after early voting began.
Although public employees have the right to engage in private political activities on their own time, with their own resources and in their personal capacities, they cannot do so on public time or with public resources or in their official capacity as public employees.
Wyoming law strictly forbids public officials from using “public funds, time, personnel, facilities or equipment for political or campaign activity.” Violations of that law are characterized as a “[m]isuse of office” and constitute sufficient grounds for termination of public employment. Other laws ban written campaign advertising from being placed on public property, and public entities from giving public resources to private entities.
That’s why today, the Goldwater Institute asked the Uinta County Attorney to investigate the taxpayer-funded political and campaign activities related to the proposed tax.
Local government entities must follow state law and stop using public resources to campaign for higher taxes. Any information about these elections provided by the government must be neutral and specifically authorized by law.
The Goldwater Institute will continue to defend taxpayers against unlawful public electioneering and other abuses. Government entities across Wyoming should take note and leave politicking to private individuals and organizations.
You can read our letter to the Uinta County Attorney here.
Parker Jackson is a Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
