The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – May 9, 2025

Published on May 09, 2025

This week started off with coffee with Gov. Freudenthal. I love the opportunity to listen and learn from someone who has spent a lifetime serving Wyoming. I can’t believe how quickly an hour passes. I appreciate his taking time to meet and share advice and experience with me.

We have been working on the Enhanced Use Lease for almost a decade now. The development is planned on the land where Frontier Days currently has its park and ride. Our economic resource administrator, Renee, and I met with the team working to get a lease from the Air Force. The lease would allow the team to develop the land with much needed housing and a commercial development that will bring amenities to the Airmen on the base and our residents. A challenge of developing this site is the lack of infrastructure in the area and we are working to find grants that would help support the development. One great advantage of an EUL is the land lease payments go to the base commander to help with funding projects that support quality of life for military members.

Ted Miazga is another city employee who has achieved 25 years of service to our residents. Ted has worked in most of the civilian positions at our police department and currently manages the parking division. We have an amazing team of employees like Ted who have dedicated their careers to our residents, and I appreciate him and all of them.

We have been working on the budget for a few months now, and we held a work session to present our proposed balanced budget to City Council. I want you to know that our city treasurer, Robin Lockman, and her team’s efforts make the budget process manageable for myself and our departments. Our General Fund has grown by 3.8% from our last budget. The biggest impact on our budget revenues is the 25% reduction in residential property taxes approved by the Legislature. This action reduced our revenues by $1,775,000. During the past four years, the city has grown by 4,637 acres or 18.24%. New business parks creating primary jobs and housing subdivisions account for the majority of the growth. I am concerned that our plan to add the needed public safety staffing to account for the additional 7.25 sq miles will have to be postponed.

Our revenue bright spots are that franchise fees on electricity are up 48% due to the electrical consumption of data centers and building permits are up 31% driven by strong data center construction and multifamily housing projects. Sales tax revenues have been under pressure since January 2024. The main drag on sales taxes has been oil & gas activity resulting in a 3.65% reduction. Additionally, cable TV franchise fees are projected to be down by $104,000 and lottery proceeds down by $100,000.

Our top revenue sources are sales taxes (34% of revenue), franchise fees (11.8%), property taxes (11.6%), direct state distribution (9.1%), building permits (4%), Historic Horse Racing (3.9%), federal mineral royalties (3.6%), severance taxes (3.1%), vehicle registration (2.3%), and gas taxes (2.3%). Cheyenne has a very diverse set of revenue sources.

Our top general fund expenses are wages and benefits (71.8% of expenses); capital projects (3.7%); fleet, including fuel and labor (3.4%); support agencies (3.1%); utilities (3%); professional services (2.1%); computers, including hardware, software, and networking, (2%); transfers (1.8%); liability and property insurance (1.7%); and supplies (1.6%). We have reduced our full-time employment by .3 FTEs in this budget.

City Council will hold public work sessions with each department over the next week and then they will consider the budget ordinance for the first time on May 21 at the Committee of the Whole.

The 90th Missile Wing held their 1st Quarter Awards Ceremony this week. I love attending and watching the spirit each group showed for their nominees. I am the honorary commander of the Mission Support Group, and we won the most awards again this quarter. Proud to be MSG!

Judy and I attended the United Way Gala on Friday evening. I read a proclamation declaring May 2 as United Way of Laramie County Day. We celebrated 77 years of serving our residents in need. United Way supports 20 non-profit agencies that provided services to almost 24,000 people last year – nearly one in four residents of our county. Since Covid, non-profits have shared the challenge they face raising the necessary funds to operate their agencies. It was gratifying to see so many people attending and supporting those who really need help. They understand the value of the United Way’s mission.

I was honored to greet 16 Vietnam-era veterans who are taking part in the Voyage of Valor trip to Washington, D.C. AARP of Wyoming and their partners made the trip possible. I loved meeting the veterans and hearing their excitement to see the Vietnam Wall and other monuments in D.C. So many came home without the welcome they deserved. I hope this trip reflects Wyoming’s promise to its veterans, that their service is seen, their stories matter, and their sacrifices are honored. We look forward to welcoming them home on May 9. 

I learned Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing during a meeting with the Wyoming Nurses Association. Her May 6 birthday is commemorated as National Nurses Day, and I signed a proclamation during a meeting with a group of nurses. The nursing profession is the backbone of our health care system, and it was fun to learn about their careers and service to our community. LCCC has increased their commitment to training nurses by expanding the number of students their program can handle next year. With our aging population, we definitely need more nurses.

Passenger air service is essential to any community’s economic development efforts. For most cities our size, airlines require a minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) to ensure passenger revenue covers the cost of service. We started paying over $2 million a year in 2018 and the good news is our MRG for the next fiscal year is $253,571.50. Having full planes and being able to partner with the State of Wyoming on their Capacity Purchase Program has helped reduce the cost. After the starts and stops that came with the $62 million runway replacement, we are on track to board over 50,000 passengers this year. Judy and I use the air service regularly, and it is awesome avoiding the drive on I-25.

Nate Stencil is building a new apartment complex downtown on 19th Street. One of the challenges is the western wall of his building is also the property line of one of the state’s parking lots. I brought the Stencil Group and State A&I together to coordinate the construction schedule. Cheyenne really needs the housing and adding some downtown will have a very positive effect. I appreciate the state helping the city be business friendly.

I went back to East High School to support Loriana Walter as she signed her letter of intent to attend North Dakota State University and be part of their cheer program. It was nice to be back at East and exciting to see the huge crowd there to support the four ladies signing their letters.

Wishing all the moms a Happy Mother’s Day!