concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur generally in the opinion of the court and the result achieved, except as to the ski-lift tickets, which I would hold to be properly taxable under the sales tax statutes, § 39-6-404(a)(viii), W.S.1977 (admissions), and § 39-6-404(a)(iv), W.S.1977 (intrastate transportation). The compensation paid is to obtain admission to the privately owned tram to be transported up the mountain as a recreational activity. A logical differentiation from spectator sports, basketball or football, or participative sports such as skating, is not perceived.
Consequently, to the extent now presented by this case,1 and as my only difference with the court, I would confirm the efficacy of the State Board of Equalization regulation to tax the sale of ski-lift tickets, under the Wyoming Sales Tax Act.
. This writer has bespoken in times past that the continued progression of situational exemptions as regularly applied by the legislature to the sales tax will achieve a result that the law may some day only apply to an elderly pensioner living alone in either Burns or Kelly, Wyoming. The exclusionary nibbling process of exemptions to the sales tax is a legislative consuetude that this court is not justified in assisting any more than is required by specific statutory provision.