CHEYENNE—A bill that would have extended the life of a new long-term homeowner property tax exemption program has failed, but another that would offer 50% relief to homeowners regardless of age is still alive in the Senate.
Senate File 67, “Long-term homeowner tax exemption-revisions,” failed on a 15-13 vote on the Senate floor Tuesday. The program, which was approved last year and goes into effect with the 2025 tax year, gives long-term homeowners a 50% property tax cut if they are 65 or older and have paid property taxes in Wyoming for 25 years or more. That program has a sunset date, meaning it ends in 2027.
Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, said Tuesday that SF 67, sponsored by the Joint Revenue Committee, would have made the program effective until 2030. It also included a revision on residency, although a decision on whether a resident must live in Wyoming for six months, eight months or some other amount of time each year was not resolved before the bill failed.
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, called it a “bad idea” to extend the program without knowing how much it would cost the state. He also said it could create two separate classes of people under which property taxes were not equally applied.
That bill failed in committee of the whole on Tuesday. But the Senate continues to debate property tax relief for all Wyoming homeowners: Senate File 69, “Homeowner property tax exemption,” passed its first reading in committee of the whole Tuesday, after being amended to include a 50% property tax reduction to single-family residential structures and the associated improved land up to $1 million.
“I think this is our vehicle, or the horse we want to ride,” McKeown said of SF 69. “If we do this, it’ll probably be — well, it will be the last property tax bill you see.”
Senators hotly debated whether they should include any backfill, or mechanism for making up lost revenue to local governments, in the bill Tuesday afternoon. McKeown said that at $252 million in lost revenue, the cuts represented only a 2.5% cut to the state’s total $11.1 billion budget.
“I don’t think the snowplows are going to dry up, the police are going to go away, and the fire departments are going to go away,” McKeown said. “This really is a policy decision, and that’s why I put it out here.”
Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, pointed out that the state’s $11.1 billion budget is made up of significant federal and private funds, so the cut would actually be to the state’s own $4.358 billion general fund and legislative stabilization reserve account, or savings account.
“It is not $11 billion,” Hicks said. “This money is going to come come out of those two accounts … and those accounts was $4.3 billion.”
Hicks, however, did not favor using any of that $4.3 billion to backfill local communities.
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, argued that if the state does not backfill local coffers, revenue lost under SF 69 would represent a 10% cut, not a 2.5% cut, using that $4.358 billion figure.
“We’re giving a $250 million tax cut. That’s 10%. That’s not 2.5%. That’s 10%. That’s a big deal,” Rothfuss said.
Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said that people across Wyoming must understand that property tax cuts will affect local services.
“We have to help people understand that tax cuts are directly related to snowplows. They are directly related to police services, fire services, all of that stuff back home,” Landen said.
Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said the conservative position is to not backfill local governments with any state savings to make up any difference in local revenue, if the property tax cut in SF 69 passes. Further, Biteman said that since 2019, every single county has seen property tax revenues increase, some at 65%. That, he said, has meant excess money for local governments.
“Fire trucks were running in 2019 in every single county. Police were running in every single county in 2019. Schools were funded. The sky didn’t fall in 2019,” Biteman said.
The amendment to remove backfill on SF 69 passed by a vote of 18-11 on Tuesday. The Senate postponed second reading on the bill, scheduled for Wednesday, until later this week.
Senate File 69 is a threat to Wyoming communities and healthcare. The following was plagiarized from lengthy information sent out by the Wyoming Hospital Association. This is only a a few lines that stated teir view of Senate File 69.
Fifteen of the state’s hospitals operate as Special Hospital Districts, meaning they belong to their communities—and not private investors or shareholders—and depend on voter-approved mill levies to fund critical services and facility upgrades. Cutting property taxes in half could force many of these already vulnerable institutions to make painful cuts, potentially reducing essential healthcare services in rural areas where access is already limited
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
One problem with all of these proposals is that they say “homeowner.” What about our small businesses? What about rentals, inhabited by much of our workforce? The Wyoming Constitution says that taxation must be equitable; how can it be equitable if we leave out these important constituencies?
Property tax is proof that the term “Home ownership” is an fallacy.
While a 50% reduction in property tax sounds like an excellent plan, I believe it will spell disaster for schools and communities. I live in Albany County which, despite the presence of the University, has the highest number of folks living below the poverty line. The number of UW personnel eligible for food stamps is shocking, proving again what a poor community partner the University is. The loss of property tax income will effects our schools, our community services and infrastructure, which in Laramie are already woefully inadequate. The state has been clear they will not backfill those lost funds. A 50% reduction in property tax may sound attractive, but it will spell disaster for our communities and our schools. Eventually, it will necessitate the adoption of a state income tax, since the legislature intends to turn Wyoming into Appalachia.
My property taxes have doubled the last 5 years. That has just provided the local governments, and you the state included, more money to spend like a bunch of drunken sailors. If you, the legislators cannot get this problem fixed by providing property tax relief, hopefully the electorate will wake up and replace all of you clowns who couldn’t find your way out of a wet paper bag in order to fix a real problem. Please remember it is the people that elect you, you know, the individuals that pay the taxes, not the local governments, politicians, or lobbyists. Fix the problem or get out of the way. How about at least once during your elected terms, doing something that actually fixes a problem for the taxpayers. I live in Casper, the City does not plow the streets in front of my home, at times I have to move 3 foot drifts to get out of my driveway. So quite frankly, I never see the snow plows on my street anyway, however, Casper does an outstanding job of finding ways to spend taxpayer’s funds. Maybe it’s time for the municipalities, and all you spenders of taxpayer funds, to cut back their spending, similar to what I’ve had to do with the doubling of my property taxes, giving the municipalities, and the State, a windfall of funds to spend from my property taxes! Fix the problem, Republicans! Or is it all talk, to get elected, and no action, as it usually is?