On June 3 in Gillette, the Joint Revenue Committee passed a motion, 11-3, to draft a bill to eliminate property taxes from the Wyoming Constitution. The motion was made by Natrona County Republican Sen. Bob Ide, who initially said he wanted to amend the U.S. Constitution before being corrected.
Opinion
What are the consequences of such a motion? Where did property taxes come from?
Property taxes have funded local communities in America since before this nation existed. Some accounts trace the first property tax to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.
Wyoming first approved a property tax as early as 1889, during its territorial days. The retail businessmen, ranchers and bankers who built this state understood that property taxes were necessary to provide the financial means to educate our citizenry and build thriving communities.
But Sen. Ide and other members of the Freedom Caucus don’t want the state constitution to hamstring their tax-slashing agenda — an agenda that ignores the needs of Wyoming communities.
Our founders expressly put property taxes in the constitution because they knew that legislators would be tempted to eliminate taxes to garner votes in elections. That didn’t stop Revenue co-chairman and Freedom Caucus member Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, from complaining he was tired of hearing that his proposed property tax revisions were unconstitutional — even though his revisions failed to meet the standards for treating taxpayers equally and fairly.
Maintaining the constitutional link between property taxes and public services is not only wise, but necessary. Property taxes are more stable and have been the bedrock for funding public services that benefit Wyoming citizens and communities.
The Freedom Caucus claims to be constitutionalists, but the truth is they routinely try to ignore or alter the constitution.
Throughout the meeting, their failure to grasp tax policy was also apparent. Ide suggested a “consumptive tax,” i.e., sales tax, could replace property taxes. Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, spoke eloquently about the dangers of eliminating property taxes and explained it would take an incredibly high sales tax to replace all property tax revenues, which include ad valorem taxes paid through the production of minerals. Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, added numerical context: Property taxes contribute $2 billion per year for schools and local services. Wyoming would need to more than double its sales tax to compensate.
Shifting from property taxes to sales taxes would devastate rural Wyoming. Sales tax is concentrated in Wyoming’s bigger cities and tourist hubs like Teton County. Small towns and agricultural counties, with fewer buyers and consumers, will struggle to raise enough revenue to maintain basic services.
But struggling small towns likely aren’t a concern of the Freedom Caucus. The group’s former leader, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, once questioned on the floor of the Wyoming House of Representatives whether some small towns should still exist, implying they cost the state and taxpayers too much money. Do we really want to lose small-town Wyoming, the soul of our state?
Two days after their committee actions, and after their plans were publicized in a WyoFile article, the Freedom Caucus chairman of the Revenue Committee seemed to express buyer’s remorse in an interview with Cowboy State Daily. But they apparently missed the warnings clearly outlined during the meeting by several of their committee colleagues.
And this speaks to perhaps the greatest danger of the Freedom Caucus: its members’ lemming-like tendency to jump off a cliff when their leaders make a critical error, as seen in the 11-3 vote to eliminate property taxes. Imagine the collapse of local services and schools, with no real plan to replace the lost funding.
Electing people who will not think for themselves and are politically forced to follow some prescribed dogma or puppet master will ruin this state. We should resist the Freedom Caucus’s attempt to return Wyoming to the Stone Age.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct when Wyoming first instituted a property tax. —Ed.
Every resident of Wyoming needs to imagine what life in Wyoming would be like if the services we rely on are taken away. Pretty bleak
The misguided “Freedom” Caucus strikes again. These mealy-mouthed misfits are merely shilling for their Washington D.C. overlords (look it up yourself: http://www.statefreedomcaucus.org), parroting instructions from urbanites who haven’t a clue on challenges facing rural America. Then pair their boneheaded hodgepodge with the administration’s BBS (Big BS Bill) under review in the Senate and it becomes clear that rural Wyoming will be left out to dry. Besides the BBS cutting funds for rural schools and medical treatment for rural residents, it includes billions for large agribusinesses to undermine Wyoming’s legacy ranches and historic family farms. The BBS increases in America’s national debt, to be borne on the backs of our children, plus the “Freedom” Caucus gutting of property tax revenue will sink rural communities. Tell your legislator to come to their senses and vote against this scheme. Then set Wyoming free from the “Freedom” Caucus at the polls.
I was told the reason Wyoming’s original 5 counties were vertical, as opposed to every other territory in the west, was to get property taxes from the railroad as their largest income source. If that’s true I would think they pre-date 1889.
Thank you Albert. Well said.
By my rough calculations, the SOW current sales tax is 3%. To make up the revenue lost from property taxes, the Wyo sales tax would have to jump to something near 12%. On top of that are the add-on taxes from the municipalities. In Hot Springs county, that’s another ~3%. That brings the sales tax rate, which we all know is a regressive tax, up to ~15%. Something else we all know is Wyomingites hate taxes, especially sales tax. 15¢ extra on every $1 purchase will send residents into apoplexy!
Remember Wyoming, actions have consequences and you are now seeing the consequences of your voting the FreeDumb Caucus into authority. Is this really what you voted for?
Isn’t Bob Ide a real estate guy? Could it be that eliminating the property tax would save him a lot of money? Just asking.
Look up the Kansas Experiment. Eliminating property tax benefits who, exactly? Increasing sales taxes hits who in the groin? Right. People with more wealth are all about shifting tax burden to those with much less ability to pay. Then, if minimum wage can be eliminated….voila! What a crock of kaka.
Wyoming natives chased away the film industry and they drive out most newcomers. You either grow the state’s revenues by welcoming more people and industries, or the natives must pay up on their own, or they can live like 1800’s pioneers.
Mr. Sommers does an excellent job of pointing out the pitfalls of eliminating property taxes. Unfortunately, as he points out, the Freedom Caucus appears unable to admit when there is a flaw in their proposal. Just like the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, they deny that the Emperor is not wearing clothes.
With no state income tax, if property taxes are eliminated there would be no feasible way for communities to pay for basic services. The legislators that support this would not make good accountants. I would not allow any member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to balance my checkbook.
I read the other day that Ohio and other states are facing similar property tax problems. Here’s one solution they are considering: property tax “circuit breakers.” The following is from an AI summary: “A circuit breaker essentially “trips” when property taxes exceed a certain percentage of a household’s income, providing relief.”
To me this sounds fair and reasonable, objective and precise, and maybe easier to implement since it could be based on tax returns.