The Wyoming Board of Equalization is suing Gov. Mark Gordon and requesting the Laramie County District Court declare unconstitutional the Legislature’s 2024 residential property tax cap measure.
The counterclaim, which comes after a judge sided with Gordon to force the panel to certify residential property tax values, also asks the court to bar the cap’s enforcement.
“Unfortunately, in its haste, the Legislature ignored the unfair outcomes” of the legislation, outcomes that “the Wyoming Constitution’s full valuation and uniformity requirements are designed to prevent,” the filing states.
The caps “unfairly (and non-uniformly) shift the tax burden from owners of property whose values are rapidly increasing to other taxpayers not experiencing large value increases,” it continues.
“Continued application of these valuation caps to prior years’ assessed values will only compound this defect, progressively distancing some residents’ assessments from fair market value while requiring other residential taxpayers to continue paying property taxes based on fair market value.”
The counterclaim didn’t come as a surprise for Gordon.
“The Board of Equalization has been clear with the Governor in their belief that the 4% cap is not constitutional,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
“The Governor believes this matter should be settled by the courts and will now wait for that process to unfold.”
The statement said Gordon “has no other comments at this time on any other aspects of this case.”
Two years ago, the Legislature passed a residential property tax cap to relieve homeowners. But the cap created varied assessments across Wyoming, including “thousands of value ‘inversions’ in each county,” such as when a higher-market-value home is assessed at a lower taxable value than a lower-market-value home, according to a report released by the board.
The equalization board — a governor-appointed panel responsible for “equalizing” property values in Wyoming’s property tax system — had warned lawmakers about the cap’s consequences when it was still being debated. After the bill became law, board members discussed their concerns with the governor and attorney general. In January, the board prepared a state-authorized lawsuit challenging the cap, but Gordon quashed it.
Because of its constitutional obligation to ensure uniformity, the equalization board says it can’t certify residential land or improvement values while the cap is in place. The board has warned lawmakers that a noncertification could prevent local governments from collecting 2026 taxes on residential properties — a key revenue source for public services like K-12 education, roads, sewers and law enforcement.
In its latest filing, the equalization board raises concerns that its “inability to certify valuations because of the valuation cap statutes will severely disrupt the 2026 assessment cycle and collection of property taxes, causing widespread disorder and assessment uncertainty among County Assessors, Treasurers, and, ultimately, taxpayers.”
Gordon filed a lawsuit to force the equalization board to certify the residential property tax values. In a statement coinciding with the lawsuit’s filing, the governor’s office said certifying the tax values would “prevent confusion and disruption to residential property owners and counties who are in the midst of winding up the property assessment determinations.”
“We’ve always known that this was going to have to play out in the courts,” Jayne Mockler, who chairs the equalization board, told WyoFile at the time. “And the sooner the better, because it really is an awful lot on the line for local government, for taxpayers. So the sooner it can get to the court the better.”
Last month, Laramie County Judge Nathaniel Hibben ruled that the equalization board must certify residential property tax values.
“The board might be right or not,” Hibben said. “That question will be answered in time, applying presumably a rational basis level of review and established rules of constitutional interpretation. But that ultimate decision will be made by the court.”
The equalization board argues in its counterclaim following Hibben’s decision that the tax cap “renders it impossible” for it to “conclude that residential property tax assessments throughout the state comply with Wyoming’s Constitution, and it therefore cannot certify residential property values for assessment and collection purposes.”
The deadline for the board to certify residential property tax values is the first Monday in August.
WyoFile staff reporter Maggie Mullen contributed to this story.
