Lawmakers give property tax reform another shot

Wyoming lawmakers are taking another stab at easing the burden of soaring residential property taxes after achieving limited success during this year’s legislative session. 

Ongoing efforts to provide relief are mired in political disagreements between two Republican factions, leaving some voters disillusioned with the Legislature’s ability to get things done. Rather than motivate meaningful problem solving, a fear that Wyomingites will lose their homes if solutions don’t come soon has deepened the political divide. 

“I might have to give up my house because of taxes,” Buffalo homeowner Sophia Michaels said at a recent town hall. 

“Are we going to try to deliver some relief to Wyoming people? Absolutely,” said Joint Revenue Committee Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper) during a June 26 legislative meeting. “We got some done last year. We’re gonna do more this year.” 

As home prices have skyrocketed in much of Wyoming, so too have property taxes since they’re assessed according to current market value. Teton and Lincoln counties, for example, experienced the biggest jumps in 2022 at around 36%, according to Department of Revenue data. That puts Wyoming homeowners living on a fixed income, such as retirees or disabled residents, at risk of losing their housing. It can also drive up costs for renters since some landlords will pass on the increased cost through higher rents. 

Out of roughly 20 bills aimed at residential property taxes, the Legislature settled on three during the last session: one to expand an existing income-based refund program and two to lay the foundation for more ambitious future reforms. That left many lawmakers disappointed. 

It was unacceptable, however, for residents like Jan Loftus of Buffalo. She and dozens of other residents were part of a crowd that packed the committee meeting room and spilled out into a lobby at Sheridan College. When it came to public comment, voters expressed frustration with what they see as excessive government spending, particularly on education and mental health services. As for Loftus, she told the committee she expected her property taxes to jump 25% this year. 

“That’s after two years of the [Joint Revenue] committee working on the problem. That’s what I got. So you can see why I might say I lost confidence,” Loftus said. 

Amid concerns that the wrong solution to property taxes will diminish funding for local governments and public schools — entities that have limited revenue-raising capabilities on their own — lawmakers have been divided. Some favor targeted relief while others want universal cuts. More recently, legislators have disputed who’s responsible for the heap of failed property tax bills. Those dynamics aren’t likely to make legislating relief or reform any easier during next year’s budget session, when almost all bills must clear an initial hurdle with two-thirds support. 

Meantime, the Joint Revenue Committee will form a working group to organize a suite of bills between now and its October meeting, Harshman said. The committee also has the option to tack on another meeting before the session. 

Education and tension

“It’s a large responsibility that all of the members of the Revenue Committee have when you start looking at various tax structures,” Department of Revenue Director Brenda Henson told lawmakers. “And the opportunity to first find out exactly how our current tax structure functions and operates is really important to have that foundation prior to considering any changes to that foundation.”

For more than one-third of the committee, the meeting was their first experience with interim work since getting elected last November. The interim, or off-season, is when much of the Legislature’s work is completed, and part of that involves educating members who may be new to a committee’s topics, Harshman told WyoFile.

Henson and Ken Guille, property tax division administrator for the Revenue Department, took the committee — some of which is largely tax averse — through a comprehensive overview of the state’s tax structure. 

“We’ve got statutes, we’ve got rules, we’ve got procedures,” Henson told the committee. “So there’s a lot that goes into that final piece of paper that the taxpayer receives in that April-May time period that identifies to the property owner what the value is of that property, and what the estimated tax is going to be.”

A state agency presentation is common for the interim, but its timing was a problem nonetheless for Rep. Ken Pendergraft (R-Sheridan), who is not on the committee but was present for the meeting.

“I … take a little bit of issue with the concept — and this goes on through the entire Legislature, not just this committee — but the concept that we have all day to listen to agencies. And then we get to public comment, and everybody’s limited,” said Pendergraft, who also called the size of the room “woefully inadequate.”

The room has suited previous committee meetings but a large turnout this time around — with more than 70 attendees listed on a sign-in sheet — made for tight quarters. 

“Going forward we ask that legislators who know their communities the best, please give our Legislative Service Office and the co-chairmen of the respective committees some notice if you think that there will be more members of the public attending a specific meeting,” Speaker of the House Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) and Senate President Ogden Driskill (R-Devils Tower) told lawmakers in a letter obtained by WyoFile. 

“We appreciate members engaging and we encourage robust public participation,” the letter stated. The overwhelming attendance, however, “left the Legislative Service Office and Sheridan College staff scrambling at the last moment to secure more chairs, overflow spaces and to provide monitors for the members of the public to watch the meeting. Even though [Chairman Harshman] allowed everyone who wanted to speak on property taxes to testify, reportedly some members of the public grew disillusioned and left the meeting.”

Senate Revenue Chairman Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) was not at the meeting after getting stuck in Denver on his way home to Sheridan County from visiting Washington D.C. to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This is Biteman’s first time chairing a committee since joining the Legislature in 2017. He did not return WyoFile’s requests for comment. 

The letter also addressed decorum after several rounds of applause broke out during the meeting’s public comment. 

“It is all of our responsibility to ensure our legislative decorum is followed by the public, state or local officials and members of the Legislature,” the letter stated. 

Town halls 

To discuss property tax solutions, some lawmakers, including Rep. Barry Crago (R-Buffalo), have hosted town halls. Like the committee meeting that same week, Crago’s town hall had a large turnout. It also grew contentious at times. When a member of the public interrupted a Wyoming Taxpayers Association presentation and initially refused to take a seat, Crago told the person they would be escorted out if they didn’t wait for the Q&A to speak. 

While much of the public testimony in Sheridan County included retirees, several members of the working class spoke in Buffalo. 

“I am the face of low income for this community,” said Michaels, the Buffalo homeowner. “I work in the senior center and a lot of people I work for can’t afford to live anymore. They have to make a choice between food and medicines.” 

While Crago faced criticism for the Legislature not doing enough, he expressed frustration that other lawmakers were making perfect the enemy of good. 

“There were lots of bills that weren’t perfect, but they were better than nothing,” Crago said. “And so that’s part of the reason we’re sitting here is because I think lots of people wanted perfect. Some of us just wanted to do something good.”

Crago pointed to Senate File 136 – Property tax relief-assessment rate reduction, a bill whose failure is a point of dispute for many lawmakers. The legislation would have reduced the assessment rate for the “all other property” tax class, which includes residential, agricultural and commercial properties. Sponsored by Biteman, the bill cleared the Senate despite concerns it would come at a cost to local government and education funding. 

House Revenue voted to attach $253 million so that counties and the school foundation program account could be reimbursed by the state for decreased revenues resulting from the bill. That additional fiscal note sent the bill to the House Appropriations Committee, where a do-pass motion failed 7-0.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus says that tanked the bill, while Crago and other Republicans point back to the Freedom Caucus and Democrats for voting to end debate on a deadline day before getting to Senate File 136. 

Out of the bills left behind in the general session, there does appear to be at least one that Republican lawmakers agree on. During a Freedom Caucus virtual town hall meeting in late May, Rep. Tony Locke (R-Casper) said House Bill 54 – Homestead exemption would be the one bill the Freedom Caucus would choose to pass if it had the majority voting powers. (Right now, the caucus sits at approximately 26 members.)

The bill, sponsored by Sommers — a frequent target of the caucus — would reduce taxes by exempting the first $100,000 of fair market value. And it may be one patch of common ground. 

The Joint Revenue Committee’s next meeting is Oct. 2 in Casper.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct how the House Appropriations Committee voted on Senate File 136. —Ed.