Wyoming’s first citizens initiative to land on the ballot in 30 years has stirred up a contentious fight, pitting property tax relief against local government funding for essential services.
Proposition 1, also known as The People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption, landed on the Nov. 3 general election ballot with the backing of more than 30,000 valid signatures collected around the state. If passed, it will exempt 50% of a primary residence’s assessed value from property taxation, causing Wyoming’s annual property tax revenues to decrease by an estimated $92.6 million to $124.8 million.
The initiative was among a raft of efforts to relieve property owners after COVID-era real estate trends inflated residential values and associated taxes. Some of those efforts have already borne fruit, including a 2025 bill to create a 25% exemption on the first $1 million of a primary residence’s fair market value.
That measure shrank 2025 revenue pools for public education, municipalities and special districts such as hospitals. Some county governments implemented hiring freezes and mandated departmental budget cuts. Other entities closed libraries and stopped maintaining parks. Many dipped into reserves.
These impacts have been cast as cautionary tales — examples of painful consequences brought on by tax cuts. Over the last year, a chorus of opposition has swelled against Proposition 1 — voices that include county treasurers, fire chiefs, education advocates and perhaps most notably, prominent Republicans. If Proposition 1 passes, they say, the damages will spiral out of control.
“The reduction by 50% would have an immediate and devastating effect on the services most Wyoming citizens rely upon in their communities,” Gov. Mark Gordon wrote in an op-ed opposing Proposition 1. Calling it “tax reform” is inaccurate, he wrote. “Tax reform is fundamentally different from destroying a tax base or relying on the legislature to fund essential services.”
Proposition 1’s supporters, including many who align with the far-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus, say misinformation capitalizing on fear has blown the impact of the tax reduction out of proportion.
Opponents are leaving out important nuances such as the fact that the residential property tax cut won’t apply to property tax categories like mineral, industrial, agricultural and commercial, former state representative and Proposition 1 advocate Marti Halverson said. As for the predictions of hardships, she said, they don’t ring true.
“When you look at all the revenues that have been hoarded by counties and special districts and cities and towns all over the state since 2019, I am not buying it that anyone has cut anything to the bone,” she said.
Heightened rhetoric on both sides of the issue has many voters curious about where the truth lies and what’s at stake. Tax systems are complicated, and factors like assessment fluctuations and owner opt-in rates make it impossible to pin down Proposition 1’s exact implications.
That said, understanding the context around both sides’ arguments can help voters decide whether to vote yes or no. Here are three things to know about Proposition 1 before you go to the polls.
Tax bills spiked, then came reform efforts.
Wyoming residents have a relatively low tax burden and no income tax, due largely to the state’s reliance on severance taxes on mineral extraction.
Homeowners do pay residential property taxes. Those residential taxes are pooled with property taxes from minerals, industrial sites, agricultural land and more, and the generated revenues help fund K-12 public schools, county government, special districts, community colleges, along with cities and towns.
During the COVID pandemic, so-called “Zoomers” — newly untethered from their offices — flooded into the Mountain West, snapping up homes, creating more demand and fueling home price increases. That resulted in spiking tax bills for some Wyoming homeowners; increases varied by county. In Park County, the average homeowner saw their tax bills jump over 60% in three years.
The sticker shock that ensued helped trigger a wide-ranging relief effort. In October of 2023, two-time gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, along with his former campaign manager Rich Weber and former Wyoming Republican Party state committeewoman Cheryl Aguiar, secured approval to begin collecting signatures to get a 50% exemption on the ballot, with no cap on the value.
Bien did not respond to WyoFile’s request for an interview, but in a recent conversation with The Talk Shop radio host Eric Henderson, Weber said the measure intends to protect homeowners on fixed incomes who cannot afford ever-mounting tax bills. Weber likened claims of service cuts and closures to “crying wolf,” calling those warnings “phony baloney.”
Secretary of State Chuck Gray certified the initiative in January 2025 after verifying more than 30,000 signatures. More than 50% of voters will need to vote yes for it to pass.
The numbers indicate high interest — at least when the signature collecting was happening between late 2023 and early 2025. Wyoming lawmakers also passed several property tax relief measures after signature collecting began, including a 25% homeowner exemption and a 50% long-term homeowner exemption.
The latter efforts have already achieved property tax relief, Proposition 1 opponents argue. Further cuts Proposition 1 would impose, they say, are reckless. In his op-ed, Gordon likened it to cutting “the legs out from under communities and counties.”
County and special district officials are scared. Proponents say this is a ‘chicken little’ tactic.
Residential property tax collections dropped from $656 million in 2024 to $535 million in 2025, according to the Wyoming Taxpayers Association.
That amounted to smaller revenues for county administrators, hospital districts and others. Cities reduced park maintenance, libraries closed, agencies charged more for subsidized childcare, smaller crews reduced weed spraying and department heads implemented hiring freezes.
In Fremont County, administrators cut $2.5 million from the budget, which entailed trimming costs for courthouse security, increasing fees and slashing the library budget — an action that angered many locals.
During fraught budget discussions, county officials warned that Proposition 1 would only exacerbate the situation and lead to outcomes like library branch closures. If it passes, Commission Chair Larry Allen said in a meeting, “we’re looking at over a third of our budget just disappearing.”
That became a common refrain among county treasurers, fire chiefs and education advocates. Consequences, they warned, will include fire station closures, less manpower for emergency responses and smaller budgets for road and bridge infrastructure, community colleges and public schools.
“If Prop 1 passes, nearly every county in Wyoming, except mineral-rich counties and counties with wealthy homeowners, will face serious reductions in funding for police, fire, EMS, hospitals, and road and sewer infrastructure,” according to the Wyoming Taxpayers Association.
This kind of rhetoric does not sway proponents like Halverson, who argue that county officials are capable of finding responsible cuts without having to axe critical services and that both state and local governments have flush reserves.
“The sky is not falling,” she said.
Wyoming’s 23 counties vary in their reserve amounts; mineral-rich counties generally have healthier savings. The state, meanwhile, has a robust “rainy day fund” of more than $1 billion, but its function is not to backfill local tax shortfalls, opponents say.
Anti-Proposition 1 messaging has ignored the measure’s nuances, Halverson said, such as the fact that homeowners would have to opt in to get the exemption, they must prove primary-residence status and that it only applies to the residential property structure, not the land it sits on.
In a video posted to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus Facebook page, Wheatland Republican Rep. Jeremy Haroldson clarified many of those facts.
“Prop 1 is simply a targeted property tax exemption for qualified homeowners, not a 50% government cut,” Haroldson said.
The opposition movement has grown and includes many Republicans.
The Wyoming Education Association, Wyoming Hospital Association, Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees, Wyoming Realtors and Wyoming Taxpayers Association all oppose Proposition 1, creating a formidable alliance.
The measure “is not justified and not fiscally prudent,” the taxpayers association wrote in an op-ed, and it stands to hobble counties by slashing revenue with no plan to replace the losses.
The “Vote No on Prop 1” PAC is well-resourced. Campaign finance filings show nearly $2 million in contributions; the National Education Association has donated $1.4 million. Bien, Weber and Aguiar’s PAC, BCR Voter Initiatives, meanwhile, reported contributions of less than $4,000.
The Wyoming Republican Party endorsed Proposition 1. But prominent Republicans have joined the opposition. Long-serving lawmakers like Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, signed an op-ed against it. Gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow and Steve Harshman, who is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction, also expressed opposition.
In this way, Proposition 1 has become another arena in the Wyoming Republican Party’s fracture, with the Freedom Caucus bloc splintering from more moderately conservative Republicans.
After years of consolidating power in Wyoming’s Legislature, the Freedom Caucus in August lost majority control of the House and backslid in the Senate, which many say indicates a backlash.
In a newsletter that elaborated on her reasons for opposing Proposition 1, Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, posited that the tax measure is “the last relic of a failed agenda.
“The Freedom Caucus used the COVID-era spike in home values to push for slashing property taxes,” wrote Storer, a member of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee. “In August, Republican voters rejected these extremists. Proposition One belongs on the trash heap with the rest of that agenda.”
(Storer is the president and CEO of the George B. Storer Foundation, a financial supporter of WyoFile. The foundation has no role in WyoFile’s editorial content.)
