Teachers, hospital leaders launch $1M campaign to fight property tax ballot measure

In Wyoming’s wealthiest county, the median homeowner pays $6,312 each year in property tax, according to Teton County Assessor Mel Shinkle.

Come November, that number could be sliced in half, providing relief for owners like Becky Cloetta, a retired dentist who said she called off vacations to cover the taxes as they rose in recent years. 

“We’re not playing a violin,” she said. “We still go to Smith’s and buy what we want to eat, but we’re lucky. Or, I should say, we worked hard.”

Retirees on fixed incomes and teachers thinking about their own retirement may move out of Wyoming if taxes remain high, she said.

Cloetta championed a citizen petition that garnered 30,251 signatures across the Cowboy State to put the proposed 50% cut on the general ballot. It marked the first time such grassroots organizing had been successful in 30 years. The initiative was spearheaded under the name BCR Initiatives by gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, his former campaign manager Rich Weber and former Hot Springs County GOP Chair Cheryl Aguiar. 

If enacted by voters, the change would cost the state between $92.6 million and $124.7 million annually, straining budgets for first responders and other essential services. The lower estimate doesn’t include local tax districts.

Some of the largest organizations in the state have teamed up to fight the proposal. Wyoming Realtors voted this week to join a coalition that already includes the Wyoming Education Association, Wyoming Hospital Association, Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees and Wyoming Taxpayers Association.

The groups say further property tax cuts will harm services that Wyoming communities depend on.

“I think in Wyoming, it is the first time we’ve really had this major organized effort against a ballot measure,” said Kim Amen, president of the Wyoming Education Association. “We’re just trying really hard to get the message out about the potential damage that this could do.”

Organizers said the group, called “Vote No on Prop 1,” has nearly $1 million in the bank and has spent about 20% so far. Campaign finance filings show the National Education Association contributed $405,000. The group’s first video ad warns of cuts to ambulances, schools and snow plows. 

“I love tax breaks, but not this one,” says Mark Eisele of the King Ranch in Cheyenne.

There is no income restriction or age requirement for the 50% cut, which would apply to residential structures, but not land. Residents must have been in the state for at least a year and reside for more than six months of the year in Wyoming to qualify. 

Gubernatorial frontrunner Eric Barlow, a Campbell County rancher and state senator, spoke out against the proposal at a campaign event in Jackson this week. “It will truly harm communities,” he told the crowd of a couple dozen.

On the support side, Wyoming’s Republican Party announced this week that it will back the ballot measure. Chairman Bryan Miller said: “Wyoming homeowners deserve meaningful, durable property-tax relief, and our party is prepared to help communicate the case for this initiative to voters across the state.” 

In Teton County, the average tax paid is $11,705 per year. The gulf between that and the median shows how expensive some homes in the county have become. 

Assessor Shinkle said the ballot measure would provide a reset button in a community where home valuations skyrocketed after a surge in rural homebuying that started during the 2020 pandemic.

“Most everyone has increased well over double [their tax burden] since COVID,” she said. 

But that’s not the same story in the rest of the state. Other counties are already back to 2018 revenue levels because of other relief measures from the Wyoming Legislature, said Jerimiah Rieman, executive director of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association. That eliminates the need for an additional blanket cut, he said.

“The strain that is going to be most painful is around those special districts that rely almost exclusively on property taxes to provide for fire, ambulance, hospital,” he said. “You’re gonna see some bare-bones operations if we continue to cut in the way that we have been.”

Wyoming already has lower taxes than much of the country. State lawmakers approved a 50% exemption for homeowners who are 65 or older and have paid property taxes for 25 years. They also put a 4% cap on how much property taxes can increase each year.

Homeowners can already apply for a 25% exemption on the first $1 million of their home value, though they would need to choose between that and the new proposed reduction.

The state is one of several conservative states looking to further reduce property taxes this year.

Cloetta, the Teton County homeowner, said the campaign to support the tax cut is just getting started. Bien is still recovering from his failed bid for governor, but billboards for the ballot measure are starting to appear in other parts of the state, she said. 

Filings show the BCR Initiatives group has raised and spent less than $5,000.