The 2024 Budget Session is over and legislators have gone home, but this year they have unfinished business to attend to.

The state Legislature should hold a special session to once again pass and potentially override Gov. Mark Gordon’s vetoes on bills that passed the House and Senate by large margins, especially on a pair of bills that speak to what Gordon and the Legislature have promised to change.

Senate File 54, which would cut property tax by 25% for nearly every homeowner in the state, passed the Senate with only two dissenting votes on third reading and the House with only one. That’s not just a veto-proof majority (as in two-thirds of the votes needed to override a veto). That’s a mandate set down by our representatives and senators. 

And what will that do in Park County? For most, it will take them back to the property tax bill from just a year or two ago. As our own county Assessor Pat Meyer has said, municipal and county governments lived on 4%-5% increases for years and in the last few years property taxes have gone up near 50%, so a 25% cut still leaves more than enough revenue. 

And after initially thinking a special session couldn’t be held in time for the bill to go into effect this year, Senate President Ogden Driskill and House Speaker Albert Sommers have since reversed course and been informed that there is time to pass the measure and give relief to property owners right now, many of whom wouldn’t qualify or receive adequate support under the tax relief measures Gordon did sign into law (although I do appreciate those as well). 

I’ve read Gordon’s reasoning for vetoing the bill and understand his position, which is that it doesn’t help energy producers and thus shifts more burden on them. He also said it’s “Bidenomics,” which I very much disagree with. This doesn’t hurt energy companies, it just doesn’t cut their property taxes as well. And last I checked, Republicans are more likely to call for tax breaks. Additionally, this bill sunsets after two years, and I hope by then it isn’t needed and that we’ve found a better way to cut, if not eliminate, residential property taxes. And while I respect the power of the veto, his pen shouldn’t be mightier than almost the whole of the legislative branch, including the votes of all of our area legislators. 

Additionally, all of our Park County representatives and senators voted for House Bill 125, the end gun free zones bill, as did a large majority of statewide legislators. Now, I understand some of the worries of this bill, and it’ll be interesting to see if in the future the state can give some level of control to colleges that it extends to K-12 schools. That could include mandated training and further vetting before staff can carry guns on campus, and restricting students with concealed carry permits from carrying guns in certain places. 

While the bill may not be perfect, it’s still a bill that a large majority of legislators favored and in principle should be passed into law due to that large majority. 

And this is legislation of the type Gordon himself had once vowed to sign into law if it made his desk. Politicians often forget campaign promises, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. 

It’s time for our legislators to go back to Cheyenne and make it right.