Thousands of property tax bills arrived in Park County mailboxes and inboxes earlier this month.

Property owners and mineral producers within the county received bills totaling nearly $76.4 million — a roughly 22% increase from last year. The dollars will be distributed among more than two dozen local governments, including fire departments, cemeteries and hospitals. K-12 schools are the biggest beneficiaries: They’re due to receive more than $47.5 million, or close to two-thirds of the total.

The jump continued a steep upward trend that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic — and that’s driven calls for property tax relief.

“People are getting mad,” said Park County Assessor Pat Meyer. “We can’t continue to raise these up and think we’re doing so good.”

Next month, Meyer plans to deliver a presentation to the Legislature Joint Revenue Committee about the potential of limiting how much a property owner’s taxes can rise in a given year.

“We budget for as much [property tax revenue] as we can in this state,” Meyer said. “This is one of our major problems.”

The increase in taxes is not the result of higher tax rates, as most local governments have long assessed the maximum amount of taxes through what’s known as a mill levy. Rather, the increases have come from a growing tax base. Property values have rocketed, but oil and gas prices and production have also rebounded. And produced minerals make up an outsized portion of the county’s and Wyoming’s property tax base, because they’re taxed at more than 10 times the rate of residences, businesses and agricultural lands.

All told, public schools, the Park County, Cody, Powell, Meeteetse and Frannie governments, Northwest College and the various special districts will collect an additional $13.9 million this year as compared to a year ago; K-12 schools will receive $8.9 million of that total.

As just a couple of specific examples, the Park County government is due to receive $12.9 million (a $2.4 million or 23% increase) while the Powell fire district will collect nearly $826,000 (up $148,000 or 22%). Meanwhile, thanks to a larger jump in their area’s assessed valuation, the Meeteetse fire, museum, cemetery and conservation districts are getting 34% bumps in property tax revenue.

However, not all of the tax districts are collecting more money: The Deaver/Frannie Fire District, for instance, lowered its mill levy. That will result in the district receiving $34,449 in Park County, or about $12,000 or 26% less than a year ago. Others who cut their taxes were the Riverside Cemetery District in Cody (down 14%) and the Bennett Butte Cemetery District in Clark (down 19%).

In total, Park County Treasurer Barb Poley’s office sent out tax bills for 23,962 pieces of real estate and personal property this year. Though residents got an idea of what to expect when they received their property assessments last spring, Poley said she’s fielded some complaints about the higher bills.

“Honestly I think people are just frustrated. They don’t know what to do,” she said, adding, “I don’t blame them.”

Even if the Legislature takes action in its winter Budget Session, Poley suspects it could take years for significant changes to be made. In the meantime, she hopes lawmakers will fund existing relief programs, such as the homestead exemption that gives a break on owner-occupied residences up to a certain income level.

A group of activists led by former gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, now a Cody resident, are gathering signatures for an initiative that would effectively halve property taxes on residents’ homes. Meyer said it’s possible the effort could pass — “who wouldn’t sign that,” he mused — but he worries about the repercussions of such significant cuts in revenue.

The Revenue Committee is set to next meet Oct. 2-3 in Casper and Meyer plans to be there with his pitch for fixed rates.

“I’m going to give it my last shot,” he said.