Editorial

Property tax relief — will Legislature act to make it happen?

Posted 12/22/22

Inflation eats away at everyone’s income.  The national news reminds us constantly of insidiously high inflation rates — at 40-year highs hovering around 8%.  The picture in …

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Editorial

Property tax relief — will Legislature act to make it happen?

Posted

Inflation eats away at everyone’s income.  The national news reminds us constantly of insidiously high inflation rates — at 40-year highs hovering around 8%.  The picture in Wyoming could be even worse, according to Gov. Mark Gordon’s supplemental budget message to the approaching Wyoming legislative session. In it, he presents numbers that put an overall inflation rate for Wyoming at 10.1%.

The governor isn’t trying to scare folks.  He is trying to shape a response to inflation in areas within state government control.

One is the increasing cost of owning a home.  Along with the governor, virtually every legislative candidate in the 2022 elections zeroed in on the need for property tax relief in Wyoming. 

And no wonder. The average increase in assessed valuation of residential property in Wyoming — the taxable value of your home —  was 16.17% higher in 2022. In Park County, it was a whopping year over year increase of 23.53%.

Gordon has included $1 million in his budget request for additional funding for the state’s Property Tax Refund Program which provides targeted property tax relief for seniors and those living on fixed incomes. New parameters would increase the number of homeowners eligible.

But there’s good news for the rest of the state’s homeowners as well. The Legislature’s Joint Interim Revenue Committee has been working on legislation to provide property tax relief that would apply to everyone, doing so with a proposal to create a homeowners exemption on the first $50,000 of Fair Market Value of a home. In other words, the first $50,000 of a primary residence would be exempt from property taxes, with no property owner income limits.

Park County Assessor Pat Meyer has been working closely with the Revenue Committee for years, representing the county assessors’ legislative committee of which he is a former chairman.  He is candid in his declared intention to do all he can to limit huge increases in taxes that he says really make no sense for anyone.

The draft bill legislating a homestead exemption is a start, and one he favors as a short-term solution. Meyer said the $50,000 exemption on FMV would translate to a savings of $332 on the tax bills of Park County homeowners.

Property tax relief is high on the agenda for most legislators, certainly local legislators. And how much relief should be provided? It’s already a moving target. The Revenue Committee draft has already been trumped by a bill sponsored by Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, and Sen. Fred Baldwin, R-Kemmerer. Their bill would also call for a homestead exemption for all homeowners, upping the amount of the property tax exemption to $100,000. It may not be the last bill to surface.

The “loss” in tax revenue to local governments from any homestead exemption, if passed, would be reimbursed by the state. That may be an issue for legislators as the homestead exemption proposals work their way forward. But sentiment for some relief is obviously strong.

To Meyer, any loss in revenue is more than offset by the surge in taxable valuation that has spawned the call for tax relief in the first place. He points to a nearly $7 billion increase in the assessed valuation of the state’s 23 counties in the last year to a total taxable base of $26.5 billion.

That equates to more than $483 million in tax dollars that weren’t there the year before. Taxpayers would say they’ve paid for some reprieve.

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