Fifty-percent property tax cut bill flies through House Committee

CHEYENNE — A bill creating a two-year, 50% reduction in property taxes for Wyoming homeowners flew through the House Appropriations Committee Thursday morning.

Senate File 69, “Homeowner property tax exemption,” passed unamended in a 6-1 vote, just two days after passing the full Senate.

Lawmakers have said that by passing SF 69, they’re listening to what their constituents want.

The reduction in tax revenue collected by the state, which is in turn sent back to counties, school districts and special districts, is anticipated to be $225 million per year, according to Committee Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette. The bill in its current form does not include any backfill, or use of state savings, to pay counties back for revenue lost as a result of the tax cut.

“This is a good bill, and I want to emphasize that the sky is not falling,” bill co-sponsor Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, told the House committee Thursday. “They are not going to shut down police departments or fire departments with this.”

The anticipated amount of annual revenue lost to Laramie County, if SF 69 is passed in its current version, not including cuts to education, special districts and municipalities, is estimated at more than $7.3 million, according to Wyoming County Commissioners Association Executive Director Jerimiah Rieman.

The total reduction in revenue for all taxing beneficiaries in Laramie County is estimated at $43 million a year.

Rieman told the committee Thursday that his organization understands families across Wyoming are having difficult conversations about rising property taxes.

“I also would share and suggest to you that those residents aren’t calling for a reduction in services, whether that be for emergency services, their roads and the other important things that (county commissioners) provide,” Reiman said.

The anticipated annual reduction in county commission budgets across Wyoming, Reiman said, include $2.5 million to Albany County, $2.1 to Campbell County, $650,000 to Goshen County, $4.7 million to Natrona County and $3.4 million to Sheridan County.

Those estimates do not include revenue cuts to education funding, special districts and municipalities, Reiman said.

“Those are going to result in reduction in services, unless there is some sort of mechanism to offset those (costs),” Reiman said.

Ben Moritz, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, said that the anticipated annual revenue lost to community colleges across the state will be $11 million.

Smaller institutions like Sheridan College and Eastern Wyoming Community College would have a higher proportional cut than others, Moritz said. Colleges have a statutory cap on what they can hold in reserve, so most do not have the savings to draw upon if SF 69 is passed without backfill.

Wyoming’s community colleges are the workforce training centers for the state, Mortiz continued, and career and technical education courses often have the highest costs. With revenue losses projected under SF 69, CTE coursework will be difficult to maintain, as will colleges’ “ability to employ people,” Moritz said.

Josh Van Vlack, division chief for the Laramie County Fire Authority, told the committee that special fire districts operate “on a shoestring budget as it is” and that any reduction in property tax revenue will directly result in a reduction in services.

“Every dollar does matter in our response, and our ability to assist those in our jurisdictions,” Van Vlack said.

Most districts have some funding in reserve, but it’s restricted, he said. Laramie County Fire Authority’s is earmarked for replacement of an apparatus.

“A new fire truck right now is running $1.1-1.2 million. That would wipe out our reserves,” Van Vlack said.

There are around 230,000 single-family residential homes in Wyoming, according to Brenda Henson, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue. SF 69 would apply an exemption to single-family structures, as well as the associated land, up to $1 million in fair market value.

People who are eligible to receive the long-term homeowner credit created in 2024 will not be able to also claim exemption under SF 69, Henson said. In 2024, lawmakers also implemented a 4% cap on residential property tax collection, which extends into 2025.

“This is the first time ever that we have had multiple exemptions that are applicable to the exact same property,” Henson said.

Bear said that he may offer an amendment on the House floor to provide backfill to “hardship” communities, which include Bighorn, Campbell, Carbon, Fremont, Hot Springs, Johnson, Sweetwater and Uinta counties.

Those counties collect less in property taxes today than they did in 2015.

“I am bringing an amendment — several different options for backfill — for those eight most hardship counties, and some of the special districts,” Bear said.

He continued that if the state must tap into its own reserves to backfill cuts to those counties, he’d like to know which counties have reserves, and which are assessing all allowable mill levies available to them.

Reiman said that 21 of 23 counties assess the maximum allowable mill levies.

The two that do not are Campbell and Teton counties. Five counties, according to Henson, have offered their own property tax refund program in the two years since the Legislature gave counties that option. Those are Albany, Converse, Sublette, Lincoln and Teton counties.

“The county commissioners, out of their money, put in the budget, set aside an amount that can be available to refund to taxpayers that apply,” Henson said.

Only Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, voted against SF 69 in committee, saying that she believes each county should be allowed to craft their own property tax refund program. Calling SF 69 an “an affront to local control,” Sherwood said a top-down state decision would be “heavy handed.”

“I believe that our counties are the best ones to determine what our refund program should look like. They know what their reserves look like. They know what their budget is, and they know what kind of relief they can provide,” Sherwood said.

This story was published on February 7, 2025.