People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming Filed
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BCR Voter Initiatives is proud to announce the official filing of the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption of 50% of Assessed Value. It has been 30 years since sufficient signatures were gathered for a Citizens Initiative to make its way onto a Wyoming General Election ballot.
Residential property tax has risen 87% since 2017 and has been the top issue taken up in the last two sessions of the Wyoming Legislature. There were 20 bills considered last year and ten this year to no avail. The Governor vetoed the most comprehensive tax reform bill HB 54 and a vote for a special session to override failed.
The drafters of the Wyoming Constitution foresaw a day when the legislature would grid lock on a bill important to the People, or a bill could not get passed the Governors veto so they created the Citizens Initiative which bypasses the Legislature and the Governor office and cannot be blocked for two years.
To become law a citizen drafts a bill, obtains 100 Sponsors for the bill, then must circulate petitions to obtain sufficient registered voters signatures for the Initiative to be placed on the next general election ballot. In this instance that number was 29,710 (15% of total that voted in the last general election) from at least 16 of the 23 counties. BCR received the blank petitions October 15, 2023 and began the statewide endeavor of gathering signatures.
On May 30, 2024, committee members Cheryl Aguiar, Richard Weber, and Brent Bien transferred 644 petition booklets containing 45,000 signatures to the Secretary of State. The Elections Division office will review the signatures over the next 60 days checking for a sufficient quantity of valid signatures.
If there are a sufficient number of valid signatures, the Secretary of State will then notify the committee members and determine upon which general election ballot the initiative will be placed.
The committee members of BCR were joined by a host of petition circulators from around the state to celebrate the momentous achievement.
BCR is extremely proud and honored to work with the 315 volunteer patriots from around our great Wyoming who never gave up despite the many challenges and who believe so strongly in protecting our freedom.
