Williams provides Legislative update, Feb. 24
Here are some bills that HB 199 Freedom Scholarship is the school voucher/educational savings account bill that originated in the House. If you recall I worked to amend that bill all three readings to include some accountability and some transparency into the bill. I had limited success in getting it amended on the house side which you can see under the amendment tab on HB199 on wyoleg.com. That being said, when it went to the Senate, they strengthened my amendments and added some more. Those amendments included certification and accreditation requirements for educational providers; assessments for students taking advantage of school vouchers; and the addition of universal pre-K. Around that time, President Trump gave his stamp of approval to the Senate, and to Senate President Bo Biteman in particular, regarding HB199. During concurrence with the Senate, we were asked to not concur by our leadership so that we could go to conference committee and work out differences, which is a wise strategy at times. However, I did not believe this was one of the times to play chicken with the Senate as (1) bill was better with the Senate’s amendments and (2) they had just received President Trump’s approval. I voted to concur with the better bill and to agree with President Trump although most of the body voted to not concur. I’m not sure how that will play out in conference committee, but I just can’t see the Senate being open to any changes after Trump’s endorsement of the bill. I still believe the bill may be challenged in court because there is no means testing to determine eligibility for the vouchers.
The property tax conversation continues to revolve around HB169, SF69, and HB282. HB169 and SF69 both deal with 50% residential property tax cut which we have discussed at length. They will go to conference committee and be passed in some form. Conference committee’s haggle over the differences between the House and Senate positions but if there is no middle ground found, a bill can go to an “open” committee where the whole bill is fair game for amendment and not just the differences. From a small town, rural county perspective that may be the best place for those tax bills because they are bad for HD 2 in their present form. I believe neither the Senate nor the Governor are willing to include backfill in a tax cut bill as their position is that it is not fiscally responsible to transfer mineral industry tax dollars to counties that have a shortfall due to a 50% property tax cut. That was the reasoning the Governor vetoed the 25% property tax cut bill last year. They are not wrong. Backfill is not a fiscally responsible policy, as it would pull down our hard earned savings accounts to cover shortfalls created by a 50% property tax cut which is another short-sighted irresponsible policy change.
Here is something to think about. If our county property taxes have gone up 30% since COVID, why are we cutting property taxes by 50% and creating a shortfall that hardship counties now have to fill by asking for an entitlement or a backfill from the state? Hardship counties don’t wish to be any more dependent on the state than they already are. This question has been asked many times in debate on the floor of the House and remains unanswered. Consider this; 50% is the percentage associated with the People’s ballot initiative. This was the petition that was circulated in the past year or so to cut property taxes by 50%, no backfill of course. The bringers have met their signature threshold and therefore it will be on our ballot in the next election cycle. My conversations with you indicate that the more you understand Wyoming’s property tax policy the less likely you are to support the People’s initiative. Many of you believe it will fail when we vote on it during the next election. This is interesting to me; In our Wyoming Constitution, Article 3, Section 52 regarding initiatives and referendums, we read “if before the election, substantially the same measure has been enacted, the petition is void.” Would legislating a 50% residential property tax cut provide political cover for the ballot initiative that will fail if informed voters show up?
HB282 is the Acquisition Property tax bill that is similar to Prop 13 in California. It is unworkable from my perspective, but it could conceivably make it to the finish line. If it does, it will be challenged in court as it is clearly unconstitutional from this bunkhouse lawyers perspective, which is why I didn’t support the bill.
In my opinion, the best tax relief bill we will see this session is SF 153. It puts into practice Amendment A that we passed in the last election. This creates a fourth class of property tax that allows the legislature to adjust residential property tax independent of other classes of property. It is a workable solution that will make the largest difference with the least unintended consequence. Watch for SF 153 being worked in the House this week.
jd.williams@wyoleg.com, 307.340.6006