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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Thursday Smile: December 22, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Next stop... MATTRESS WORLD!!!

Thursday Smile: December 22, 2022

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional, and the counties shouldn’t let taxpayers have that exemption.

The State Equalization Board will refuse to certify this year’s property tax assessment figures if counties keep that cap on them, the report says.

The board’s two-person majority — Chair Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog — wrote in the Thursday report that the 4% increase cap for residential property taxes has arbitrary impacts across the state. 

It also disproportionately insulates high-end homes, and disfavors homeowners in more sluggish market areas, the report asserts.

But the report’s main point, and conclusion from the past two years’ tax data, is that the 4% cap violates the Wyoming Constitution’s call for equal and uniform property taxes within each class of property.

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

“We issued this report today that says if that cap doesn’t come off, Marty and I can’t vote to certify residential property taxes. Because they’re not uniform,” said Mockler. “It’ll be followed with an order ... (and) our goal is ultimately to remove the cap.”  

Mockler noted that the board isn’t targeting the other, narrower exemptions with this report — like the 25% property tax cut passed in 2025 or the long-term homeowner exemption.

More than half of the state’s residential property tax values fall under the 4% increase cap, the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"But We Don’t Get A Tax Free Year"}]

This kind of push from the state board is unprecedented, Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

But Wyomingites shouldn’t expect a tax-free year over the maneuver, she said.

“Everyone’s in agreement there will be residential property taxes for 2026,” she said. “This … is just a step in the process of getting different values the board feels is appropriate.”

The pending mandate leaves Wyoming counties somewhere between following the 4% cap requirement in state law and following another state law that tells assessors to obey the state board, she said.  

“You’re asking us to go against the law? Under the law we have to apply the 4% cap and you’re saying we can’t,” she reflected from the report.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s so bizarre it’s funny,” Huxtable added. "}]

She said she was digesting the report Thursday afternoon, and had just been to a phone meeting with the board officials, assessors, and county attorneys.

Two days earlier on Tuesday, Huxtable had just urged the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee to approach more changes to the state’s property tax law with caution, because assessors are always trying to keep up with the many changes lawmakers have brought in recent years.

Assessors are at the mercy of state law and are working hard to follow it, she’d said.  

Reflecting on the board’s Thursday report, Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily that assessors are now trying to gain clarification on what to do in the coming weeks.

“We’re on standby,” she said, adding that from her meeting with the board, her impression is, “They’d be tickled pink to go to court” on this issue.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz said Thursday that he doesn’t know of any litigation on this currently, “but if there is a challenge, we will support what the Legislature did.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has since become a state senator, was the sponsor on the main bill the board’s Thursday report derides as unconstitutional.

Crago did not return a Thursday afternoon voicemail request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Homes, Different Taxes"}]

The board’s report points to inconsistencies across the Wyoming property tax structure.

People who upgrade their homes by changing the footprint of those homes lose the cap exemption to a reset that year, while people who upgrade only the interior do not, says the report.

It says some homes have had their tax bills so thoroughly capped, they’re paying less than half of the state-mandated property tax rate.

“The caps, by design, generate highly disparate tax consequences for 

It accuses the law of discriminating arbitrarily between different homeowners across Wyoming.

“The demarcation between taxpayers receiving a tax windfall, versus those who do not, serves no rational basis,” the document adds.

Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that she had voted for the 4% tax cap during the tax hikes of 2024. But she views the law as more of a short-term fix. 

"It was a tourniquet; it was a short-term fix," she said. "Butif you leave the tourniquet on, you damage the body." 

Storer's home region of Teton County accounts for huge property tax revenues in Wyoming. She has tried over the years to get lawmakers to stop applying property tax breaks to people's secondary homes. 

Of the $860.2 million in exemptions the 4% cap is expected to cause this year, Teton County accounts for $507.9 million, says a Department of Revenue memo Storer sent to Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Lawsuit That Wasn’t"}]

The board warned lawmakers before the 4% cap bill’s passage that board members believed it’s unconstitutional.

 “the die was cast,” says the report.

The board examined the residential assessment values and looked for inverted valuations, that is where higher-valued properties were assessed at lower taxable values than other, similarly situated properties.

The board during the 2025 tax calculation process had just two members, Mockler and Hardscog. They voted that year to certify the tax values, but said that those values were probably invalid. Still, they wanted to gather one more year of data to be sure, the report says.

They also planned to release a Nov. 13, 2025, order requiring assessors to stop giving the exemption.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office asked the board not to issue that order, the report says.

In November and early December, the governor’s office and Wyoming Attorney General’s Office met with Hardscog and Mockler to talk about filing an action asking a court to judge the issue.

The governor’s office and AG’s office agreed the state board should file that court action, the report says.

The litigation was slated to be filed Jan. 20. Gordon’s office asked for multiple delays, at first to communicate the lawsuit with legislative leaders. 

When Gordon’s office asked for another delay two days later, Hardscog and Mockler said they wouldn’t certify the property tax values after the June tax calculation process, “without a working resolution of their constitutional concerns,” says the report.

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<title>Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional and it will refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne railfan and sculptor Carey Moose Hosterman wasn’t planning to see a rocket train. 

He was just driving home from Home Depot with a bag of sculpting tools last week when a strange-looking locomotive rolled out of Cheyenne’s historic depot onto the main line.

He wasn’t sure at the time exactly what he was seeing, but he didn’t hesitate to hit his blinker and pull over to watch it go by.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really cool-looking car or engine on that train there,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s got an American flag on it and it looks really different.”

Only later would he learn that No. 4547 was passing through Wyoming on June 2 on its first mission hauling the final solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Artemis III rocket to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In late 2027, four members of the crew for Artemis III will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft. 

It's a demonstration flight in a low Earth orbit that will test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and test versions of the Human Landing System being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

The Artemis IV will be the first crewed lunar landing mission of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2028.

Hosterman has spent years watching all kinds of trains roll through Cheyenne. 

He’s seen trains with tanks and armor, and wind turbine blades so long they need two flat cars just to make the curves. 

A rocket train, though, was a first, and it was rolling through Cheyenne without fanfare or warning.

The lead engine, he would later learn, was Union Pacific No. 4547, a commemorative locomotive that celebrates President Donald Trump, painted with a fluttering American flag all along its length. 

Behind it was the equally colorful No. 1616, a red locomotive that honors Abraham Lincoln for signing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862.

Then came the cars that really puzzled Hosterman — a square, yellow car surrounded by rings of white pipes, followed by a chain of white round cars alternating with square yellow ones.

“They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” Hosterman said. “And my wife and I have been so excited with the Big Boy train, we really pay attention to what’s going around on the tracks. 

"So we got to talking about that train, too, and wondering what was in it.”

They wouldn’t solve the mystery until the next day, when they saw a news story about segments of Artemis III being delivered to Florida. 

That’s when the strange white capsules and square yellow cars suddenly made sense.

“I wish now I would have taken a picture,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “From now on, when the senses are going off, ‘Hey, you know, this is kind of cool. We should snap a picture.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First Steps To The Moon"}]

The rocket train carried the final eight of Northrop Grumman’s twin solid rocket-booster motor segments, manufactured in Utah. The parts will be joined to previously delivered segments shipped in April. 

The solid rocket boosters will generate 7.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to Northrop, and will be among the first pieces of hardware assembled on the mobile launch platform.

Artemis III is the third in a series of missions aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. 

It’s one of several steps along the way to eventually establishing a permanent base on the moon and then sending astronauts to Mars. 

Artemis III builds on the success of the prior Artemis II mission in April, which sent four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of the moon. 

The overall mission involved testing NASA’s Orion spacecraft for maneuverability, including docking with a lunar lander. 

Wyoming manufacturer L&H Industrial in Gillette had a hand in 

helping build mission-critical hardware for Artemis II

That included upgrades to the huge crawler transporter that takes rockets to the launching pad, traveling at 1 mph. 

It also included flame detector plates, which help to deflect the searing heat caused by 9 million pounds of thrust that comes out of a rocket all at once during launch.

For those who missed Artemis III’s passage through Wyoming, retired railroad man Stan Blake said rocket parts have passed through Wyoming before, and will likely do so again for future Artemis missions.

Wyoming has some advantages when it comes to hauling such things, thanks to its many wide open spaces. 

Many times for extra-wide loads, trains will stop at a certain point on the rail line where things are wider, allowing that extra wide load to pass by without delay.

“I’m sure they are very heavy,” Blake said. “Instead of the normal two axles under each end of the railroad car, they might have three, maybe four axles, kind of like when you see a semi hauling something heavy. They have extra sets of axles and tires.”

Military tanks, meanwhile, typically travel in a special car built for heavier loads.

“There are probably also armed guards in a caboose or in the locomotive,” Blake added. “They do that when they haul nuclear waste. Usually, they’ll have a caboose with armed guards.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Front-Row Seat To History"}]

Cheyenne is an essential hub for the United States, Hosterman said. That has him constantly looking anytime he passes by the depot, to see if something cool is headed through Wyoming.

“That makes Cheyenne unique, because a whole lot of new things are coming through the tracks that you just don’t know what they are,” he said. “Sometimes you get to see some neat rail cars with military stuff on it.”

As a sculptor, Hosterman appreciates the odd forms that sometimes pass by. He also likes some of the artwork painted on the train cars.

“I’m an artist, so I do kind of admire some of the artwork that goes by,” he said. “Some of it is pretty good, actually.”

After seeing a rocket train roll through Cheyenne, it’s one more reason to keep looking at what’s passing through the depot. 

You just never know when the next quiet train rolling through town will be another piece of history.

Artemis III locomotive Artemis II Is final rocket booster segments traveled through Wyoming recently on their way to Kennedy Space Center 6 11 26

<title>New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The first job for Union Pacific’s new Trump-themed locomotive No. 4547 took it through Wyoming carrying the Artemis III rocket. Nobody except railroad watchers noticed. “They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” one said.

New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Outdoors

Public Lands

A 41-year-old Denver man was found dead near a capsized kayak on Yellowstone Lake, a body of water that veteran guides say can turn from picture-perfect to perilous in a matter of minutes, Yellowstone National Park officials reported Thursday.

Occupants of another vessel on the lake discovered the body of Brandon Rhea on Monday floating near Rock Point on the lake's northwest shore near Bridge Bay, according to Yellowstone National Park officials.

National Park Service rangers recovered Rhea's body along with a capsized kayak and personal belongings. The incident remains under investigation, and park officials have released few additional details.

For those who spend their summers on Yellowstone Lake, the discovery is a reminder that one of Wyoming's most iconic destinations can also be one of its most unforgiving.

Park officials have released few details about the incident and did not respond to additional questions before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Little Margin For Error"}]

For retired Yellowstone ranger Tara Ross, the reputation of Yellowstone Lake being potentially dangerous is justified.

"What makes it so dangerous is the extreme cold and wild winds," Ross said.

Ross spent several years assigned to Yellowstone Lake boat patrol while stationed in the Grant Village area. She said the lake conditions can overwhelm paddlers long before rescuers have an opportunity to reach them.

"The water is extremely cold," Ross said. “You may only have 10 minutes to survive it."

That reality creates one of the greatest challenges for emergency responders.

"By the time somebody from offshore notices — if the person can't self-rescue … that person is probably not going to make it," she added.

The lake often remains ice-covered well into spring, a reminder that Yellowstone's waters stay cold long after visitors begin arriving for the summer season, said Ross. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lake Changes Fast"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Dylan Schneider has spent the past 15 summers on Yellowstone Lake."}]

He began working aboard boats on the lake and has spent the last six summers guiding kayakers through its bays and shorelines for Prismatic Tours. 

The biggest lesson he tries to teach visitors is not to trust what they see.

"It looks calm, but in 10 minutes it could be totally different," Schneider told Cowboy State Daily about Yellowstone Lake.

Surface water temperatures typically range between 40 and 50 degrees, even during the summer, he said.

"They say you have about 20 minutes before hypothermia sets in if you find yourself in the water," Schneider said, adding that the danger isn't limited to cold water.

Schneider said some of the most challenging conditions develop on warm, sunny days when visitors least expect trouble.

"Especially on those deceivingly nice days, the wind can pick up with very little warning," he said.

Large bays can become hazardous when winds build, and natural features around the lake can create wind tunnels that funnel gusts toward paddlers who may suddenly find themselves much farther from shore than they intended.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Respect The Lake"}]

Yellowstone Lake spans more than 130 square miles and sits at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level.

Ross said that prevailing southwest winds routinely sweep across the lake, while shifting weather patterns can create unexpected waves and rough conditions.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those conditions are familiar to people who work on the water."}]

Schneider said visitors often arrive expecting a leisurely paddle across one of the nation's most scenic lakes. Most leave with a newfound respect for how quickly the environment can change.

For those who know Yellowstone Lake best, its beauty and its danger are inseparable.

The circumstances surrounding Rhea's death remain under investigation, but Schneider's warning is one he gives paddlers every season.

"It looks calm," he said. "But in 10 minutes it could be totally different."

Yellowstone lake 6 12 26

<title>Floating Body Of Denver Man Recovered From Yellowstone Lake Near Capsized Kayak | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Denver man was found dead near a capsized kayak on Yellowstone Lake, park officials announced Thursday. Former ranger Tara Ross, who patrolled the lake said extreme cold and "wild winds" make it dangerous. "You may have 10 minutes to survive," she said.

Floating Body Of Denver Man Recovered From Yellowstone Lake Near Capsized Kayak

“This is not a purity test,” says a letter to Republican candidates for Park County partisan offices, warning 

 that if they don’t commit to back at least 80% of the state Republican Party platform, they won’t receive an endorsement or support from the party.

The state GOP passed a set of new bylaws in April which requires county and state committee iterations of the party to vet candidates for office 

 commitment to the platform and “demonstrated loyalty to the Party’s principles.”

The Park County GOP’s vetting committee chair Richard Jones dispatched his vetting letter and survey to multiple candidates this week. Responses are due next Wednesday.

“We ask you to complete the questionnaire, and that you complete it honestly,” says Jones’ letter. “This is not a purity test. It is a questionnaire to see where you align with our Platform. 

"Also, this Platform is a reflection of the majority of Wyoming Republicans.”

The letter urges candidates against opting out of prompts they deem irrelevant to the offices they’re seeking.

“We wish to know where you stand regarding the Platform, not the role of the position you are seeking,” it says.

Candidates are split on whether the test is necessary, appropriate, and whether it is or isn’t a “purity test.”

“I support this,” said Karin Richard, a candidate for Park County Commission. “The Wyoming Republican Party, it stands for something. It stands for timeless truths — these truths are to maintain and protect and defend life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness.”

Richard added, “The Wyoming Republican Party isn’t demanding a purity test … it’s protecting the integrity of those foundational principles.”

Jones, who is also running for a Park County GOP precinct committee position, did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then Why Do It?"}]

Former state Park County GOP precinct committeewoman and current candidate for the position, Sandy Newsome questioned why the party would bother dispatching a test at all if it’s not a “purity test.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Newsome is also a former state reprsentative. "}]

She said she didn’t receive the questionnaire at all — and she checked her spam folder. Other candidates have also said they didn’t receive it, she added.

“They want to say (it’s not a purity test) but that’s not true in my mind,” said Newsome. “Then why do they care? Why would they send that out … if it’s not to pigeonhole someone because of their responses into some group?”

Newsome defined herself as a Ronald Reagan Republican, and said the current GOP platform, while it tries to tackle vital issues, is poorly written and confusing in some areas.

 are endowed with the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness “from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.”

That language is a problem for Republicans who support the death penalty, noted Newsome.

The last two times Wyoming lawmakers proposed bills to abolish Wyoming’s death penalty — to the Senate in 2021 and the House in 2020 — the legislators who killed the bills on their introductory votes were all Republicans.

Newsome said that at a candidate forum in late May, current Republican state Sen. Dan Laursen, who’s now running for a seat on the Park County Commission, voiced discomfort with a plank strongly in favor of property rights.

“He spent his career doing water projects for the state, and sometimes you need an easement; sometimes you need to condemn some land to do an irrigation project,” Newsome related from what she recalled of Laursen’s answer.

Laursen did not respond by publication to a voicemail request for confirmation and comment.

Newsome emphasized that while the party seeks to threaten withholding its endorsement or financial backing, it can’t keep people off the ballot.

To her, she added, the people of her precinct — not the party — are the judge of whether she’s worthy to serve.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Buncha RINOs’"}]

Jimmy Rush is campaigning to become Park County Clerk. He told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that he agrees 100% with the party platform and has no problem with the questionnaire.

He countered Newsome’s point about how the platform’s “natural death” wording, in its plank touting the right to life for every individual, is inconsistent with support for the death penalty.

“Well, I think that (plank) covers abortion,” said Rush, adding that he supports the death penalty and wishes the state were tougher on crime.

“I think that falls more into a legal area,” Rush said. “Once you break the law, you lose your rights. Once you get convicted as a criminal you lose your rights.”

Convicted criminals retain many rights such as the due-process right of appeal and rights against cruel and unusual punishment within their prison sentence or other punishment. Convicted felons lose civic, voting and gun rights.

U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows states to enforce the death penalty and thereby remove a convict’s right to life, but only after a rigorous legal process and under limited circumstances.

Rush pointed to Park County candidates who have re-posted a Facebook post Newsome published deriding the test. He called the re-posters unoriginal.

“I think it’s a bunch of RINOs making a bunch of noise, because they’re scared to death that some absolutely true, patriot conservative Republicans are finally running for office,” he said, adding that he’s campaigning on transparency promises.

“RINO” is a pejorative acronym that means “Republican in name only.” It’s become prevalent in recent years as the divide between at least two factions of Wyoming Republicans deepens.

On the one hand, Democrats do switch to Republican voter registration so they can vote in the state’s GOP primary elections.

On the other hand, many Republicans who’ve been hit with the “RINO” 

 accuse their attackers of glossing over nuanced and grey-area issues, especially pertaining to hyper-local governance.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About The Platform"}]

The platform has remained substantially the same for the past eight years, Richard told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"The party touts the platform as a collection of “timeless truths.”"}]

Cowboy State Daily covered a platform committee at this year’s state GOP convention in April, where party delegates rejected new planks rooted in more transient issues, like the advancement of artificial intelligence, and rejected a plank calling Wyoming a Christian state — after a heated debate about biblical principles and free will.

[{"type":"text","text":"The principle behind the platform’s plank No. 23 is a hot topic now."}]

“The Wyoming Republican Party opposes any federal takeover or interference of federal, state, or local elections,” the plank says.

Numerous federal courts are now contemplating whether the U.S. Department of Justice can, under federal law, 

[{"type":"text","text":"And More About The Party"}]

The state GOP is suing the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office over a law barring the party from financially backing one Republican candidate over another ahead of the primary election, which is Aug. 18. 

Republican candidates for office in Park County received a letter warning them if they don’t commit to backing at least 80% of the state GOP platform, they won’t receive an endorsement or support from the party. "They is not a purity test," it reads.

Thursday Smile: December 22, 2022

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