CHEYENNE — With the general election drawing nearer, the activity to support passage of the “4 Property tax reform” ballot proposal is almost nil.
My fellow columnist colleague at Cowboy State Daily, Dave Simpson, pointed this out earlier.
Maybe the blitz will still come in the last pre-election week. But to date I have received only two pieces of mail urging a yes vote on the question.
Both are large, expensive-looking color ads with a return address listed as a political acton committee in Casper.
Because of a problem with my computer, I was unable to access the list of political action committees on file with the secretary of state’s office. However, the Wyoming Realtors Association, which has an office in Casper, was identified earlier by Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, as being in support of the amendment.
Case also predicted the shortage of wide support, according to an article in WyoFile. He said the energy industry may be quietly opposing it.
That would be understandable given that the industry would like to continue to have the protection of being in the same property class as residential property.
At any rate, if the amendment should pass it would allow tax assessors to treat residential housing as a separate entity that can be taxed at a different rate than commercial property. Currently, residential property is lumped in the same category as commercial and industrial property. This means any tax break for residential housing would also go to Wal Mart.
M. Lee Hasenauer of Cheyenne has been out of the limelight for several years.
He first came on the scene a decade or so ago as the leader of the tea party movement.
At one time there were 225 local residents who considered themselves to be tea party members.
Social and cultural issues were not big on their agenda as I recall.
They were primarily advocates of smaller government and lower taxes.
Hasenauer said he and most of his followers support the Wyoming Freedom Caucus (WFC) because they share “common sense and conservative.”
A major objective for the tea partiers was to repeal the law that allowed crossover voting in the state’s primary elections.
This provision permitted mainly Democrats to vote for moderate Republicans in the GOP primary elections
Earlier this year the Legislature voted in favor of the WWF’s bill to end crossover voting.
“They finally got it,” Hasenauer said in a phone interview this week.
For the legislative session that opens in January, the WWF main priority will be bills that will offer a fairly quick lowering in of property taxes.
The one Hasenauer favors would base the property tax on the original value of a home when the owner bought it. That would mean taxing houses like the state does auto license. The fee reflects the depreciation of the vehicle.
Cars, however, lose value over the years, unlike houses.
Anyway, the bill he liked failed in the last session along with a number of others. Opponents said the loss of tax revenue they would create would cripple local government and the public schools.
None of the property tax money collected goes to state government. It all goes to county governments to pay for police and fire protection and road repairs.
To keep from hurting local governments the Legislature would need to appropriate money to local governments and schools to make up for the loss.
Then the question is whether such a “backfill” appropriation would pass, given the WFC’s objection to increases in taxes and spending on government.
Hasenauer, meanwhile, was elected earlier to a term on the Laramie County Board of Commissioners.
He stoked a controversy by calling on his tea partiers to attend meetings to support his proposals.
The other commissioners did not appreciate all that attention from the tea partiers.
Hasenauer said he was working for the people and the other commissioners were more old guard types.
Anyway he is happy fixing up campers and the like on his five acres outside of Cheyenne.
But he rails against the increase of his property tax bill.
“We just want to be left alone,” he said.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
