It’s looking increasingly likely that Wyoming’s residential property owners will see some drastic reductions on their property tax bills by the time this year’s legislative session completes.
Two major property tax bills have been sailing through, easily passing on every vote they’ve received so far.
Although four major property tax relief bills were passed in 2024 in response to large residential tax increases, most legislators have maintained that’s not enough.
Big Changes
House Bill 169 would put a 50% exemption on all residential property values up to $1 million and is forecast to generate $197 million less for the state in revenue.
Property taxes fund local governments and schools in Wyoming. Under HB 169, these entities would receive a 50% reimbursement for the revenue decreases they experience as a result of the proposed exemption, which would be provided through $125 million from the state.
The exemption would only be in effect for the next two tax years and expire by 2027.
Numerous organizations have spoken against the bill, expressing deep concern about what it would do to their operations because of the projected shortfall it would leave.
Ashley Harpstreith, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, said this money goes to supporting valuable services in Wyoming’s communities.
“In all cities and towns, most of the general funds make up things like police and fire service, public safety, communications, 911 dispatch, street maintenance and repair,” she said. “Also, general funds directly impact personnel to deliver these services.”
As a way to ease those losses, local governments could raise their mill levy rates, but would need the approval of local voters to do so.
HB 169 was advanced by the House Revenue and Appropriations committees and passed on second reading in the House on Wednesday.
The bill sponsor, state Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, told Cowboy State Daily he sees the bill as a form of tax relief rather than reform, an underlying issue he also wants but doesn’t expect to resolve during the 2025 session.
“I believe we need property tax reform to follow this up or we’ve failed,” he said. “Until we put real reform in, we’re kind of patching holes at best and trying to help the folks out as much as we can.”
As far as long-term solutions, Locke wants to pursue options that would restrict property tax growth to a lower cap or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
But for now, Locke wants to strike a balance on taxes that avoids fully gutting local revenues while still providing significant property tax relief to homeowners.
“Just trying to look for the happy medium where we don’t cut the legs out, but we can all find an elegant way to work together on a solution that doesn’t kill everybody,” he said.
Locke also said he sees his bill as a first step in providing property tax relief. This would be continued on if voters pass a ballot initiative in 2026 that would permanently cut taxes in the state by 50%.
No Tax Caps
Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, believes for any property tax relief bill to be constitutional it can’t have any tax caps, as the state Constitution says all properties must be assessed uniformly and equally.
Storer told Cowboy State Daily she plans to bring legislation that will address the residential tax assessment rate later this session to avoid these caps.
She brought an amendment Tuesday during the bill’s first reading that would have removed the $1 million cap.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, opposed that, saying he views tax caps as constitutional.
Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, also expressed concerns, saying if the cap were removed it could eventually lead to getting rid of the exemption because so much money is being taken off people’s property tax bills.
The amendment was rejected by the House.
An amendment Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, brought Wednesday would have revived his 2024 proposal to raise the sales tax rate to make up for the loss in property tax revenue. It was also rejected.
HB 169 also clarifies that someone cannot receive any additional tax exemptions if they get the 50% reimbursement.
State Rep. Tony Locke, right, talks with staff from the Wyoming Department of Revenue before a committee meeting to debate property tax relief bills. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
State Rep. Bob Ide, center, during a committee hearing on property tax releif. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
No Backfill At All
Senate File 69 is another bill making significant progress through the Legislature. It would provide a 25% tax exemption on up to $2 million worth of home value.
The bill is more far-reaching than HB 169 in that it has no expiration date or any backfill money for local governments and schools to make up for the lost tax revenue the exemption would create, which is expected to be $142.6 million a year to start.
During the Senate Revenue Committee meeting Monday, Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, said he believes property taxes are immoral, and also criticized the state for seeming to have “a lot of money to spend on a lot of boondoggle projects.”
Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, had a similar synopsis, mentioning how certain governments and school districts in Wyoming have tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves.
From 2019-2023, residential tax revenue increased by 65.2% in Wyoming, with some counties receiving more than 111% property tax revenue during that stretch. But the growth wasn’t universal, with some counties like Sweetwater experiencing a much lower growth of 19.5%.
Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said during a Tuesday press call he sees no reason to backfill a local government or other entity if they’ve already seen a large increase in their tax revenues.
“If you’re going to cut taxes, you’re going to cut taxes,” he said.
SF 69 was passed by the committee on a 3-2 vote, with Sens. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, voting against it and Ide, McKeown and Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, voting for it.
There are no requirements on either HB 169 or SF 169 about whether a homeowner has to use property as a full-time residence to qualify for the exemption.
Bring On the Crisis
Despite voting against the bill, Case supported removing the full backfill for local entities that was originally attached to SF 69.
“I think if we’re going to create a crisis let’s create a crisis,” he said.
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, expressed a similar stance Tuesday, and said she generally opposes backfilling local governments when tax cuts are applied.
Nethercott said it can be difficult for Wyomingites to understand the impact of tax cuts because of the state’s already low tax structure, and believes it would be valuable for them to see the difference.
“I think a clearer understanding of what that looks like when there’s no backfill, when those property tax revenues are reduced, and how services can and will be affected, to understand the power of the voice in that vote,” she said. “I don’t support a backfill. I don’t think it’s sustainable fiscal policy for the state to provide that continuing backfill. It’s just not long-term sustainable.”
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said he doesn’t support this approach.
“I don’t understand why we would say we’re OK with cutting taxes, but you’re the ones that’s going to have to handle it,” he said. “It’s going to be very hard for them (local governments) to raise mills and it’s going to be bad.
“The idea that we can cut taxes only for the counties to just then raise the mills on everyone, just making the counties the bad guys and not us, seems like an unfair thing to do.”
Other Bills Of Note
Another bill brought by Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, would put a 50% exemption on up to $200,000 of home value.
Rep. Clarence Styvar, R-Cheyenne, has brought legislation that would give a 100% property tax exemption to veterans who suffered a service-related disability or their surviving spouses if the veteran has died and a spouse has not remarried on all land up to 25 acres.
A bill removing the sunset date for a tax exemption given to the state’s manufacturers on their sales and use taxes passed the House on Tuesday with a 55-5 vote.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
