CHEYENNE — A drastic tax reform bill is flying through the Legislature with no parachute.
Last week Senate File 69 got through the upper chamber on a 23-8 vote. The majority vote was a mix of Freedom Caucus and traditional Republicans members.
What they voted for was a bill that doubled the property tax break from 25 percent as originally proposed to 50 percent.
The big change was the bill no longer called for a backfill of state money to make up for the loss to property tax recipients, chiefly schools, city and county governments.
The bill was sent to the House where it sailed through the House Appropriations Committee and is now on general file awaiting debate.
SF 69 had been at the bottom of the house general file as the only senate bill on the list.
As of Friday it is now in second place on the ready-for-debate list.
So you can expect a debate next week. If it passes as expected the only barrier left is Gov. Mark Gordon.
It was such an extreme step for the usually careful and wise senate that I went back to watch the video of the first and lengthy debate of the bill.
What stood out was the lack of trust many legislators have with their local governments in regard to spending. There were no claims of fraud, just overspending or maybe not being transparent about where the money goes and how much.
“I don’t think the snowplows and the fire engines are not going to be there,” Sen. Troy McKeown a Gillette Republican and co-sponsor of the bill.
He was referring to the arguments about loss of services, from representatives of the county commissioners and city councils.
Other supporters noted that while 70 percent of revenue from property taxes goes to support the K-12 schools, any shortfalls can be made up from state designated funds.
That protection was assured through the Wyoming Supreme Court major opinion in the Campbell school finance case The court said the Legislature must, in effect, always find money to adequately finance public schools.
Opponents said the bill could ultimately trigger the need for a sales tax or, in a worst case, even an income tax to replace the lost property tax revenue.
But this is what the voters want, proponents argued. Giving them a clean, substantial tax cut with no strings will allow them to obtain a better understanding of where the money goes.
Meanwhile Rep. John Bear, another Gillette Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he may offer an amendment on the house floor to provide backfill to hardship communities which include Bighorn, Campbell, Carbon, Fremont, Hot Springs, Johnson, Sweetwater and Unita Counties, according to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.
I would think Niobrara County would be on that list. It was’t too long ago that the county lacked enough money to pay for employee health insurance.
Both McKeown and Bear have been particularly critical about the cost of amenities in new schools.
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A total of 95 bills never got past House Speaker Chip Neiman, a Hulett Republican, this session.
It may be a record but it is not a bad thing.
Neiman said many that the leadership held back were individual, not committee bills. The lack of committee status made them less of a priority
There always are way too may bills every session, as crusty Gov. Ed Herschler, a former legislator used to say as he gestured toward a stack of bills on this desk.
The state, he said, could run for a hundred years without these bills.
He vetoed many of them.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
