Wyoming firefighters and law enforcement officers filled the halls of the Wyoming Capitol on Wednesday to express their opposition to Senate File 69, a bill that would cut property taxes by 50% in Wyoming.
Even so, the House passed SF 69 on first reading Wednesday night after a lengthy discussion.
Property taxes go to support local governments, special districts and school districts, and such a large cut could gut their budgets, they said. The bill currently as written contains no backfill. It is projected to have a $285 million impact in the two years it will exist before expiring by 2027.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak described this bill on Facebook on Monday as an effort to “defund the police.”
If SF 69 passes, he said it may cause his department to slash its budget by $2 million and lay off 25 employees.
“I understand and support the legislator’s desire to provide property tax relief, but it shouldn’t be on the back of first responders, who risk their lives daily,” Kozak wrote. “Instead, they should permanently redirect other sources of state revenue to local government so public safety remains funded.”
Kozak put up a billboard in Denver last year as a way to recruit law enforcement officers fed up with the laws being passed in Colorado.
“I urge the Legislature to not California our Wyoming and take care of our first responders,” Kozak wrote on Facebook.
Fremont County Fire Chief Chris Haslam shares Kozak’s concerns and asserts there’s a lack of awareness from voters who wanted property tax cuts about the services they’ll be losing. He said there may be entire fire departments in Wyoming that have to shut down as a result of the cuts.
“In the long run, if this continues forth, there will be services lost,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I don’t want to say the world’s going to end, we’re in Wyoming we’re going to figure something out. But people need to realize what services are they going to give up?”
Most of the special districts and emergency services around Wyoming say they aren’t exactly rolling in dough.
Haslam also pointed out that if a fire department’s truck goes down, it will cost more than $1 million to replace it.
Will deRyk of Palmer Canyon Rural Fire District 2F outside of Wheatland said the cut imposed by SF 69 would result in a nearly $20,000 hit to his department’s $70,000 budget.
All but two Wyoming counties are taxing the maximum number of mills on property taxes.
“This needs to be a local-level decision, this does not need to be a state-level decision,” deRyk said. “The state is not being affected by this. We’re being affected by it at a local level. If our constituents want to reduce taxes, let them come as a local, not at the state.
Haslam said in his conversations with lawmakers on this topic, “some of them get it, some of them have their minds made up.”
Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, said on the House floor Wyoming can afford to cut “a lot of fat.”
“Let’s do the work, we’re going to do this the right way,” he said. “We’re not going to take money away from the firemen, we’re not going to take money away from essential services.”
Belt Tightening
Some of the people who support SF 69 say local governments need to tighten their belts, and that many entities already have healthy reserve accounts.
The amount of money counties and special districts have in reserves has been a particular topic of debate, with some like Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne, arguing that some counties have been stowing away too much money.
Johnson told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday he wants local governments to only keep a year’s worth of expenses in reserves.
“They’re not there to save money for us, they’re there to save money wisely,” he said. “If they have excess money, it makes their job easier. They’re not there to have easy jobs.”
Johnson mentioned how Laramie County put all $32 million it collected from property taxes in reserves. Its current balance sheet shows $92 million in reserves.
“All of this ‘the sky is falling,’ if they can’t scare you they can’t control you,” Johnson said on the House floor. “Don’t get scared, the sky is not falling.”
Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, said the 50% cut offered in the bill is too much, but the Legislature must also honor the wishes of the people.
“We have a responsibility to be responsive to the voters and we have a responsibility to safeguard the finances of the state,” Kelly said.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, agreed and said there’s been inaccurate “gloom and doom” portrayed by local leaders.
He said Kozak’s comments are particularly directed at the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and inaccurate, as only the Senate and Gov. Mark Gordon has consistently rejected backfill options so far.
He also characterized the debate over SF 69 as a fight between lawmakers who want to represent their local governments and their colleagues who want to represent the people. Bear said the House should represent both.
A group of Wyoming firefighters and law enforcement officers filled the state Capitol in Cheyenne on Wednesday to protest a proposed 50% property tax cut. They say it could gut the budgets of their local departments. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
A group of Wyoming firefighters and law enforcement officers filled the state Capitol in Cheyenne on Wednesday to protest a proposed 50% property tax cut. They say it could gut the budgets of their local departments. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
A group of Wyoming firefighters and law enforcement officers filled the state Capitol in Cheyenne on Wednesday to protest a proposed 50% property tax cut. They say it could gut the budgets of their local departments. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) 
A group of Wyoming firefighters and law enforcement officers filled the state Capitol in Cheyenne on Wednesday to protest a proposed 50% property tax cut. They say it could gut the budgets of their local departments. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
The Reserves
Mineral-rich Campbell County has even more money than Laramie County in reserves at around $260 million.
Campbell County Commission Chairman Jim Ford told Cowboy State Daily this money is critical for supporting his county’s building maintenance projects. He believes a misconception exists that counties are just putting money in reserves and not designating specific purposes for it.
Ford also pointed out that state law requires local governments keep a certain amount of money saved for maintenance and operations of large capital facilities.
“It’s not for any county a bucket of cash that’s sitting there with no purpose, no job, no restrictions, no dedications,” Ford said. “These are monies that have names and have jobs.”
Ford said all but 15% of his county’s $260 million revenues are paid by the minerals industry. He doesn’t understand why people would look at having a significant amount of money in reserves as a negative.
Bear, a resident of Campbell County, said there is a local cemetery district there that has so much in reserves that it can operate off its investment earnings. But he agreed with Ford that the county must have adequate reserves to get through the boom and bust cycles of the minerals industry and applauds his commissioner’s efforts to reduce their budget.
Because of his county’s dependence on minerals, some like Ford are concerned what their budget forecasts will look like into the future as those revenues continue to shrink with the decline in coal production.
“You get one chance to tax those and let’s put that money away and realize revenues from the investment of those funds,” he said. “If we don’t mess it up, we’ll get to enjoy revenues off of those one-time minerals taxes.”
Ford questions Johnson’s perspective, which he characterized as believing his county should live “paycheck to paycheck.”
“Is there anything good about that perspective?” he questioned. “Even with the most fundamental perspective about conservative values and taxation and what should tax dollars be used for to zero out the account on the last day of the fiscal year? That is ridiculous to me.”
Commissioner John Espy represents a less affluent Carbon County, but shares many of the same concerns as Ford.
Unlike in Campbell County, Espy said his county isn’t able to fall back on large mineral revenues to help support its budget on lean years, with only about one-third of the budget supported by mineral revenues. His county has been using most of its reserves to support vehicle reserve accounts.
During leaner times, Espy said his treasurer was instructing the commissioners to not engage certain projects just so they could make payroll costs. Now, due to saving money away, the county is in a less dire position on day-to-day costs.
“So, not to have these reserves wouldn’t be prudent for our future,” he said.
Solutions Attempted
The House passed a 75% backfill for the eight poorest local governments and every special district around the state that already taxes a maximum mill levy in the supplement budget it passed last week, but there’s no guarantee this will make it into the final budget as the Senate rejected a similar measure.
Also, these local entities would have to apply for the reimbursement.
Bear also said on the House floor Monday that firefighters should also consider the property tax relief they’ll receive on their homes.
Rep. Bob Wharff, R-Evanston, went further, questioning why local counties are spending money on services like splash pads and recreation centers.
Rep. Rob Geringer, R-Cheyenne, spoke in Kozak’s defense on Wednesday and unsuccessfully brought an amendment that would have provided a $100 million backfill for all government entities that receive a cut as a result of SF 69, which he portrayed as a solution for both homeowners and local governments.
“I just wanted to get you to think about in your own communities, in your own fire districts, what kind of effect that’s going to have, what kind of effect that’s going to have on law enforcement,” he said.
Bear opposed Geringer’s amendment, mentioning how Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed a similar bill last year that provided a backfill.
“If we can’t get it past the executive, I think it’s important that we contemplate that,” Bear said. “It’s very clear how the executive feels about a backfill of this nature.”
Rep. Lee Filer, R-Cheyenne, said he randomly called five constituents recently to see how they felt about property taxes. Although they all liked the idea of tax cuts, they didn’t like the idea of longer response times from emergency services.
“Doing what’s right is being responsible,” Filer said. “We got to where we’re at in life by being responsible. Can we please be grown ups and have a true conversation about this?”
The amendment died on a 41-19 vote.
Once again, Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, brought back his blockbuster proposal to raise the state’s sales tax rate as a way of supplanting property tax cuts. After a long discussion this also failed in two separate amendments.
As written, the bill will make a $140 million hit to the School Foundation Program account, but the state is constitutionally obligated to adequately fund schools.
Some like Rep. Julie Jarvis, R-Casper, accused lawmakers of purposely drawing down the state’s savings accounts in order to defund public education and the state’s larger funding mechanisms in the long run.
“We’re not in a financial crisis but we’re about to be in a really big one,” she said. “And it was self-induced.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
