CHEYENNE — The University of Wyoming owes the City of Laramie and Albany County millions of dollars in lost property taxes, Mike Schilt said last week. And the citizens of Laramie would prefer the payments be in cash.
A Laramie native, Schilt testified before the mostly sympathetic members of the Legislature’s Joint Revenue committee. He came loaded for debate, with lots of statistics, reports and handouts for the legislators.
Accompanying him was Albany County Assessor Chelsie Matthews, who said she was there “to support Mike.”
At issue was a bill that would have restricted property tax exemptions on land or property acquired by government entities for “governmental purposes.”
Schilt said the amount of property tax income lost to the City of Laramie and to Albany County from the University of Wyoming exemption totals about $4 million to more than $5 million a year.
“It doesn’t play well in Laramie,” he said of the lost income.
When asked what could be done to make up for the deficit, he said; “Laramie residents want to be repaid, not with basketball games or symphonies but with cash.”
He also said the university should pay the Laramie City Fire Department for serving UW buildings as it did years ago under a special contract.
Enacted in 1998, the agreement called for the university to dedicate revenue from one cent of the property tax to the city for fire suppression.
During the five-year period the contract was in effect, the university also paid $200,000 toward the $800,000 cost of a new ladder truck.
The ladder was needed to reach the higher floors of the newer buildings, Schilt said.
The contract expired in 2003. Since then the city of Laramie has been footing the cost of answering fire and medical calls to the university.
During the five years after the contract expired the fire department answered 283 calls from the university for assistance.
The story of Laramie and Albany County losing money over the university exemption is not new.
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, a member of the revenue committee said a former legislator, Sen. Phil Nicholas, a Laramie lawyer, “worked tirelessly” to find a financial solution. One answer was the direct distribution program of state money doled out according to the “Madden formula.”
The formula was a complicated system, developed by former Rep. Mike Madden, a Buffalo retired economics professor, that mixed together population and revenue and poverty levels to determine the amount allocated to each town and county.
For example — In the current 2026 fiscal year the City of Laramie with a population of 31,000 plus will receive $2.3 million.
Cheyenne, with a population of 65,000 plus, double that of Laramie, but with a robust economy, will collect only $3.4 million, which is not double.
Case said the program helps but doesn’t entirely address the equity problem.
During the discussion, committee members had various questions about university ownership and the tax exemption. One concerned the “president’s cabin” west of Laramie; another was why the university owned land with two restaurants on it.
Matthews answered the latter, saying that apparently the university will in the future bulldoze the buildings as part of an expansion project. But no one had the answer to the tax status of “the president’s cabin.”
Committee co-chairman Tony Locke, R-Natrona, invited presenters to introduce the committee members to the issue of “governmental purpose,” because it may be an interim topic nest year.
There was no need to make a decision this year, after the committee voted 7-6 to table the bill, which put it on ice.
The close vote indicates interest in moving ahead with the gnarly topic and all those questions about the university.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
