Wyoming’s governor is asking a court to undo the actions of a tax board under his purview, saying the board exceeded its law-given authority by not accepting a limit on how much property taxes can increase each year.
Gov. Mark Gordon filed a motion Tuesday for the Laramie County District Court to deem Wyoming’s 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property tax assessed values constitutional.
He also asked the court to block the actions of the State Board of Equalization.
The board had issued a report Thursday calling the 4% cap —‚ which has been state law in some form since 2024 — unconstitutional. The board warned county assessors that if the cap is included in their property tax calculations for this year, the board won’t certify those residential property tax values.
That decision came from the two board members who participated in the tax value examination last year: Chair E. Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog.
The third board member, Karl Anderson, did not participate in that evaluation and so didn’t sign the Thursday report.
Expects To Move
The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.
But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.
Also, the board has undertaken its work with counties, and on Monday declined to certify residential property tax values for Campbell, Hot Springs, and Sublette counties on the basis that it believes the exemptions the counties calculated under state law are unconstitutional, says the governor's complaint.
Gordon’s Tuesday legal filing calls the board's actions “ultra vires,” or exceeding the board’s property authority. It asks the court to void the board’s actions.
The Wyoming Constitution requires the governor to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” the governor’s court filing says.
The State Board of Equalization falls under the executive branch.
Unprecedented
This maneuver is unprecedented, the governor’s court challenge says.
“In the past twenty years, the Board has only delayed certification of values on one occasion,” says the filing. That was in 2006 when the board required one county to equalize its property valuations.
“In that time, it has never declined to certify values,” says the filing.
Besides urging the court to keep the tax board under its limited executive-branch authority, Gordon’s complaint also asserts that a clause of the Wyoming Constitution justifies the 4% tax cap.
Wyoming Constitution Article 15, Section 12, says the Legislature may by law provide for exemptions on “such other property” beyond churches, cemeteries and libraries.
The board’s Thursday report had addressed that section, but said it wasn’t enough to overcome another sections’ call for all taxation within property tax classes to be “equal and uniform.”
Wyoming Attorney General Senior Assistant James Peters signed Gordon’s Tuesday court filing.
The filing also lists as counsel Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, and Deputy AG Mackenzie Williams.
Counties Like This
Because Gordon's filing is, in part, a request for the court to lend clarity to this issue, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association voiced approval of the action Tuesday.
"It is important that counties, assessors and taxpayers have clear direction as they move through the annual assessment and certification process," said WCCA Executive Director Jerimiah Rieman in a statement. "The Legislature adopted the 4% cap, and counties have worked in good faith to implement that law. We support efforts to obtain timely clarification from the courts so local governments can continue administering Wyoming's property tax system with consistency and confidence."
Uncertainty in applying the cap could create significant administrative challenges for counties, including recalculating assessments, revising assessment schedules, processing appeals and updating tax notices, the statement says. It adds, "Counties also face potential increases in staffing, technology and mailing costs if significant changes occur after assessments have already been completed."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
