CHEYENNE - All taxpayers should get behind the drive for more clarity concerning the dollar impact of a radical tax amendment on the Nov. 3rd General Election ballot.
That election is not so far off. The constitutional amendment, if adopted by voters, would exempt 50 percent of the assessed value of primary residences if the owner has lived in the state for one year and occupies the home for at least six months a year.
This would be in addition to the 4-percent cap on property tax increases passed by the Legislature two years ago, and now in a legal dispute before the state Board of Equalization.
And a 25-percent property tax cut passed into law in 2025.
Property taxpayers like me are confused.
We need to know the total cost to get out of the property tax reform swamp.
Property taxes pay a large share of the cost of public schools.
That lost property tax money will need to be replaced — back-filled — most likely by sales taxes.
We need to know how much.
A coalition called “Vote NO on #1 Initiative” wants clarity on the numbers so they can push their campaign to kill the amendment.
Brent Bien was listed on the Secretary of State’s election page as a member the committee that got the necessary number of signatures from voters to get it on the ballot.
Bien, a retired Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran, is also one of four Republican candidates for governor in next month’s primary election.
His campaign page on the internet says he was instrumental in getting “The People’s Property Tax Initiative” on the ballot.
The coalition, meanwhile, also includes the Wyoming Taxpayers Association and the Wyoming Voter Network, a Lander organization.
They said Secretary of of State Chuck Gray’s language on the ballot initiative regarding the financial impact is deceptive.
Gray, according to an account in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, acknowledged the difference, but claimed his version was developed according to state statute.
Gray’s version said the loss in property tax revenue would be $92.6 million in fiscal year 2028, the year that, if passed, the change would take effect.
But this version included only potential impacts to state programs like educational funding.
In early June, during a meeting of the Joint Appropriations Committee, officials from the Department of Revenue presented figures from its independent analysis of the amendment.
The conclusion was it could mean a loss as high as $124.7 million in fiscal year 2028.
The $32 million difference is because the Revenue Department’s estimates included loss in both state and local services.
The Wyoming Constitution required the state to fund essential services like education, regardless of changes in property tax revenue .
The coalition sent a letter to Gray, specifically seeking to determine how the Secretary of State’s Office arrived at its lower estimate.
“I don’t think we have the full answers of, quite frankly, what the fiscal impact of the ballot initiative is,” Hank Hoversland, executive director of the Wyoming Taxpayers Association, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Hoversland, who formerly worked at the Legislative Service Office as a fiscal analyst, noted that legislative fiscal notes usually inform lawmakers of increased expenditures requiring a back-fill of revenue losses, particularly for the School Foundation Program.
“Voters should have all the information that legislators have when they vote on issues and bills on the floor of the House or the Senate,” Hoversland said,according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
The coalition’s treasurer, Jerry Obermueller, a retired Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and former state representative, said these omissions prevent an informed vote.
“Voters should understand if and how this ballot measure will impact their home resale values, neighborhood schools, roads, emergency services, and law enforcement,” Obermueller said.
The danger of a ballot proposition like Initiative #1 is that people will think this is a really good deal and will vote for it.
What can go wrong with another property tax cut?
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
