Voters pass property tax amendment

CHEYENNE — On Tuesday, Wyoming voters approved a constitutional amendment that separates residential real property into its own class — separate from commercial or industrial property — for the purpose of property tax assessments.

This gives the Legislature the authority to change residential property taxes without affecting commercial property taxes, if it chooses to do so.

Constitutional Amendment A passed by a vote of 146,300 to 100,375, according to results posted on the Wyoming Secretary of State’s website. 

Laramie County voters supported it by a tally of 25,769 to 15,722.

Under this amendment, a decrease in taxes would only apply to a person’s primary residence, and exclude second homes, vacation homes and properties that are rented.

For many Wyoming residents, this could result in lower taxes. However, some counties and municipalities have expressed concern about how this could impact their budgets.

Property taxes are used to fund services like the fire department, police department, library and education. 

Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins previously told the WTE that while he empathizes with residents who may struggle to pay their taxes, he’s concerned about the city’s ability to provide adequate services if property tax revenue decreases and is not backfilled by the state.

In Cheyenne, property taxes are the city’s second- largest source of revenue at 12%. Collins said that if revenues drop, the city will likely have to make personnel cuts.

State Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, initially brought the idea for the constitutional amendment to the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee in March 2023. The idea was in response to the recent surges in residential property taxes. 

Between 2021 and 2022, total residential value across the state increased 16.17%, meaning property taxes increased as well. This was the most it has increased in two years between 2014 and 2022.

Yin said it’s too early to tell where additional funds will come from to supplement potential county and municipal losses in revenue if property taxes are lowered. They could be backfilled by the state, supplemented by increased commercial or industrial taxes or some other option. He speculated that the item will likely be discussed as an interim topic to identify the best options.

“My advocacy is going to be toward making sure people stay in their homes. And that’s not going to happen if we raise taxes. It’s only going to happen if we lower them on the residential side,” he said.

Currently, commercial and residential property are taxed at a 9.5% rate. A stipulation in the amendment notes that the residential tax rate shall not be greater than four percentage points lower than the industrial tax rate of 11.5%. 

Therefore, the Legislature could decide to decrease the property taxes by at most 2 percentage points.

Some have expressed concern about Wyoming’s ability to continue to attract businesses, like Microsoft or Meta data centers in Cheyenne, if the Legislature were to raise their property taxes.

Yin said he believes it is more important to make Wyoming a more affordable place to live to foster a more robust workforce. Once that happens, he believes businesses will be attracted to the Cowboy State for its growing workforce.

“If people don’t live in Wyoming, then they’re not going to do business in Wyoming,” he said. “So, I think that should be our number one goal.”

According to recent reporting by WyoFile.com, “a political action committee tied to a statewide real estate group spent half a million dollars since late September backing a constitutional amendment on November’s ballot aimed at property tax reform — an extraordinary amount of money for Wyoming elections in a short period of time.

“Affiliated with Wyoming Realtors, the 4 Wyoming PAC spent about $544,000 on advertising, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office last week.”

It is unclear at this point when the Legislature might begin discussions on potentially adjusting property tax rates in Wyoming.