Lawmaker elaborates on plan to eventually eliminate property tax

GILLETTE — While the property tax exemption bills — mainly Senate File 69 — dominated headlines, there was another bill, House Bill 282, that some lawmakers believe is the bridge that Wyoming needs to get to a world where homeowners don’t have to pay any property taxes.

A handful of Campbell County legislators met with county commissioners last week to talk about property taxes.

The Wyoming Legislature passed a 25% property tax exemption on residential property. In the 2026 general election, a 50% property tax exemption ballot initiative will go before voters.

Rep. Ken Clouston, R-Gillette, said it’s unknown whether the 50% exemption, if passed, would be cumulative. In other words, would it be on top of the 25% exemption that the legislators passed this year?

“I’d argue that is not going to be cumulative,” said Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette. “If this were to pass, it has to come back to the Legislature, and we’re going to determine how it’s going to be implemented.”

Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette, said this is “a medium sized Band-Aid,” and that over time, inflation will “start to correct,” and energy will come back thanks to the administration so “we can start creating revenues again.”

But while these exemptions offer some relief, the state needs to make some long-lasting change, Bear added.

“We’re Band-Aiding it right now with these exemptions, but ultimately we need to have some reform and get away from these exemptions,” he said.

He elaborated on House Bill 282, “property tax-acquisition value,” which was approved by the House but died in the Senate. In this bill, a property’s assessed value would be set at its market value at the time the property was acquired.

What Wyoming ran into – starting with the COVID-19 pandemic – is people from out of state moving in and paying high prices for homes, raising the property values, and the property taxes, of the neighboring homeowners.

“You’ve been here 30 years, and your property taxes are skyrocketing because of other people’s actions,” Bear said.

With what House Bill 282 proposed, the county assessor would base people’s property values based on what they purchased the property for, with some built-in element for inflation year after year, so “it wouldn’t matter what your neighbors paid for their properties,” Bear said.

There are a lot of issues that have to be figured out if Wyoming moves to this system, Bear said, adding that the state is “probably a few years from seeing that actually come to fruition.”

“The long run, where we’re trying to end up, is eliminating the property tax,” Bear said, calling it a tax on “unrealized income.”

Commissioner Jim Ford pushed back on this idea.

“I’d argue it’s not a tax on unrealized income, it’s always served to be more of a proxy against cost of services that those taxes go to pay for,” Ford said.

Property taxes aren’t the only thing that are going up, he added. The cost for governments to provide services also is going up.

“To lock property tax collections down to 1973 values when that homeowner is paying for services on 2025 costs, that’s going to pose a problem, the inequity is just one of them,” he said.

“No denial of that, that’s why, ultimately we’re going to get rid of property taxes,” Bear said. “You’re definitely being taxed on unrealized income, that’s just a fact.”

Bear said the property tax, if eliminated, would be replaced with a consumption tax, which is a tax on what people spend instead of what they earn. Sales tax is a type of consumption tax, and it would have to go up in the absence of property tax.

“If people have to pay 2% more on everything, do they start changing their buying habits? I would argue no, but we’d have to study it to see,” he said.

This story was published on April 8, 2025.