After a period of inflation and rising home values post-pandemic, lawmakers passed a slew of property tax bills that slashed homeowners’ tax burden. Now, voters will decide if they want one more property tax cut when November arrives. The People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption is on the ballot. If passed, it would remove the ability to tax a homeowner's primary residence by 50%.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger and KHOL’s Evan Robinson-Johnson attended town halls and spoke with people for and against the measure. They spoke with WPR’s Melodie Edwards.
Melodie Edwards: Let's start with how we got here. Jordan, you made a video a while back explaining to viewers how all these tax cuts came to be. Can you give us the recap?
Jordan Uplinger: We briefly have to rewind to the COVID-19 era to understand. With an active pandemic and the government trying to respond to said pandemic, people sought an escape from more crowded conditions or state governments they saw as too overbearing with lockdowns. So, eyes turned to Wyoming. Flash forward to now, and the more people that move to Wyoming, the more property values are going up. And when property values go up, so do your property taxes. Wyoming lawmakers responded, eventually passing a cavalcade of tax exemption bills.
ME: Can you briefly list those exemptions?
JU: There were five big ones. A 50% long-term homeowner’s tax exemption, a 25% primary residence tax exemption, a 4% percent cap on annual increases to property taxes, a veteran's property tax exemption, a small business owner property tax exemption, plus various county or local-level property tax refunds. Most of these were created with the idea of providing relief to high inflation and rising property values post-COVID.
ME: And now, the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption is on the ballot in November. What is the Initiative?
Evan Robinson-Johnson: The move would remove 50% of the tax on residential structures, so on people’s homes but not the land. Here in Teton County, the median bill is the highest in the state at about $6,000. So that would go to $3,000 dollars. It would be less for counties around the rest of the state.
JU: In Albany County, they were using the example of a home valued at about $394,000. Taxes would go from about $2,700 down to $1,300.
ERJ: That would provide relief to homeowners who saw their valuations spike after the pandemic. But it would also cut $125 million from state [and local] budgets, impacting counties' ability to pay for essential services like firefighting and hospitals.
ME: There's quite a few moving parts here. Evan, you've been talking to a couple of different groups in this debate. Who got the ball rolling on this initiative in the first place?
ERJ: Brent Bien and some of his allies pushed for the ballot measure. He’s run twice for governor unsuccessfully and hasn’t held state office. That meant they had to go out and collect signatures. They fell short in 2024. But came back last year with 30,000 residents. Bien has stressed that [many] homeowners are on a fixed income. The state GOP has also signed on to support the measure.
ME: Jordan, you were on the ground with voters in Albany County during an informational town hall meeting. What was that like?
JU: Simply put, it was a big meeting with a lot of people in a pretty packed room with two big projector screens, county clerks, public interest groups and the Albany County tax assessor who all shared long PowerPoints. Whether or not [the initiative] passes, other tax exemptions will be affected. That's why it was so packed, because the situation is pretty confusing but likely affects every homeowner.
[Democratic] Rep. Ken Chestek of Laramie was at the same meeting. He straight up apologized to the county assessor for having to explain such a complex tax situation to the public over and over again.
Ken Chestek: It’s so complicated. It's so crazy. And that’s our fault, the legislators’ fault. We have made mincemeat of the assessment system, to the point where I think the system, the entire system, is in danger of being declared unconstitutional.
ME: Very interesting. After all the explainers, what was the public’s reaction?
JU: Since this was basically an informational session, the public comment section was rather short. Four speakers total, two for, two against. One of the against voices was Rachel Crocker, the Albany County library director. She said without that revenue, the library would have to cut projects and possibly scale back their offerings.
Rachel Crocker: Today, I had an amazing conversation with an employee about how we can expand outreach services, how we could go deliver books and who else we could reach out to. And immediately, [I] said, ‘If the People’s Initiative passes, this conversation stops. We’re locked in where we’re at. We can’t expand anymore.’
JU: One of the in-favor voices was Mark Armstrong, who won the Republican primary for Albany County clerk. He argued that the government had plenty of money in savings accounts and the revenue to sustain property tax cuts. Now, regardless of how much money might be in the pocket of your county or town, Armstrong argues the path forward is for communities to prepare to spend less.
Mark Armstrong: This might not pass in Albany County, but it’s going to pass in the state. So we need to start thinking about cuts.
JU: Afterwards, an unnamed attendee told me they hoped this meeting would spark a chain of similar meetings in counties around the state. But that same person said they understand most Wyoming towns aren’t politically aligned with Laramie, kind of a callback to Armstrong’s answer.
ME: Bringing us back to that Prop 1 vote. In recent weeks, the campaign against the property tax cut has really ramped up. Evan, you reported that the ‘Vote NO On Prop 1’ initiative plans to spend at least $1 million educating residents.
ERJ: Yes, this group includes educators, hospital leaders, the taxpayers association and most recently Wyoming Realtors. All say there isn’t a clear plan to replace the revenue that counties would lose and that would hurt local services, including their members. Angela Wilson is the president of Wyoming Realtors.
Angela Wilson: There is no backfill for this. How are some of these smaller communities in Wyoming going tobe able to continue to do roads, hospitals, schools? I know in my community, I'm in Sweetwater County. We've had a ton of school programs that have been cut. [In] Rock Springs, a civic center has closed. So if we continue to do a mass 50% across the board, how much more is that gonna affect communities?
ERJ: They recognize it’s a tough argument: Nobody wants to pay more in taxes. But the realtors group said the need for reliable local services, like police and weed and pest control, is greater. They’re hoping the educational campaign helps win over some of the 15% of voters who backed the original petition and counting on those who haven’t yet weighed in to kill the measure.
You can find more information about Wyoming’s 2026 general election on our How Do I Vote? Page.
