Income caps. Refund programs. Sunset dates. Between 145% and 165% of median income. Residency requirements. Asset limits.

Wouldn’t it be better for Wyoming if the property tax system got a little less complex?

That’s the question Sen. Bob Ide (R-Casper) put to the interim Joint Revenue Committee on June 3.

“For the common person to understand what their property taxes are – I mean, you have to hire teachers,” said Ide.

His solution? Amend Article 15 of the Wyoming Constitution to do away with any and all language outlining the state’s property tax system, and leave it up to the Legislature to bring it back or leave it out in the cold of a Wyoming snowdrift.

That’s after Wyoming replenished its property tax refund program and cut property taxes for homeowners by 25% of the first $1 million of their home’s assessed value in recent legislative sessions.

Towns, counties and special districts have of late been scrambling to cut services to address budget shortfalls caused by the tax cuts.

“I think that we've been given property tax relief,” Ide said. “I'm looking at property tax reform.”

After Ide motioned to have the nonpartisan Legislative Service Office (LSO) draft a bill tackling the Article 15 amendment, his fellow lawmakers on the committee voted 11 to 3 to give it the green light.

But some of them also expressed concern about the drastic change, which would need to be approved by two thirds of House and Senate members and a simple majority of Wyomingites in an election to actually take effect. It’s unclear if the bill would have the votes needed to clear those hurdles in the Legislature, and the upcoming budget session has a higher bar for individual legislation to even be introduced.

“I think we’re kind of tangling up different concepts here,” said Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander). “One thing we’re tangling up is the distribution of the property tax between counties, and the fact that wealth is different across the state. The largest driver of that is minerals, and the second largest driver is scenic towns. So, you know, we talk about, ‘Well, let's just get rid of all that.’ It's not fair to counties. Some have a lot of money. Some don't.”

Case also expressed bewilderment that legislators would want to undo years of work to make high property tax rates in some parts of the state more manageable for constituents.

“We've got complicated things on the book that we created, that people in this room created, and we're mad about that,” he said. “That's what happens when you throw bills out there, and vote on bills, and get the public behind them, and then get them out and passed without really thinking of the ramifications. We need to study the topic first before we throw a resolution out to eliminate property taxes from the Constitution.”

In his pitch to the committee, Ide mentioned raising sales tax in the state to try and fill in the gaps left by abolishing property tax.

“It should be up to the Legislature to look at a consumption tax, a sales tax,” said Ide, who supports another hot-button overhaul of state processes: returning swaths of federal land to the state’s control. “It's the only way we're going to muck out all of this layered minutia of property taxes. It's really the only fair way to go. At least you have a choice on a consumption tax.”

But Case pushed back on that notion, too.

“Consumption taxes are regressive,” he said. “They hit poor people harder, because they spend more of their income.”

A potential amendment to the Constitution was far from the only draft policy under consideration by the committee to lessen property tax across the state. They also voted to draft bills to expand the reach of the 25% property tax cut for residential property passed in the last session. They’d do that by eliminating a requirement that Wyomingites need to have lived in their home for at least eight months of the year to qualify for the 25% cut.

Lawmakers also voted to draft a bill that would remove the sunset date of July 1, 2027, from a property tax exemption for long-term homeowners, a policy that passed in 2024.

The Joint Revenue Committee will meet again on August 21 and 22 in Casper to consider all three drafted proposals.

This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.