Lawley addresses property tax bills

This week the Wyoming Senate bills moved over to the House for review and vote. 

Representative Martha Lawley, R-Worland, addressed some of the senate and house bills regarding property taxes. 

SF0069-Homeowner property tax exemption 

The bill reads in part: “AN ACT relating to taxation; establishing a homeowner property tax exemption; specifying applicability; providing a sunset date; and providing for an effective date.”

Lawley called it “one of the most important bills coming out of the Senate,” adding I am just beginning the process of reviewing Senate files coming to the House. Up until now, my main focus has been my committee work and working on the supplemental budget.”  

She explained the bill this way: “069 is a Revenue Committee bill that began as a 25% property tax exemption on the first $2 million of property valuation for all residential property owners with backfill to local government entities (cities, counties, and special districts). 

“The Senate amended the bill to increase the exemption to 50% and completely eliminated the backfill provisions. The exemption is for two years and includes rental property.” 

She continued, “I cannot support this bill or any other property tax relief bill that does not include significant backfill for hardship counties such as Washakie and Big Horn counties. SF 069 as it currently reads is a two-year, 50% property tax reduction without backfill.

“I have heard from local leaders in my district who are very concerned about the changes the Senate made in this bill. It is damaging to local governments and is particularly devastating to hardship counties like Washakie and Big Horn counties. Increasing the exemption and taking out the back fill is not the right direction.”

The hardship counties are: Big Horn, Crook, Goshen, Hot Springs, Niobrara, Platte, Washakie and Weston. 

HB0169 – Homeowner tax exemption 2025 and 2026 

The bill reads in part, “AN ACT relating to taxation; establishing a homeowner property tax exemption; specifying applicability; providing a sunset date; providing legislative findings; providing appropriations; and providing for an effective date.” 

Lawley explained HB 0169 provides for a 50% property tax exemption for the first $1 million of property value for all homeowners for two years with a 50% backfill for local government entities. She continued that she voted against the bill. “Because it did not provide $100% backfill for hardship counties. I supported an amendment to

this bill to give hardship counties full backfill, but that amendment was defeated. The lack of full backfill will result in great financial stress for hardship counties that will result in reduction of services for those counties. Additionally, this bill gives a big tax break for Teton County residents who do not need a tax break.”  

The differences between the two bills are the backfill and the property valuation. The Senate bill calls for $2 million of property value. The House bill calls for $1 million of property value. 

The representative believes that the final bill will be a combination of SF0069 and HB0169 in a conference committee. 

HB0282-property tax-acquisition value

The bill reads in part: “AN ACT relating to ad valorem taxation; establishing a rebuttable presumption in favor of acquisition value for specified real property; clarifying the use, disclosure and confidentiality of sworn statements for specified real property; providing definitions; making conforming amendments; requiring rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.”

HB 282 Acquisition Valuation would change the way Wyoming values it residential property for taxation. This is what California did a number of years ago that was referred to as Proposition 13, which was a state constitutional amendment. There are some serious Wyoming constitutional issues with this approach, just as there was in California where they ultimately had to change their state constitution. A constitutional challenge will result in substantial delay and will likely result in the bill being overturned by the Wyoming Supreme Court. If you are interested in this issue, I suggest watching the House Revenue Committee meeting on this bill for more information. I am not sure what the Senate will do with this bill. I did not support this bill because there was no provision for backfill for hardship counties.”

When asked how this will help property owners, Lawley replied, “Depends on how long you own your home, the purchase price of your home, and what happens to property values in the future. Under certain circumstances, it will help certain property owners; in other circumstances it will hurt certain property owners.” 

She added, “This is a major change in tax policy and it’s hard to predict how it will affect hardship counties. But it will have a negative effect on the front end.” 

SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET

Addressing the budget Lawley explained, “It is a fiscally conservative budget but there are areas of the budget where we may be penny wise and pound foolish. Time will tell. I am looking forward to seeing how the conference committee with JT Appropriations goes. Changes by this legislature to the supplemental budget reflect fiscal restraint. We have some revenue forecasts that shows declining revenue from the energy 3 sector. One exception to this fiscal restraint was a proposal for the shooting complex. I was successful in getting a budget footnote deleted that would have taken away school districts’ authority to use 10% of their maintenance funds to do enhancements. This was an inappropriate action to take in a budget footnote.

“Deleting it restored school boards’ flexibility. Senator Cooper and I brought mirror amendments to the supplemental budget that established a competitive grant for School Resource Officers. This would help districts respond to potential safety and security threats that could result from elimination of gun free zones (HB 172), which passed the House.” 

HB0199-Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act

The bill reads in part: “An ACT relating to education; modifying the education savings accounts program; changing the name of the program to the Wyoming freedom scholarship act; creating the Wyoming freedom scholarship program account; modifying distribution of state funds; modifying definitions; increasing the maximum scholarship award; modifying eligibility requirements; repealing provisions; providing appropriations; making conforming amendments; and providing for an effective date.”

Recent TV ads on Utah TV stations urged residents to tell their state senators to vote for HB-0199. The ad is sponsored by Club for Growth. This group’s address and phone number are in Washington DC. 

The bill passed the House and is now in the Senate. Lawley expressed, “Yes, there is a very big push on SF 199. Let’s see if the Senate is able to provide accountability and oversight over the spending of taxpayer funds.” 

SPONSORED BILLS 

Lawley sponsored six Bills this session. “Five of my bills have been passed by the House and accepted by the Senate.”

These Bills include HB 41 - Environmental Quality – Irrevocable Letters of Credit; HB 42 - Regulation of Surgical Abortions; HB 43 -  Age verification for websites with harmful material; HB 60 - Student eligibility in sports - amendment; HB 72 - Protecting Women’s Privacy.

A sixth bill, HB 170 - Nonprofit and trust entities-effective time for documents, did not advance. 

“I will be focusing a lot of attention on getting those through the Senate. I am beginning to focus on the Senate files that are being read into the House and assigned to committees.”