SWEETWATER COUNTY –– As local governments begin diving into their budget discussions, one thing is abundantly clear for elected officials – it’s going to be tough.

While speaking about a potential cost of living allocation for county employees Tuesday. The upcoming budget work was described as difficult and scary by commissioners, with money to be on shorter supply after a series of bills passed by the Wyoming Legislature will cut into how much property tax will be generated by cities, towns and counties.

Sweetwater County Assessor Dave Divis, appearing with TRN Media’s Al Harris on his “Let’s Talk” program Wednesday morning, said the amount of residential assessed property value decreased from approximately $315 million to $168 million.

“We lost $146 million of assessed value that we were going to levy a mill against to provide services and it affected everybody all across the board,” Divis said. 

The mill levies from those assessments go to school districts, special districts such as hospital and fire districts, and other local governing bodies. While residential property tax amounts will go down, Divis also notes the mineral values are also decreasing in Sweetwater County, with the decline being approximately $273 million. Divis doesn’t envy what the county commissioners will face during their upcoming budget deliberations. 

“Being a county commissioner right now is going to be extremely difficult,” he said.

Divis notes the residential portion is different from the minerals portion of the overall funding scheme for Sweetwater County. Historically, mineral values trend up and down, with the county typically putting away excess revenue during those good times for periods of decline. The residential tax declines are unique in that only the long-running veterans’ exception is backfilled by the state – a funding backfill for other expectations that cut into property taxes did not have language dictating the state would pay the lost revenue to local governments. Divis said legislators won’t have to make any of the tough decisions local governments face, with city councils, county commissioners and special district boards being forced to make decisions and what gets cut.

“We used to get unfunded mandates where the legislature would make us do stuff without providing funding to provide the service,” Divis said. “They’ve unfunded us and we still have to provide the services.”

For the county, the decline is estimated to be about $4 million from last year, though Divis said the final numbers haven’t solidified yet. That money is what’s used to fund the county’s operations, including the library system, sheriff’s office, detention center, and hospital maintenance fund.

Divis admits one of the frustrations he has is that people claim they’re being taxed on an unrealized gain when property taxes increase. Unrealized gains are for income tax and don’t apply to property taxes. He said assessed property values can increase, but are used by the counties to generate tax revenue to fund services like law enforcement, road repairs, and other needs.

“For me, it doesn’t hold water because, again, it provides services,” Divis said.