SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners meeting kicked off last week with a discussion on proposed property tax reduction bills and their potential impact on the county.
Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, attended the meeting to seek input from the commissioners on what they would want local legislators to focus put on during the current legislative session. He said property tax is going to be a priority for the state legislators, as Senate File 69, “Homeowner property tax exemption,” is being proposed this legislative session and would provide homeowners with a tax exemption of 25% for the first $2 million worth of fair market value.
Kolb said that it’s going to cost an estimated $120 million per year, $240 million per biennium, to the state if it was 100% backfilled.
“A lot of those folks, being other legislators, don’t really think about the consequences for what they’re doing… Sweetwater is unique… my constituents are more densely populated so public services are a bigger impact for them, if you were going to cut them… I don’t know how that’s going to shake with the backfilling issue, and that does dovetail into the local distribution.”
Sen. Stacy Jones, R-Rock Springs, said what she’s hearing about the bill coming up is that it will not be backfilled. Additionally, a resident-led petition called the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption” was certified by Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray last week to appear on the 2026 general election ballot. This initiative aims to cut property taxes for qualified Wyoming homeowners by 50%.
“Twenty-five percent is horrific, 50% is much worse. We all need to be accountable for the bills that we pass. I don’t think the public understands the implications of that,” Jones said.
Since the state is constitutionally required to fund public education in Wyoming, she said the schools would be backfilled but school districts would also have to tighten their belts. Kolb stated that the projections he’s hearing is that the state will run out of money for funding public education by 2030.
“I’m conservative but I also know we have to be answerable for the actions that we take,” Jones said. “To come back here and tell the residents of Sweetwater County that we’ve cut a lot of their services is not what I’m planning on doing, and I will not be voting for that.”
Chairman Keaon West said tax cuts at the state level directly impact the county, and if the county has to make cuts it will more than likely be to the outside services. Kolb said that the state and all of its counties and towns are going to have to live with less money, and that is the challenge the state legislature is facing.
“That’s the challenge, to do something that’s responsible but affordable, that’s the balance here,” Kolb said.
Sweetwater County Assessor Dave Divis said so far there have been 1,600 applications for the longtime homeowner tax exemption, which gives residents 65 and older who have paid taxes in Wyoming for 25 years and have lived in their home for eight months a 25% tax exemption. This totals to around $1.1-1.2 million that won’t be billed to residents, and there is no backfill and no sunset date on the legislation.
Divis also explained that last year there was a 4% cap placed on property taxes for residential improvements that exempted anything above a 4% increase, which had no backfill. This year, a 4% cap is being placed on the land as well, again with no backfill and no sunset date.
Further, Divis said 17% of the property taxes collected in Sweetwater County comes back to general county, and therefore county services. Commissioner Island Richards noted that Wyoming provides a lot of its services to residents through special districts, with over a couple dozen of those districts operating in Sweetwater County.
For example, Richards said the Jamestown Rio-Vista Fire District has a budget of $27,000 that they use to pay for the city’s to provide fire services to them. He questioned what incentive Green River would have to continue to provide fire services to their district if Jamestown loses 25-50% of their budget, especially when Green River would be facing the same cuts.
He said while property taxes are not the best tax there is, “it’s the tool that the Wyoming Constitution and the state legislature gives our local residents to provide themselves protective services.” He said the state has to provide a solution to this if they’re going to cut property taxes.
Sen. Jones agrees and recommended the commissioners and their constituents stay in touch with local state lawmakers to ensure their voices are being heard on this issue.
“I know we’re trying to help the public but it’s not going to help anyone if their counties can’t operate or if their citizens lose all their services,” Jones said.
Commissioner Robb Slaughter said while the county understands there is going to be less money to work with, the local governments are the ones who have to deal with communicating that to the residents, and what that means in regards to cutting services.
“That’s what seems to be missed at the legislative level,” Slaughter said. “You’re cutting a lot of the funding that comes to the local level that’s directly impacting the citizens, and we’re the ones who are on that front line that are seeing that.”
Divis urged the local state lawmakers to “pick a lane” regarding property taxes and either do just the 4% cap or just the 25% off the first $2 million of the value of the home, and not both.
“The legislature has been very vocal about supporting the bill that the governor vetoed last time, and that’s the 25% of the first $2 million of the value of the home. We’re hoping the legislature will pick a lane,” Divis said. “There were some flaws in the 4% cap, it really did help bigger homes, and if the intent was to help the little old lady on social security who is a widow and having trouble paying her tax bill, the 4% cap did not help her. It did not. It’s all based on dollar per square foot. Homes that are smaller, they’re older, they didn’t see a 4% increase in a lot of those instances. So although that legislation had good intent, it didn’t help the people it was probably targeted for.”
Divis believes the property tax refund program is the best option to help people with property taxes because it’s income based, and state revenue is used to process those refunds, not county dollars.
“If they’re going to do something, I think the 25% is the better vehicle to help people all across the board [than the 4% cap]. And again, I’m a big proponent in, the system wasn’t broken, it was fine the way it was, but people needed help. That’s why I’m such a big advocate for the refund program,” Divis said. “I’m hoping the legislature will pick a lane. Let the 4% expire, put the sunset date back on, and then put the 25% bill in place next year. I think that’s a smoother way to do it, it’s easier to explain to the taxpayer, and we’ll always lobby for the backfill, but it’s something where it’s going to affect budgets. There’s no doubt about it.”