Wyoming 25 Percent Property Tax Cut Bill Headed To Governor Gordon

Wyoming lawmakers have signed off on a 25 percent property tax cut bill and the measure will now move on to Governor Mark Gordon.

The measure is a compromise between the House and Senate. Both houses overwhelmingly voted to approve the measure on Thursday night

The governor could sign Senate File 69, veto it or allow it to become law.

Final Version Of The Bill Is a Compromise

The compromise measure also has no sunset date and includes no backfill, or reimbursement to local governments for lost revenues.

Both legislative bodies had passed bills calling for a 50 percent cut for two years. But the big issue was backfill, or reimbursement, for local governments for lost revenues. Property tax revenues do not go to the state, but directly to local governments. While the original version of Senate File 69 included a 50 percent backfill, the was taken out of the bill by a Senate amendment. Opponents of backfill argued that including it would essentially be transferring the burden for those funds to a different revenue source rather than a true tax cut. One Senator called the idea of backfill "socialism."

The House put the back fill back into their version of the bill. Backfill supporters argued that the loss of revenues would create too much of a hardship for local governments and especially for special districts.

The final version of the bill cuts the property tax exemption in half, with the tradeoff being a 50 percent reduction in the funding hit taken by local governments.

A conference committee announced the compromise on Thursday morning. House members approved it late Thursday on a 49-7 vote, while the Senate voted for it 26-3.

Assuming the bill becomes law, it will take effect immediately.

Here is how the how the House voted:

Ayes: Allemand, Andrew, Angelos, Banks, Bear, Brady, Bratten, Brown, G, Brown, L, Byron, Campbell, K, Clouston, Connolly, Davis, Eklund, Erickson, Filer, Guggenmos, Harshman, Heiner, Hoeft, Jarvis, Johnson, Kelly, Knapp, Larsen, Larson, Lien, Locke, Lucas, McCann, Ottman, Pendergraft, Posey, Riggins, Rodriguez-Williams, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Tarver, Thayer, Washut, Wasserburger, Webb, Webber, Wharff, Williams, Wylie, Neiman
Nays: Campbell, E, Chestek, Provenza, Schmid, Sherwood, Storer, Yin
Excused: Geringer, Haroldson, Lawley, Nicholas, Singh, Winter

Here is the breakdown on the Senate vote:

Ayes: Anderson, Boner, Brennan, Cooper, Crago, Crum, Driskill, French, Gierau, Hutchings, Ide, Jones, Kolb, Landen, Laursen, McKeown, Nethercott, Olsen, Pappas, Pearson, Salazar, Schuler, Scott, Smith, Steinmetz, Biteman
Nays: Case, Hicks, Rothfuss
Excused: Barlow, Dockstader