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Wyoming State Representative Joel Guggenmos, who represents most of Riverton in the Wyoming Legislature, informed constituents at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the 25% property tax cut for owner-occupied residential property passed during the 2025 state legislature will not hurt the City of Riverton that much, “only” about $100,000, basing his estimate on numbers compiled by the State Auditor’s Office. However, he had no suggestions about how the city should replace the lost revenue nor where the city should cut its budget. Perhaps the city’s recent decision on increases in utility charges for water and trash pick-up can make up some of that difference. But that is just cost-shifting, and my understanding is that the utility charge increases are needed to cover projected costs of maintaining our water and waste disposal systems.
Whether there are any winners is unclear. Sorry, renters, you will not get a reduction. The break only applies to owner-occupied homes. The Tax Foundation, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization, ranked Wyoming 37th among states for its property taxes in 2023, so I do not understand why this became a priority, especially since Wyoming has no income tax. Wyoming has also provided other property tax breaks in recent years. At a recent webinar by the Equality State Policy Center, I learned that even the Wyoming Taxpayer’s Association is not prepared to project what the actual cumulative effect of these breaks will be for local governments.
I understand that counties are being hit harder than towns and cities by the property tax cuts. The Fremont County Commissioners have announced that they will not have funds for social services. Central Wyoming College has announced tuition fees will be increased due to the property tax cuts. There’s only so much that can be done through bake sales, raffles, contests and begging to raise money from the public at a time when the cost of living is increasing more rapidly than our incomes.
I was astounded when Rep. Guggenmos and Rep. Pepper Ottman both admitted that they did not know what the impact would be on local governments when they were voting on bills cutting property taxes back in February. They were just eager to please their constituents with property tax cuts and let the chips fall where they may. Their participation in a shell game to make themselves look good and let local governments take the heat is irresponsible.
Signed,
Chesie Lee