 - Fremont County’s total assessed value is expected to increase this year, Assessor Tara Berg reported this month.){kind=link}
(Lander, WY) – Fremont County’s total assessed value is expected to increase this year, Assessor Tara Berg reported this month.
She shared estimates with the Fremont County Commission last week projecting that Fremont County’s total assessed value would be set at around $733.2 million for 2026 – up from $696.25 million in 2025.
Both totals represent a decrease from previous years, however, when Fremont County’s assessed value was set at $851.2 million (2024) and $1.04 billion (2023), according to Berg’s report.
Exemption applications
Looking at just the locally assessed values on her chart, Berg pointed out that the most “significant” increase projected for 2026 involves residential property.
That increase is largely due to the low number of applications that came in for the 25 percent property tax exemption on residential properties this year, Berg said.
That exemption was automatically applied to all residential properties in 2025, she explained – but for 2026, it only covers primary residences that are owner-occupied for at least eight months out of the year.
Because of the new eligibility restrictions, Berg said property owners had to apply for the 25 percent exemption in 2026 – but some people failed to do so, despite multiple notices from the assessor’s office.
“You’ve probably gotten phone calls on that,” Berg told the Commission last week. “A lot of people didn’t (apply).”
On Monday, she noted that some residential property owners didn’t apply for the exemption this year because they were no longer eligible for it based on the new restrictions.
Regardless, Berg’s report shows that, while the 25 percent property tax exemption for residential property resulted in a $70.8 million loss in assessed value for Fremont County last year, equating to $5.38 million in tax dollars, those numbers are expected to be much lower for 2026, when estimates indicate that the 25 percent exemption will result in a $15.4 million loss in assessed value for Fremont County, equating to about $1.2 million in tax dollars.
Other exemptions
The impact of the 4 percent cap on residential property tax increases is expected to stay about the same this year, according to Berg’s report, but she projects additional losses in revenue related to the 50 percent property tax exemption for long-term homeowners compared to 2025.
About 300 new applications came in for the long-term homeowners exemption from newly-qualified individuals this year, Berg explained.
The “personal property” line item that appears in the chart for 2026 represents a new exemption that was implemented this year impacting “every personal property account we tax for business equipment and farm and ranch equipment and oil and gas equipment,” she noted.
“Every corporation gets a $75,000 market exemption,” Berg said.