Major Changes Made To Popular Wyoming Tax Relief Bill

Any bill that makes it to a committee, and then through the legislative process, will not look the same when it comes out.

That's what has happened to a property tax proposal that has had Wyoming buzzing about what a radical change it would be for the state of Wyoming.

The original bill would have eliminated property taxes for about 97% of Wyoming homeowners.

That property tax would have been replaced by a 2% sales tax.

Up to 15% of sales tax in Wyoming is collected from tourism, so the bill would have spread the collections across a much larger population than just Wyoming citizens.

The money would have been collected by the state and distributed to the counties, which is much different than counties collecting property taxes for local use.

Originally the bill, offered up by Rep. Steve Harshman’s House Bill 203, would have affected anyone who had a home and property worth $1 million or less.

But on Monday an amendment was passed lowering the value of the homes affected to under $200,000.

The sales tax was then lowered from 2% to 1%.

The idea is to set up a scenario where property tax revenues aren’t at risk and at the same time homeowners would still get some kind of a break.

Homes over $200,000 would still get a break, but not zero property tax.

Not everybody was happy with this reduction, but it passed on a 34-27 vote.

Other objections were in regards to when this new tax law would take effect. HB 203 will have to wait until 2025 and sunset in 2027.

Some legislators spoke out saying that people could lose their homes while waiting for the law to take effect.