Tell the legislature's Revenue committee: DON'T DEFUND OUR COMMUNITIES
ISSUE OVERVIEW
As home prices in Wyoming have increased dramatically in recent years, so, too, have property tax bills, since the amount in taxes that homeowners are charged is based on the value of their home.
Prior to the takeover of the Legislature by the Freedom Caucus, lawmakers passed several incremental, targeted property tax relief measures to address this issue.
Now that the Freedom Caucus is in charge, however, lawmakers have decided that property tax cuts are a handy issue they can tout on the campaign trail, and they promise their constituents that property tax cuts are free money with no consequences. They have discarded the scalpel in favor of a broad axe, and last year made a sweeping 25% across-the-board cut. Looking ahead, a question of whether to implement a 50% property tax cut will be on the 2026 ballot, and the Revenue Committee has advanced a bill to abolish property taxes entirely.
Learn more about the background of this issue here:
"Interim Spotlight - Property taxes"
Property Tax Turmoil - WyoFile
STRATEGY: NUMBERS MATTER
The Revenue Committee is made up mostly—but not entirely—of Freedom Caucus lawmakers. When it comes to contacting them, numbers matter.
Lawmakers like to pretend that all people in Wyoming care about is lower taxes. They hear about the impacts of property tax cuts from "officials" who spend tax dollars—county commissioners, hospital board members, city councilors—but rarely from everyday tax payers and homeowners. We need to let them know that there are lots of people in Wyoming who care about responsible government and making sure our communities have the things they need to function.
Do not spend 20 minutes crafting your email. Instead, spend 5 minutes writing it and 15 minutes sending this link to other people in Wyoming asking them to speak up.
https://betterwyo.org/property-tax-call-to-action/
YOUR MESSAGE
The form above provides a quick and easy way to send a clear message to all 13 members of the Legislature's Joint Revenue Committee at once.
Keep it simple. Your message should contain three short parts.
1. Who you are: My name is ______. I’m a Wyoming voter and I live in _______.
2. What you want: I am writing today to ask you to not defund our communities through reckless property tax cuts.
3. Why you want it: Include a few (brief!) lines about why you, as a tax payer, think its important to keep property taxes. Let them know about the services that are funded by property taxes benefit you and your communities.
IMPORTANT: Be respectful. This is not a matter of whether you like a politician or their policies. It's a question of our effectiveness as a movement. Make your argument and tell your story. No name-calling, and keep it civil.
TALKING POINTS
Wyoming communities, and the services that we all rely on, are funded by property taxes.
Without these funds, our communities will be weaker, and other taxes will have to go up (by up to 100%).
- Essential services will suffer, including:
- Schools
- Public Libraries
- Community Colleges
- Special districts (including hospital and cemetery districts)
- Parks and recreation
- Roads, bridges, and other infrastructure
These funds support our children’s and communities’ futures.
Without property taxes, we’re just putting a burden on future generations.
- Right now, cuts to K-12 schools are backfilled by the state, but only until the “Rainy Day Fund” that does that back-filling runs out. That won’t take long at the rate we’re going.
- The cuts are already harming the community colleges that prepare young people for the workforce and help keep them in Wyoming.
- Property taxes are how our communities budget ahead. Cutting them now will have a negative impact on our future.
- Irresponsible lawmakers are trying to defund our communities and our children’s futures by throwing away money. We’ve worked too hard to abandon our future like that.
Dishonest lawmakers are using property tax cuts as a campaign issue.
The legislators trying to cut or abolish property taxes are being untruthful about the impact these cuts will have on communities.
- Wyoming has one of the lowest median property tax rates in the country.
- Property taxes have already been adjusted for lower-income people, veterans, and seniors.
- Cutting property taxes allows the state legislature to weaken local, community governments. The services supported by property taxes are overseen by local lawmakers - our neighbors, who are closest to the people they serve.
SHARE THIS LINK
No matter how passionate or reasonable your individual argument, that’s not what is going to make an impact.
Only sheer numbers have the ability to convince lawmakers that the people of Wyoming actually disagree with a tax cut.
Send this link to 10 (or 100!) other people in Wyoming and ask them to speak up along with you!