Ballot Initiative Would Slash Wyoming Homeowner Property Taxes

A drive is underway to give qualified Wyoming homeowners a 50 percent exemption on property taxes.

Supporters are hoping to get the '“People's Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner's Exemption” before state voters in 2024. If approved by voters it would slash 50 percent of fair market value from a property owner's primary residence for tax purposes. It would only apply to residential property taxes.

To qualify for the exemption, the property owner would have to have lived in Wyoming for a year and have owned the property for at least 6 months. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray certified the initiative on September 25.

Supporters will have eighteen months to get the required number of signatures to put the measure on the ballot. To get an initiative on the ballot in Wyoming, supporters must get at least 15 percent of registered voters in two-thirds of the state's 23 counties to sign a petition.

Once that happens, the proposal is submitted to the Secretary of State's Office to verify the signatures.

If it gets on the ballot, initiatives in Wyoming require yes votes from a majority of those casting a ballot in the general election--not just of those casting a vote on the measure. That essentially means people who vote in an election, but don't vote specifically on the initiative end up counting as "no" votes. Because of the hurdles that must be overcome, Wyoming is generally considered to be one of the more difficult states in which to get ballot initiatives approved.

Marilyn Burden, co-captain of the petition drive in Laramie County, recently called into the ''Weekend in Wyoming" program on am 650, KGAB, to discuss the initiative.