Wyoming legislators need to enact sensible legislation to limit the amount of increase to a property owner’s real estate taxes in any one year.

One of my clients who owns 40 acres of platted, but undeveloped property, received an increase from $1950 in 2019 to $29,624 for 2020. My own experience with platted, but undeveloped property, saw an increase in one of our subdivisions from $1753 in 2019 to $25,992 in 2020. 

With over 3,000 appeals filed in Natrona County, Wyoming this year, I can only imagine that amount of wasted time, energy and money that has been expended by taxpayers trying to negotiate the complex morass that constitutes our current property tax system. Many taxpayers may ultimately give up out of frustration. It shouldn’t be that darned hard to understand and an assessor shouldn’t have free reign to “correct the mistakes of past assessor administrations” in one tax year. There are other states that have imposed caps on the amount property taxes can increase in one year. Texas passed a 3.5% cap last year and Colorado, I believe, has a 5.5% increase. Food, rents and other costs are limited to increases in inflation, generally governed by the increase in some benchmark such as the Consumers Price Index (CPI-U, All Urban Consumers, for example – there are others that are more regional). It could even be tied to some benchmark determined by a basket of real estate data maintained by the Wyoming Department of Administration & Information, Economic Analysis Division. 

The point is that it makes no sense to me, nor to most sensible taxpayers, why real estate taxes should go up more than inflation. Period. Of course, when a property changes its characteristic, i.e. undeveloped land to developed lot to building, an adjustment may also be made. That’s why I’m working in conjunction with a group of concerned citizens and Wyoming legislators to enact sensible legislation to limit the amount of increase to a property owner’s real estate taxes in any one year. Please contact me if you share the same concern. Cell: 307-259-4785 or Email: [email protected]