Legislators look back at recent session

But, despite this, multiple legislators expressed disappointment with the body’s lack of action on one of the most pressing problems for residents in Park County: property taxes.

“The big disappointment … to me is we did not get property tax relief to anybody,” Sen. Tim French (R-Powell) said. “That’s disgusting that didn’t happen. In Park County, next year’s taxes are expected to go up 25% compared to what they already are. So that’s very unfortunate we did not get property tax relief.”

Rep. Dalton Banks (R-Cowley) agreed.

“Hopefully going forward, we’ll be able to get something through,” Banks said. “But that was something we went down there to do and didn’t accomplish.”

The legislature ultimately passed three bills related to property tax relief and reform during the recent session. A total of 21 bills on the subject were introduced, said Rep. Sandy Newsome (R-Cody).

Of the bills that passed, House Bill 99 expanded eligibility criteria for the statewide property tax refund program, while House Bill 100 allocated $50,000 for a study on the changes necessary to convert the property tax system from the current market-value system to a new acquisition-based model. Senate Joint Resolution 3 will let the voters decide in a a 2024 ballot initiative if they want to separate residential property into its own tax class.

In future sessions, long-term reform of the property tax system will need to be a top priority for legislators, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody) said.

“There’s definitely a difference between tax relief and tax reform,” Rodriguez-Williams said. “I feel, as a conservative, we really need to look at reform, not relief. Not everybody qualifies for relief, and so my hope is that, later on down the road, we can make some changes.”

Legislators were more positive about their work on the state’s supplemental budget, putting a record $1.4 billion into savings, while fully funding the state’s K-12 education system.

“For every dollar we spend in the regular budget, we put $3.50 into savings,” Newsome said.

Even with the considerable savings in the bill, Rodriguez-Williams was a no vote on the budget, believing there should have been even more saving and less spending.

“I thought it was too much,” she said. “I don’t believe in setting the people up for a future tax. I thought we should save as much as we could to prevent that, because not too long ago, the sky was falling and we were needing to have reductions across the state, so this was a time to really tuck money away.”

Legislators also celebrated the passage of a variety of other bills. For example, legislators strongly expressed support for a bill that limited crossover voting and another that required any health-care facility that provides 24-hour service to allow visitation to a person receiving care. The latter bill was a response to Covid-19 health mandates at many Wyoming health care facilities, French said.

In addition, the legislators celebrated a pair of bills that are currently still awaiting the signature of Gov. Mark Gordon and raised constitutionality questions throughout the session. The first — Senate File 133 — restricts transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams.

“I’m really proud that made it through and hopefully he (the governor) will sign it,” French said.

Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell) helped pass Senate File 133 through the House Education Committee, and noted that, even with all the committee’s edits, the bill could still be challenged in court.

“We worked it and worked it and couldn’t get all of them (the constitutional issues) out (of the bill), but we got it down to one,” Northrup said. “The problem with it now is that we have a prohibition on boys being in girls sports. But our Constitution says ‘equal.’ So that’s a potential problem.”

Legislators also spoke in support of Rodriguez-Williams’ “Life is a Human Right Act,” which was drafted as a response to legal challenges the state has faced for the “abortion trigger ban” she’d introduced in the 2022 session. Like SF 133, the constitutionality of the trigger bill was challenged throughout the legislative session, and the language of the bill was significantly edited to address those concerns.

Rodriguez-Williams said she is curious what the governor will decide about her bill, as well as a similar bill prohibiting chemical abortions.

“It will be interesting to see what he does with both bills: whether he signs them both or lets them go into law without his signature,” she said. “... If he passes 109 (the chemical abortion bill), and vetoes 152 (Life is a Human Right Act), then more than likely 109 will end up in court with an injunction on it, because 152 is the meat and potatoes and has the definitions and so forth that we need (to support 109).”

Seven Park County legislators — Newsome, Rodriguez-Williams, French, Northrup, Banks, Sen. Dan Laursen (R-Powell) and Rep. John Winter (R-Thermopolis) — participated in the March 10 event.