Bill that would eliminate property taxes dies at third reading

CHEYENNE - Senate File 110, which would provide property tax exemptions to all personal property, died at third reading in the Senate at Wyoming's Legislative General Session last week, said Sen. Ed Cooper (R-Ten Sleep) in his weekly interview with Northern Wyoming News on Feb. 12.

Lawmakers had been largely in support of this bill up until this point, with the stipulation that those who brought the bill forth would provide amendments that addressed issues. When these amendments were not provided by the third reading, support it had garnered was lost. Cooper said "We were waiting to see what it was going to do until third reading, but we came to the realization that it wasn't going to get any better."

Cooper said "It would have caused serious damage in the Big Horn Basin" due to the district's reliance on property tax for funding many entities in the region. He stated that we don't have a "windfall to fall back on for this. There are some other places in Wyoming that could get away with getting rid of property taxes but here we really need them to keep our heads above water."

Cooper also mentioned House Bill 47, which would provide guidelines for the federal certification of election machines. He said that "the voting machines have been a hot topic in the last few years, and this bill in its current state is something that all the county clerks in my district are happy with." The bill had been amended several times on its trip through the House of Representatives on its way to the Senate, and as it stands, the five county clerks in Cooper's district have voiced support for it.

He continued that he trusts their opinions as authorities on the election process, and stated that he "has full faith in them." The bill was amended once more and passed third reading on Feb. 13, and then failed to receive concurrence from the House of Representatives with six votes for and 54 votes against. The bill has been sent to a Joint Conference Committee for further deliberation and to try and work out the differences.

Cooper stated that more work was done on the state's budget last week, and that the Senate and House of Representative's budgets were "not very far off." He said that the House left $650 million in the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account for future spending, and once again mentioned that nearly 1 billion dollars were put back into savings by the Senate.

Otherwise, Cooper said that "last week was pretty slow on the Senate side", saying "We took Friday off to let the house catch up a little bit, and we're looking forward to having a good full week this week with lots of good House bills to consider."

Of these, Cooper mentioned two specifically, House Bill 121 sponsored by Martha Lawley of Worland and House Bill 98, both dealing with property taxes.

Lawley's bill would provide amendments to the existing property tax deferral program that would place it in the care of the Department of Revenue and make it more accessible. House Bill 98 would provide property tax exemptions, but according to Cooper "it does a good job of backfilling money lost from property tax exemptions to the counties. It does a better job of it than what we had in the Senate (Senate File 136)."