Although momentum across the state is gaining for a ballot initiative that would cut residential property taxes in half, implementing the exemption might not be possible.

“As of right now, no, we could not administer the initiative,” Wyoming County Assessors Association President Melissa Shinkle said.

Shinkle is in her second term as the Teton County assessor, and she previously worked in the County Clerk’s Office for two decades. She and her colleagues do not see a path forward for the initiative because the bureaucratic process isn’t established.

She said the office of assessor is one of the only elected offices that is directly regulated by other agencies in the state — the Department of Revenue and the State Board of Equalization. Wyoming Statutes give the Department of Revenue the authority to develop rules and policies for assessors to follow, and the Board of Equalization must review whether the properties are being assessed at fair market value.

The Wyoming Constitution lays out the fair market value requirement.

But there are no rules or amendments to the laws that would give assessors direction on how to implement a 50% exemption to residential homeowners in the state.

“There is nothing in the rules as of yet,” Shinkle said. “Our software programs certainly can’t do anything with that as of yet.”

The initiative is in the petitioning stage of the process, and registered voters’ signatures are being collected across the state to get it onto the 2024 ballot. Nearly 30,000 in total are needed and must be certified before the ballot language can be developed and voters actually get to fill in “yes” or “no.”

If enough “yes” votes are garnered in the 2024 election, then the law would go into effect 90 days after results of the election were certified. This would only give the Legislature and state agencies three months to prepare for the changes.

Shinkle is concerned about both the tight deadline and the amount of money the measure may cost.

Besides the administrative and software updates they would have to take into consideration in the midst of a revenue deficit, Shinkle said the state would have to look at filing approximately 180,000 affidavits. The ballot initiative would require residents to file the affidavit to prove it is their main residence and they are entitled to the 50% exemption.

“For jurisdictions like mine, with roughly 13,000 real property accounts, how am I going to handle that?” Shinkle said.

She would have to possibly process 13,000 applications and affidavits before the deadline in April to send out assessments, and at the latest in June before her state abstract report is due. This would mean hiring more manpower and getting the right direction from the Department of Revenue. She said larger counties such as Cheyenne or Casper would have it worse.

The county assessors would have the opportunity to give this feedback, develop a sound process and discuss additional appropriations if it were a traditional bill. But the Legislature would have no say in this initiative before it becomes law.