County property taxes increase

Park County residents' pocketbooks hit hard

Posted 5/17/22

Karl Streitel and his wife moved to Park County from Pennsylvania for the same reasons many people are attracted to the area. They visited it on vacations and fell in love with the outdoor recreation …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

County property taxes increase

Park County residents' pocketbooks hit hard

Posted

Karl Streitel and his wife moved to Park County from Pennsylvania for the same reasons many people are attracted to the area. They visited it on vacations and fell in love with the outdoor recreation opportunities, the freedom and the privacy. 

They are both retired teachers. Karl had taught business in high school for 20 years. They purchased a house east of Powell and based on past assessments, expected no more than about a $500 property tax increase this year. When the assessment came, it showed an $800 increase.  

“It was not the welcome I was hoping for,” Karl said with a laugh. 

The Streitels are not alone. Pat Meyer, Park County assessor, said he’s getting calls from people every day as the assessments go out, showing increases of 25% to 45%. 

“Until last year the normal increase to residential and commercial property was around 3% to 9%,” Meyer wrote in an email to legislators. 

Meyer points out that the population of Park County had an influx of homebuyers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Voter rolls show the county gained 1,544 new voters: 230 people from California, 180 from Colorado, 140 from Montana and 72 from Washington. Another 522 moved in from other parts of the state. 

Meyer notes that these numbers are just certified voters, so the actual population increase in the county is likely much higher. With a limited housing inventory, the laws of supply and demand have sent home values skyrocketing, and subsequently, tax assessments. 

“I knew it was going up, but it wasn’t until I started analyzing sales that I found out it was going up this much,” Meyer said. 

For elderly residents, many of whom are on fixed incomes, the increases are particularly hard. 

Meyer said he spoke to one couple, who are in their 80s. They bought their home in 1965 for about $23,000. Today it’s worth about $400,000. Their $2,029 per month in Social Security doesn’t cover such unexpected expenses. 

“It’ll take them a month and a half to pay it,” Meyer said. 

Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, said he’s been receiving calls from constituents about the strain of property tax bills. The taxes on his home north of Powell went up 38% this year, and a vacant piece of land in the same area had a 41% increase. 

He notes that in the last legislative session, SF69 aimed to limit property tax increases to no more than 5% in a given year, a bill he said he would have supported. If the bill had passed and property values went up 20%, for example, the county would have been able to assess, at most, a 5% increase in property taxes for the next four years. If property values only went up 3%, the tax increase would be limited to no more than the increase in property values. 

The bill was introduced in the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, which then referred it to the Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee, where it failed. 

Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, who sits on the committee, was among the members who voted against the bill. Kost said he supports doing something to prevent large increases in property tax assessments, but there were questions as to who would and would not receive the limits. If the bill created different tax classes, Kost explained, it would alter the Wyoming Constitution. Therefore, a ballot question would need to be posed to the voters before such a bill could be passed. 

“I felt the bill needed more clarification before it was ready for prime time,” Kost said. 

Meyer said he is working with the Legislative Service Office to see about drafting another bill limiting property tax increases, to introduce in the coming legislative session, as is Kost.  

“Whether or not the increases will continue I can’t say, but it would still protect people from these kinds of increases,” Meyer said, adding that 15 states already have laws to limit how much property taxes can go up in a single year. 

Meyer has been in discussions with assessors in those states about how their laws work and any unforeseen problems that could arise. He said these assessors tell him the laws work well. 

“We don’t want to turn into a Jackson Hole … I don’t know we’ll ever get that bad, but we still need some protections,” Meyer said, referencing the sky-high property values in Teton County. 

Kost said the rapid increases in valuations are not unique to Park County. As more residents in the state feel the pinch of property tax increases, a bill limiting them would likely get more traction in next year’s legislative session. 

Meyer agrees that the bill will likely carry more clout, but it won’t be “an easy bill. There’s always people who are against change.” 

Among the concerns that come up is how it will impact tax revenues, but Meyer argued that the law would only apply to rapid increases, which are not the norm historically speaking. He’s hoping to give presentations to legislators in the Revenue Committee, with solid numbers, so that such concerns can be addressed before any bill is introduced. 

“Let’s get something going here,” Meyer said. 

Comments