Gov. Mark Gordon generally doesn’t comment on legislation until it reaches his desk, but during an address last week, he offered some insight on what he wants to see — and avoid — in the Legislature’s upcoming Budget Session. That included a call to ease the pain of higher property taxes.

Gordon spoke to members of the Wyoming Press Association on Friday in Casper about a wide range of topics. Speaking as an irrigator, Gordon likened his first term to the first cutting of grass, starting a variety of new programs. In this, his second term, the governor said he’s focused on where the water — the government emphasis — is really needed.

“If you look around Wyoming, there’s a lot of green shoots,” he said, describing it as exciting.

“I think for the state, we are more economically diverse than we’ve been in 50 years,” he said.

The “green shoots” he wants to keep growing include a continuing effort to revamp education to work for evolving students, providing more mental health resources, growing the tourism industry beyond the national parks and bolstering Wyoming’s standing as an “all of the above” energy state while diversifying economies; he gave an example of a manufacturer of heart stents recently relocating from Los Angeles to Worland.

Gordon also said he wants to ease the property tax burden “for those most in need,” while avoiding unintended consequences.

He said his top priority was to double the money in a property tax rebate program that gives low and middle income homeowners an up-to-50% break on their property taxes.

“That program works reasonably well,” he said, noting a lot of it is up to the assessor and treasurer getting the word out. After a conscious push to promote the program last year, Park County had one of the highest per capita rates of people using the rebate.

“The perspective here, I think, is that we really need to make sure that people that need that relief, get that and we’re really focused on doing that,” Gordon said. “There are some bills in this session, I hope we’ll come through to talk about — like how you cap some aspects of the raise [in taxes] that can occur, what are the things that we can do for homestead ownership. We’ll see how the Legislature works through that.

“But in the meantime,” he said, “we want to make sure that rebate program goes forward.”

Gordon mentioned a bill that would cap property taxes as a possibility, and noted a proposed 2024 constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to set a lower tax rate on residential properties than commercial and agricultural properties.

He didn’t specifically comment on any specific property tax proposals, but cautioned against the unintended consequences of legislation that would drastically decrease the money available for school districts and local governments.

“The state really does have challenges and being able to meet those needs,” Gordon said, noting a couple recent State Loan and Investment Board meetings “where communities have come up to us and ... they are really desperate to get some resources from the state.”