Property taxes were front of mind for Teton County voters as they headed to the polls Tuesday.

Many who spoke to the Jackson Hole News&Guide throughout the day said a ballot initiative aimed at significantly cutting residential property taxes brought them out to vote, whether they were for or against it.

Proposition 1, also known as “The People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption,” would have exempted 50% of the value of a residential property’s structure from a homeowner’s property tax bill if they were Wyoming residents for at least a full year and lived in their home at least six months out of the year. The exemption didn’t apply to land, only a “primary residence” structure, such as a house, apartment, trailer or mobile home.

In the end, Teton County voters rejected Proposition 1. Roughly 63% of the votes cast were against it, while nearly 37% were in support of the ballot initiative, according to the unofficial election results released Tuesday night.

Park County voters were more favorable than most to the measure, with more voting for it (51.47%) than against it (48.53%), although 497 undervotes, which count as no votes, led to the measure still falling short in the county.

As of 11:20 p.m., The Associated Press reported that around 54.2% of the state voted against Proposition 1 and nearly 42.7% voted in favor of it. That was with 70% of the total votes counted in Wyoming. At the same time, WyoFile declared that the measure officially had been beaten.

In order to succeed, more than 50% of voters needed to vote for the ballot initiative. Any ballots left blank counted against.

The estimated financial impact was significant. The Wyoming Department of Revenue and Legislative Service Office estimated there could be roughly $109 million to $125 million exempted from residential property tax bills statewide in the first year.

Residential property tax dollars don’t go to the state’s general fund budget, but rather to public education and local governments. Roughly two-thirds of residential property taxes go to Wyoming schools. The remaining one-third of these taxes fund county government functions such as administration, roads and general operations; special districts, including fire protection, hospital districts, weed and pest control and water/sewer districts; and city and town budgets, according to the Wyoming Department of Revenue.

This was the first general election since 1996 that Wyoming voters got to weigh in on an initiative put on the ballot by citizens. There have been 36 attempts to pass an initiative since 1968 — when Wyomingites first gained the power to make laws through a citizen’s initiative — and only three have been successful so far.