By Charles Farmer
Douglas Budget 
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

DOUGLAS — The Wyoming State Board of Equalization agreed last week to certify the adjusted property values until the case is settled in court – which is good news for homeowners trying to pay their property taxes this year.

The board and Gov. Mark Gordon agreed to the terms of the agreement, which will be in place until the court case is settled after a state district court judge in Laramie approved the motion. The court battle stems from a law passed during the legislative session in 2024 which capped property tax increases at 4%.

The State Board of Equalization’s purpose is to review and adjust property tax assessments after appeals from county boards of equalization. Its job is to ensure assessments are applied uniformly across counties so no single tax base is overvalued or undervalued. The board is constitutionally required to certify that these values have been equalized, and with the new 4% cap, it has been unable to certify the assessments because some properties that would have been valued at more than a 4% increase are now undervalued.

In June, Gordon sued the board, saying that it was required to certify the assessments, while the board argues it’s constitutionally not able to certify them with the current cap in place.

That left a problem for Wyoming counties. Budgets are made using an estimated property tax revenue. Not knowing whether the board can certify the cap leaves a large discrepancy in every county budget.

“Every property, every residential property and residential land, not vacant land – it has to have a house on it – (is) capped at 4% currently,” Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable said. “In other words, the market may be raising your value 10% a year, but for tax purposes, I cap it at 4%. That’s the one that the State Board of Equalization says is unconstitutional, or at least results in unconstitutional values that are non-uniform.”

Last week, Gordon and the board came to the temporary agreement. The property tax estimates will remain the same as they were in April.

“So for 2026, taxpayers will see basically no change from what we sent out in April,” Huxtable said.

For the Converse County budget, the property tax cap will just be a small portion of the total valuation. In Teton County, for example, where there aren’t as many mineral rights and the valuation is based heavily on property taxes, that have seen large increases, it could be a huge hit.

“We (Converse) are roughly about 4% or a little less . . . between agriculture and residential makes up about 4% of our total assessed value,” Huxtable said. “This year, it’s going to be (approximately) $3.6 billion. Last year it was $3.8 billion. So yes, we have a little drop, but that’s because minerals went down.”

Final budget numbers will be approved at the end of July.

Huxtable said that legislators were warned that the 4% cap would end up in court and voted for it anyway, despite objections from the state board and county assessors.

“In October of last year, we were told the State Board of Equalization was going to request a meeting of all the assessors because they were concerned with this,” Huxtable said. “They had said repeatedly they were not going to certify values with that 4% cap because they didn’t think it was legal.”

The cap passed and went into effect regardless, which has led to the current uncertainty.

“So this is going to be one of those cases that I absolutely hate where we are setting tax policy by the bench,” Huxtable said. “The judge is setting the tax policy and that is never a good idea, but most of that comes because our legislature in this area (taxes) is non-functional.”

For the public, Huxtable and other tax assessors are always available to answer questions.

The assessors and Department of Revenue are working on a site to help taxpayers in Wyoming apply and understand exemptions in an easier fashion.

“I had a conference call yesterday with the Department of Revenue, along with other county assessors trying to set up a database,” Huxtable said. “The Department of Revenue will set (it) up, manage (it) and people can go in and sign up for whatever exemptions are available, kind of like a one-stop shop so that maybe we can help with the confusion.”

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