What the people of Wyoming don’t need is a property tax refund program that would only affect a few property owners. What they need is a property tax system that is fair and equitable.
The current CAMA doesn’t provide this, and, as a result, the property values it produces do not reflect the actual value of the property. When a local property value increases by 25% and the one next to it deceases by 14%, it's time for a change! The explanation for this difference was that these two properties were in different “neighborhoods,” whatever that means!
In Dubois a few years back, a property increased in value by 80% in one year. A property owner in Buffalo had his property value increase 2,900% in one year! There was so much protest at this time in Johnson County that a new assessor was elected in 2010.
Last year, in Natrona County alone, there were nearly 2,000 protest heard by the Natrona County Board of Equalization. This should have been enough to prompt you and our “do-nothing” Legislature to take some action that would end these surges, but no meaningful legislation was enacted.
The current system does not meet the constitutional requirements of being fair and equitable. Looking at a chart from the Board of Equalization that shows the percentage of increases or decreases in property tax rates for each county, some are up, while others are down. If the system was fair and equitable, the increases or decreases should be the same for all counties.
California adopted an acquisition-based system under Proposition 13 back in 1978 because people were being taxed out of their homes. Under Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1% of its assessed value. This "assessed value" may be increased only by a maximum of 2% per year, until and unless the property has a change of ownership.
Our legislators need to stop thinking of the people they represent as just a source of revenue and nothing else.
