The Revenue Committee approved a draft bill that would remove an eight-month owner-occupancy requirement from Wyoming's homeowner property tax exemption and asked staff to continue work on a related long-term homeowner exemption bill.
Legislative Service Office analyst Josh Anderson summarized 26LSO98 as a narrow change: "The bill on page 2, essentially deletes the, 8 month residency requirement from that exemption." Anderson said the change would be effective immediately under the draft.
County and state tax officials offered implementation notes. Ken Gill, property tax division administrator at the Department of Revenue, told the committee the department has already built an online portal to let property owners notify the department and county assessor that they occupy a home. He recommended clarifying the long-term homeowners bill's acreage language by using "associated land" instead of a flat 35-acre cap, because the 35-acre limit created administrative problems where owners had 35.5 acres.
Converse County assessor Dixie Huxtable (testifying from the county assessors' association) urged the committee to be deliberate about the eight-month language for the long-term exemption. She told lawmakers assessors "can administer it either way" but cautioned that changing the standard from residing in the house to merely living in Wyoming would allow owners to claim exemption on houses they never occupied. "If you put just living in Wyoming, there is no way that then it's tied to their house," she said.
Public testimony and county leaders flagged fiscal tradeoffs. Attorney Jennifer McDowell urged caution on further tax reductions and said Wyoming households receive a high level of services relative to the state-local taxes they pay. Jeremiah Reeman of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association reminded lawmakers that several recent property-tax relief measures have come without backfill for local governments and suggested targeted approaches such as means-testing or a tax freeze at age 65 as alternatives.
Fiscal and operational details presented to the committee included estimates and calendar suggestions: the homeowners exemption was described in handouts as costing about $100,000,000 statewide; the long-term homeowners exemption was presented in materials as approximately $46,600,000 annually; the department noted roughly 72% of Wyoming housing units are owner-occupied. County assessors recommended moving some application deadlines earlier in the tax calendar (for example, from the fourth Monday in May to March 1) to align with other tax timelines.
Outcome: Committee members voted by roll call to approve 26LSO98 (removal of the eight-month owner-occupancy requirement) and to defer 26LSO99 for further work with county assessors and LSO on language and fiscal impacts. Members asked LSO and assessors to draft clarifying language for the long-term exemption, to outline administration options for the eight-month residency issue, and to provide county-level fiscal impact information before the November meeting.
Ending: Committee chairs said staff would circulate revised language and that the group would resume work in November.