Assessors, commissioners warn of confusion and local revenue loss as DOR reports application counts and readiness

County assessors and local officials pressed the Revenue Committee on June 2 about administrative burden and local budget impacts from recent property-tax changes, while Department of Revenue staff described application activity and the department’s plans for administering new exemptions.

Ken Gill, property tax administrator for the Wyoming Department of Revenue, told the committee that, “as of yesterday morning, we had 10,636 applications” for the property-tax refund program; he said the department had issued “5,015 refunds” and paid “$5,103,534.81” as of that snapshot. Gill said the department expects to continue processing refunds through the statutory window and that an appropriation of $10.5 million in 2025 will be available to assist the refund program.

Gill also reported that county assessors had collected more than 31,700 applications submitted for the 50% long-term-homeowner exemption as of May 28, and he told members the department had built a web application to allow homeowners to attest to owner-occupancy. “We have programmed a website that everyone in the state can go to,” Gill said; he described the site as usable on phones and designed to generate a signed attestation that county assessors can…