CHEYENNE — Sheridan resident Brent Bien said if there’s one thing his ballot initiative push has already accomplished, it’s putting pressure on state legislators to make meaningful property tax reform in Wyoming. He said the effort of gathering tens of thousands signatures of Wyoming voters proves that if the Legislature fails to act on property taxes, Cowboy State residents can do it themselves.
“It was because of this that taxes were the No. 1 issue in our state this last legislative session,” he told about 30 volunteers in Cheyenne on Thursday as the initiative was submitted to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office.
“This is the culmination of an incredible effort that you guys did,” Bien said.
Wyoming Voter Initiatives, a group organizing the ballot initiative, delivered its 44,650 signatures to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office in three large plastic bins. If the signatures are verified by the office, it will become the first initiative to qualify to be on a Wyoming ballot since 1996.
“Forty-five thousand people thought enough about property tax to put their name to a paper,” said organizer and Thermopolis resident Cheryl Aguiar.
The initiative, if approved by voters, would allow full-time homeowners in Wyoming to have their property taxed at 50% of its assessed value.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told the organizers at his office in Cheyenne that their initiative represents “a true grassroots effort.”
“The right of the people to bring statutory changes via this process, the initiative, is a very important part of our state Constitution,” he said. “You brought this home.”
Although leaders of the group have expressed hope that the initiative could go on the 2024 ballot, the Secretary of State’s office has consistently said the initiative missed the 2024 deadline and would appear on the ballot in 2026 if enough of the signatures can be verified.
Grassroots Push
Aguiar said the group had a total of 315 volunteers collect signatures over about the past eight months. They collected their last signatures Sunday, exceeding the necessary two-thirds threshold by getting enough signatures in 20 of the state’s 23 counties.
“We put pressure on the Legislature to do something,” she said. “It’s about teaching the people to fight and giving them a tool.”
Sometimes this required gathering signatures on cold, windy nights. Cheyenne resident Gary Brown shared a story of a group of volunteers creating a physical barrier around an elderly woman so she could sign the petition in snowy, blustery conditions without getting blown away.
Retired coal miner and Gillette resident Wanda Lieneman, 74, was one of the most dedicated volunteers, collecting around 5,000 signatures in total. Lieneman said she worked on the initiative almost every day since last fall, not only hitting doorsteps, but also collecting signatures at farmers markets, craft fairs and gun shows around the state.
“It’s because I’m seeing people lose their homes and I don’t like that,” Lieneman said. “It’s just the way I am. I’m not going to start something that I’m not going to finish.”
Under Wyoming law, a ballot signature only counts if it’s given by a currently registered Wyoming voter. Aguiar said this created a fair amount of frustration for her volunteers as many people who gave signatures weren’t actually registered to vote, so they couldn’t be counted.
When compared to other states, Wyoming has some of the more onerous requirements for qualifying an initiative for the ballots. To qualify in 2024, a total of 29,730 signatures had to be collected from at least two-thirds of the counties in the state, representing 15% of the total number of voters in the 2022 general election. A dozen initiatives have been filed with the state since 1996, but none received enough signatures to qualify for ballots.
The Bigger Picture
Some progress was made on providing property tax relief during the 2024 legislative session. The most significant bill to pass into law puts a 4% cap on year-to-year tax increases in the state. Bien said that’s not enough.
“Folks already can’t afford their taxes right now,” he said.
However, a number of mechanisms already exist for people to receive rebates on their taxes through the state’s property tax refund program. There was also legislation passed this spring allowing people who have paid property taxes in Wyoming for 25 years or more to receive a 50% discount on their taxes.
Most legislators have vowed to continue working on property taxes and will have two more sessions to do so before the initiative goes before the voters in 2026. Some state legislators have sharply criticized the initiative push, saying it would drain the state of important revenue.
On Thursday, Gray criticized Gov. Mark Gordon for vetoing a bill that would have reduced property taxes by 25% for Wyoming home values worth up to $2 million. Similar efforts have been engaged since 2021. In his veto letter, Gordon criticized the bill as “socialistic” and “Bidenomics” because it didn’t benefit all taxpayers or industry groups in the state.
“This governor vetoing it is just outrageous,” Gray said. “These property tax increases, that’s Bidenomics, that’s what the increases are. To call this the very thing we’re trying to stop is really problematic.”
The Secretary of State’s office has 60 days to verify the signatures, a process Gray said will begin Monday.
Although the group missed the Feb. 12 deadline to go on the 2024 ballot and lacked enough signatures in three counties at that time, Bien was still upbeat about the significance of his group’s initiative. He delivered an impassioned speech to the volunteers after the signatures were dropped off Thursday.
“You’re in the fight for liberty because that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “That’s the only thing that matters in the end, that we’re free people.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
