Wyoming Legislators: Property Taxes forcing Home People – KGAB

A trio from Wyoming state representatives claim that an increase in ownership tax forces Wyoming’s residents from their homes and the problem will only get worse if the taxes are not reduced.

Representatives Ann Lucas [R-Laramie County]Tony Lok [R-Natrona County] and Steve Johnson [R-Laramie County] Appears on Saturday at the Wyeming Weekend program on AM 650, KGAB. All three are strong supporters of reducing residential taxes. Locke also chaired the Chamber Revenue Committee, while Johnson and Lucas are legislators of freshmen.

Lucas says that for all legislators, property taxes were the main problem they heard from voters during the 2024 campaign. One of the most important problems for them, it was not number one in any case, but it was right there at the top. “

Lucas said she heard from people in her area, “that I am an increase from getting rid of my house or getting another job.”

Locke says that in 2019, housing taxes generated $ 387 million. By comparison, the same taxes generated $ 652 million in 2024, he says increases vary to some extent in the county, but the fact that they generally increased by $ 260 million in five years is significant.

Lucas said her property taxes were almost doubled.

Locke says that although he realizes that the challenges have set the increased costs for the governments of the county, homeowners face the same challenges. He says these challenges include not only property taxes, but also insurance.

Rep. LOCKE: The potential spiral of death

He says one concern is “a spiral of death. Sooner or later you tax people with people from their homes, you create a bigger problem. So this is a problem we have to deal with. “

Lucas says the foreclosures of taxes are the highest in the whole country due to taxes. She says that the elderly influenced “because social security and pensions checks are not increased.”

As for the replacement of lost property tax income with increasing sales taxes, Locke says that “we are trying not to change one tax for another. Lucas says one problem is that sales taxes will never diminish. “

Rep. Lucas: The cuts can be made at local expenses

With regard to concerns raised by local authorities about how reduced revenue form more taxes on their property, Lucas says that “our local authorities seem to never want to talk about how to reduce costs. They can’t even present it. And I have never heard any of them say, “We can and should reduce costs.”

She says the first thing they talk about cutting are the law enforcement agencies and firefighters. She says the fact is that costs can be reduced, adding that “some of them have quite high reserves.”

Johnson says, for example, Larami County has $ 278 million reserves. ” And if you think the police departments and fire services will suffer from this, this is not true. They always hit you with “the sky falls, the sky falls.” Do not believe what you see in print … This is a scare tactic. “

He says the real problem is that local authorities simply do not want to reduce costs.

You can hear the whole interview with representatives. Locke, Lucas and Johnson below.