Wyoming Realtors Spent Nearly $550,000 to Pass Property Tax Change

said Laurie Urbigkit, director of government affairs for Wyoming Realtors and treasurer of the 4Wyoming political action committee. proposed constitutional amendment Creating a separate taxation class for residential properties in Wyoming is something Realtors have wanted for a very long time.

“We’ve thought for years that we should have a fourth tier for housing,” he said. “We have always been behind this and always wanted to do this.

“It has long been our position to support any legislation that will help people stay in their homes. “A lot of people are in a really difficult situation.”

Voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of Amendment A, and Wyoming Realtors are pushing hard to pass the legislation, spending $544,047 so far this fall to persuade voters to vote “yes” on A, according to the latest campaign finance report filed Friday. This includes creating a website, billboard and web advertising.

“We’ve done everything I can think of doing at this point,” Urbigkit said.

To put that number in perspective, no independent state-level PAC has spent that much money this year or during the 2022 Wyoming election season.

4Wyoming’s spending is the largest by the PAC since Right For Wyoming, the financing arm of U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s 2018 Wyoming gubernatorial campaign, spent $650,000 in that year’s primary election.

Michele McGuire, treasurer of the Wyoming Stockmen For Liberty PAC, said she spent $31,411 this general election season, nearly all of which went to opposing Amendment A.

Freedom Shareholders ran several advertisements opposing the change; one of them described the amendment as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” “intentionally deceptive,” and a “bogus property tax cut.” Another ad from the group attempted to draw comparisons between Wyoming and Colorado if the amendment were to pass.

Casper’s prominent conservative group, Liberty’s Place 4U, also campaigned against the change on Facebook but did not spend any money on the effort.

Many members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus also spoke against the amendment.

On its third reading in the House in 2023, 15 legislators who were members of the caucus or politically aligned with the caucus voted to support the legislation.

Specific reasons for opposing the change range from concerns that property taxes could actually be raised to concerns that it could result in tax increases in other sectors to maintain current levels of government spending.

Urbigkit said he still hasn’t heard of a good reason to oppose the change.

“Talking about things like increasing taxes is definitely a scare tactic,” he said.

Why So Many?

Urbigkit said there are several reasons why Realtors are so motivated to try to pass the change and that he thinks it’s “really important.”

The biggest is their role in defending homeowners in Wyoming. Urbigkit considers Wyoming Realtors to be the only organization dedicated solely to this group of people.

Some people may question whether a Realtor’s help extends beyond the home buying and selling process, but Urbigkit said that’s the case for any reputable real estate agent, considering the average length of time people stay in a home is only seven years.

“If you’re a good Realtor, you stay in touch with people and help people,” he said. “They refer you to their friends and in some ways they become like family to you.”

Urbigkit said 4Wyoming was founded specifically to allow it to receive money from Realtors and non-realtors alike, with the latter group also giving significant sums to the cause. The group reported that 100% of its donations came from the Wyoming Realtors organization.

“It concerns me that one particular interest group could influence so many Wyoming Realtors,” McGuire said.

State Sen. Stacy Jones, R-Rock Springs, is a commercial real estate agent who supports the amendment.

Another piece of change that Realtors like is the ability to separate residential properties into their own tax subclasses, separate from commercial and agricultural properties, Jones said. This opens up a much easier path for residential properties to be taxed at a lower rate, he said.

“The first goal is to tax housing responsibly,” Jones said.

McGuire believes creating a separate subclass for residential properties would mean picking winners and losers among different tax classes.

“We are against dividing and conquering smaller subclasses of people,” he said.

Jones said Wyoming Realtors received a significant financial grant from the National Association of Realtors, which also helped with campaign efforts. Urbigkit said they also had a particularly successful fundraising effort in Jackson.

Broader Concerns

McGuire said he spoke with several Realtors in Wheatland who were unaware of the group’s lobbying efforts and were upset that the group was making these moves on their behalf.

He also mentioned that in 2023, Colorado is proposing a constitutional amendment that would reduce assessed valuations for many real estate classes, including some new property subclasses. This amendment was rejected by Colorado voters by a 60% to 40% margin.

“Playing the same card here makes us nervous,” McGuire said.

Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, works in commercial real estate. Ide has concerns that any future reductions in property taxes if the amendment becomes law would shift the tax burden to different property classes.

He also said Realtors could better spend their money campaigning for candidates who would cut overall government spending in Wyoming.

“All Wyoming taxpayers would benefit significantly from having more fiscal conservatives in the state political office who will work to pass significant tax reform legislation tied to significant spending cuts,” he said. “Without meaningful spending cuts in the budget, nothing really changes by moving the property tax target posts.”

A property tax initiative that would reduce taxes by 50% for most homeowners is likely to go before Wyoming voters in 2026. Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, believes the only way to legalize this effort is to pass Amendment A.

“Passing the constitutional amendment is the only way we will see long-term tax relief in Wyoming,” he said.

Urbigkit said he is cautiously optimistic that the amendment will pass. He also held seminars in three different parts of the state to provide information about the change and what he was doing.

“We’ve had a good reception, a lot of people seem to understand it,” Urbigkit said. “We did our best to inform voters and left no stone unturned.”

4Wyoming spent $16,000 on Cowboy State Daily as part of its advertising efforts.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at [email protected].