CODY, WYOMING - Is California's Proposition 13 right for Wyoming? A
Park County man thinks so. He's trying to drum up support for a statewide voter initiative that would put a similar tax relief measure on November's ballot.
John Torbit says his property tax bill went up 7% last year and will probably go up much higher, because homes in Park County are selling for much higher prices than they used to. Torbit says he lived in California when the voters there passed Proposition 13. He says it's saved taxpayers more than $500-Billion dollars, has kept people from being taxed out of their homes, and has made property tax raises predictable.
Torbit told KULR 8, "Your property tax cannot go up more than 2% a year, as long as you own your property. And for a new property owner, buying a new home, the initial base tax rate is 1% of the purchase price."
While Wyoming State Senator Hank Coe says he's in favor of property tax relief, he says a "Proposition 13 wouldn't work here.” He said, "Property in Wyoming constitutionally, is valued at market value, fair and equal. Everybody pays fair and equal taxes. So you don't have one person who bought his house twenty years ago paying one tax structure and somebody who has a like house paying maybe four and five times as much. So, that's where proposition 13 doesn't work too well in Wyoming."
Coe tells KULR 8 the legislature will probably take another look at property tax relief. The counties, for schools and local expenses, assess he points out property taxes in Wyoming. Torbit says tax initiative proponents would have to gather almost 30,000 voter signatures by February to get the measure on next November's ballot.