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

“For years we thought we should have a fourth level for residential,” she said. “We’ve always been behind this and always wanted to do this.

“Our position has long been to support any legislation that helps people stay home. Too many people find themselves in truly dire situations.

On Tuesday, voters will decide the fate of Amendment A, and Wyoming Realtors is doing everything possible to pass it, spending $544,047 so far this fall to convince voters to vote “yes” on A, according to the latest campaign finance report filed Friday. This includes creating a website, billboard and web advertisements.

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

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

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

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

The Stockmen for Liberty ran various advertisements against the amendment, including one describing it as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, “intentionally misleading”, and “a bogus property tax break”. Another ad from the group attempted to draw comparisons between Wyoming and Colorado if the amendment passed.

Liberty’s Place 4U, a well-known conservative group in Casper, also campaigned against the amendment on Facebook but did not spend money on the effort.

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

When it passed its third reading in the House in 2023, 15 lawmakers who were members of or politically aligned with the group voted in favor.

Specific reasons for opposing the amendment range from concerns that property taxes could actually be increased because of it to concerns that it could lead to tax increases on other sectors to maintain current property levels. public spending.

Urbigkit said she still hasn’t heard any good reasons to oppose the amendment.

“It’s absolutely a scare tactic when they say things like this raise taxes,” she said.

Why so much?

Urbigkit said there are several reasons why real estate agents are so motivated to try to pass the amendment, which she considers “a really big deal.”

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

Some people may wonder if a real estate agent’s assistance extends beyond the process of buying and selling a home, but Urbigkit said that for any respectable real estate agent, it does if The average length of time people stay in a house is considered to be only seven years.

“If you’re a good real estate agent, you stay in touch with people and help them,” she said. “They refer you to their friends and, in a way, become like family to you.”

Urbigkit said 4Wyoming was specifically created to allow her to receive money from real estate agents and non-real estate agents, the latter being a group she said also donated significant amounts to the cause. The group said 100 percent of its donations come from the Wyoming Realtors organization.

“It kind of concerns me that a specific interest group can influence so many real estate agents in Wyoming,” McGuire said.

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

Jones said another element of the amendment that real estate agents like is the ability to divide residential properties into their own tax subclass, separate from commercial and agricultural properties. She said this opens a much simpler path to taxing residential properties at a lower rate.

“Goal No. 1 is responsible taxation of residential housing,” Jones said.

McGuire believes that creating a separate subclass for residential property would amount to picking winners and losers among different tax classes.

“We are opposed to dividing and conquering small underclasses of people,” she said.

Jones said Wyoming real estate agents received a significant financial grant from the National Association of Realtors that also helped their campaign efforts. Urbigkit said they also ran a particularly successful fundraising campaign in Jackson.

Broader concerns

McGuire said she spoke with a few Wheatland real estate agents who were unaware of the group’s lobbying activities and were offended that the group took these actions on their behalf.

She also mentioned that in 2023, Colorado proposed a constitutional amendment reducing assessments for many classes of real property, including some new subclasses of property. This amendment was rejected by Colorado voters by a margin of 60 to 40 percent.

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

Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, works in commercial real estate. Ide fears that if the amendment passes, any future reductions in property taxes will only shift the tax burden to different classes of properties.

He also said real estate agents could have spent their money better campaigning for candidates who would result in reductions in Wyoming government’s overall spending.

“All Wyoming taxpayers would benefit significantly from more fiscal conservatives in state political offices working to pass significant tax reform legislation…tied to significant spending reductions,” he said. he declared. “Nothing really changes by simply moving the property tax targets, without significantly reducing budgetary expenditures. »

It is likely that Wyoming voters will introduce a property tax initiative in 2026 that would cut taxes for most homeowners by 50%. Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, believes the only way to make the effort legal is to pass Amendment A.

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

Urbigkit said she was cautiously optimistic that the amendment would pass. She also held seminars in three different regions of the state to raise awareness of the amendment and its effects.

“We’ve had a good reception, a lot of people seem to understand,” Urbigkit said. “We did everything we could to inform voters, we left no stone unturned.”

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

Leo Wolfson can be reached at [email protected].