February 24, 2009

The move to cut property taxes for homeowners in Wyoming has gotten mixed support from the 60th legislature, where solons can’t seem to decide whether constituents consider it a priority. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted tonight to cut funding from an expanded homestead tax exemption bill – but not without a moment of sympathy for struggling homeowners like…Harrison Ford.

Ford, most of us know, lives in Jackson when he isn’t making movies. The homestead property tax exemption bill (HB 68) that passed the house would give most property owners in Wyoming a $300 tax break. Though there have been efforts to limit it to people with low incomes, or to houses below a certain appraised value (say, $275,000), the bill that passed the House, and a Senate committee, would apply to everyone who has lived in his or her house for a year and submits an affidavit to the county assessor.

Sen. Mike Massie (D-Laramie), who wanted to “means-test” recipients of the tax break (he suggested the property tax discount go only to households earning 300 percent of poverty level income), asked at the committee meeting tonight, “If we pass this bill, does Harrison Ford get a tax break?”

Appropriations Chairman Phil Nicholas (R-Laramie) said, “He probably needs it.”

Riposted Massie: “You’ve seen his last movie?” (Was that the forgettable fourth Indiana Jones movie; or has there been an even more forgettable movie since?)

The bill came back to the Appropriations Committee because of the price tag: it eliminate about $40 million in property tax revenues, which the state would then have to make up to local governments. The House has included the legislation in its supplemental budget, paying for it by shifting funds previously appropriated for work towards building an expanded Capitol government complex in Cheyenne.

The Senate committee, though, voted against funding the bill, 5-0. That could mean that property tax relief – now headed for the budget bill conference negotiations – could be in trouble.

It’s been unclear from the start whether this is the populist issue that proponents like Gov. Dave Freudenthal and House Speaker Colin Simpson (R-Cody) seem to think it is. Harrison Ford, after all, didn’t even show up to plead his case.