State Office Candidate Questionnaires

Wyoming faces major funding deficits due to dependency on falling energy and mineral revenues. At the same time, local communities including ours need additional funding to build and protect homes that local working families and retirees can afford. How do you propose addressing state revenue for housing, specifically including a new real estate tax, property taxes, and sales taxes?

Jim McCollum (HD 16 candidate): First and foremost, Wyoming needs to fight the current administration on the 2000 plus oil and gas permits that are being unjustly withheld. The energy industry is the backbone of our State economy. The loss of revenue trickles down into every community and municipality. Property taxes have got to be addressed. Changes can’t be made locally, that needs to be done in Cheyenne. I am already working with legislators across the state to create workable legislation on property tax relief and how those values are determined/set. Teton County currently has an estimated tax revenue that exceeds any previous years. There is a large disconnect in expenditures and a desire to keep putting the hand out and digging into pockets. Greed and gluttony are things that need addressed statewide.

Mike Yin (HD 16 candidate): I will continue to pursue the Real Estate Transfer Tax as a funding source for affordable housing projects. I am also continuing to work on options for tax relief that prioritize those that live and work in Wyoming. Ideally including options that could be passed on to renters as well. Such options including taxing primary homes differently than vacation homes.

Liz Storer (HD 23 candidate): Currently, Wyoming’s tax system is 1) narrowly-based on fossil fuel extraction which is diminishing, 2) unsustainable, because it does not raise the revenues required to cover the services demanded of most Wyoming residents, and 3) inequitable, because it asks low- and middle-income families to pay a much higher percentage of their incomes in taxes than wealthy families (mostly through sales tax). Wyoming needs to modernize its tax policy to create a broadly-based, sustainable and equitable tax policy for the 21st century. There are several ways Wyoming can revamp its tax policy especially because it has a low tax environment currently: • Wyoming has no income tax or corporate income tax. • Wyoming has no estate or inheritance tax. • Wyoming does not tax out-of-state retirement income. • Wyoming has no real estate tax. • Wyoming has no tax on mineral ownership. • Wyoming has no state gift tax. • Wyoming has a low property tax (even if high values in Teton County make them high). • Wyoming has a low sales tax (4% + Municipalities can add up to 3% to that) and exempts most services from sales tax at all. • Motor fuel taxes are $0.24 per gallon. (16th lowest state and below the country’s average) • At a mere 2¢ per gallon, Wyoming boasts the lowest excise tax for beer among the states, with the next lowest in Missouri, three times more at 6¢. So raising revenues can certainly be done by considering any of these sources; certainly, a real estate tax (with a threshold) to create housing subsidies makes sense in a place like Teton County and I would support that as a county-option statute. Sales tax can also be raised in the county under currently legislation and as tourists pay a large share of that tax, we could also consider a 7th penny dedicated to housing subsidies, in whole or in part (although that would be up to the county officials). The state could also raise significant new revenues by managing its permanent funds to increase their returns… (reached word limit)