NEWS
Wyoming homeowners are getting quite a lecture about responsibility. Keep paying, they are told, because the firefighters, the schools, and the roads depend on it. Vote for Proposition 1, and the consequences will be devastating. A large number of Wyoming state officials have said so. Meanwhile, the state’s own budget forecasters have delivered an inconvenient report for the doomsday campaign. Wyoming has hundreds of millions of dollars more to work with.
The October CREG report identifies $333.5 million in additional General Fund resources for the 2027–2028 budget period. Higher revenue projections account for $257.3 million. Another $70 million comes from unspent appropriations, with $6.2 million in additional carryover.
The school funding picture improved too. The report raises the School Foundation Program’s projected ending balance by $324.7 million, without drawing from the rainy-day fund. That fund is projected to hold $1.733 billion in June 2028.
Somehow, the public conversation still keeps returning to what government cannot afford to let homeowners keep. Gov. Mark Gordon warned Proposition 1 would have “an immediate and devastating effect on the services most Wyoming citizens rely upon in their communities.”
Fremont County Commission Chairman Larry Allen warned, “We’re looking at over a third of our budget just disappearing,”
At the Wyoming PBS debate, Eric Barlow said, “Adding additional property tax reductions will impact services that are so important.”
And, Sen. Cale Case went further, discussing how Proposition 1 could make an income tax more attractive. “It’s real. It’s not phony. It’s not a threat. It just makes income tax more logical.”
Apparently, asking government to take less requires homeowners to contemplate the possibility that it will find another way to take more. An overlooked detail of the LSO memo cited by every opponent of Prop 1 is that new taxes are already being contemplated. A bill listed in the memo is a real estate transfer tax of 2%.
This October’s good news is not an isolated event. In fiscal 2023, Wyoming’s General Fund and Budget Reserve Account collected $177.3 million more than forecast. The October 2024 report identified $122 million above that January’s forecast, after statutory investment transfers. In fiscal 2025, those accounts exceeded forecasts by another $71.9 million, after required investment distributions.
The history is important because Wyoming has repeatedly enjoyed substantial revenue surprises. Officials demanding certainty from household budgets have benefited considerably from money their own budgets did not anticipate.
Then there is the number attached to Proposition 1. LSO and the Department of Revenue estimate an additional $124.77 million in property-tax losses for tax year 2027. That calculation starts with existing exemptions, including SF69’s 25% reduction, already in place.
If voters approve Proposition 1, lawmakers would likely replace SF69 with the exemption voters chose. The LSO document already contemplates this bill. That would reduce the additional loss. A simplified calculation for dwellings covered fully by both exemptions suggests roughly $42 million less if applied across LSO’s estimate. Meaning, the real-world impact of Prop 1 would likely end up being $83 million and not $125M.
Money in Cheyenne does not automatically pay a county’s bills. But deciding how much reaches those counties is part of governing. Before officials put firefighters and ambulances at the front of the warning campaign, they should explain what spending they would cut first—and how much of the newly identified money could protect essential services. They should also explain why that wouldn’t happen when that money is already clearly available.