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Property tax relief-2. |
08LSO-0368.L1 |
FISCAL NOTE
General Funds appropriated by 2004 Wyoming Session Laws, Ch. 121, Sec. 4 (Property tax relief program amendments) shall not revert and are hereby reappropriated to the Department of Revenue for purposes of this bill. There is currently $4,314,168 of unobligated, unexpended funds remaining from is appropriation, per WOLFS III on January 22, 2008. These funds shall not lapse or revert until June 30, 2015.
This bill creates the property tax relief program, which provides refunds to qualifying property taxpayers of up to one-half of the applicant's prior year's property tax. Refunds would be limited to one-half of the median residential property tax liability for the applicant's county of residence.
Under this program, applicants would qualify if their total household income does not exceed the greater of:
Qualifying applicants must also have total household assets of no more than $20,000 per adult member of the household (excluding the value of their home and certain other assets), as annually adjusted by the statewide average Wyoming cost-of-living index. Applicants must also have been a Wyoming resident for not less than 5 years.
The total number of households in 2006 with homeowners that lived in the state for at least 5 years, and with household income below one-half of the state or county median household income is estimated at 19,000 by the Economic Analysis Division. Total household assets of this population is unknown. The utilization rate of the proposed program is unknown, but could be comparable to the 3.7% utilization rate of the recently repealed Property Tax Relief Program, which had very similar parameters to those described in this bill (699 applicants out of 19,000 potential qualifiers for 2006). A utilization rate of 7.4% (twice the rate of the repealed program) would result in 1,400 applicants receiving total refunds of roughly $350,000 in the first year, assuming an average refund of $250.
This bill is effective immediately and is repealed January 1, 2015.
Prepared by: Dean Temte, LSO Phone: 777-7881
(Information provided by Marvin Applequist, DOR; 777-5235: