Wyoming governor sues Board of Equalization, asks court to enforce property tax cap

Gov. Mark Gordon filed a lawsuit Tuesday to force the State Board of Equalization to certify residential property tax values after the panel concluded last week it could not do so due to disparities created by a 2024 tax cap.

“This legal action, if successful, will prevent confusion and disruption to residential property owners and counties who are in the midst of winding up the property assessment determinations,” the Governor’s Office said in a statement.

Gordon’s decision effectively means he’s directed an attorney general he appointed to file suit against a board that he also selected.

The Attorney General’s Office accuses the board of exceeding its “authority when it unilaterally determined that the property tax exemptions are unconstitutional and did not certify residential property tax values for the 2026 tax year.”

As such, the state is asking the court to prohibit the board from refusing to certify residential property tax values. It also defends the cap as falling “squarely within the legislature’s authority to create property exemptions” under the Wyoming Constitution.

“As with other property tax exemptions, the single-family residential structure and associated improved lands exemptions do not alter the fair market value determination of the property,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, exemptions operate to reduce the assessed value for purposes of determining the property tax assessment.”

Two years ago, the Wyoming Legislature passed a tax cap for residential property taxes to relieve homeowners. The cap, however, has created nonuniform assessments across the state, including “thousands of value ‘inversions’ in each county,” such as when a higher-market-value home is assessed at a lower taxable value than a lower-market-value home, according to a report released last week by the board.

Because of its constitutional obligation to ensure uniformity, the board says it cannot certify residential land or improvement values while the cap is in place. A noncertification, as the board warned, could prevent local governments from collecting 2026 taxes on residential properties — a key revenue source for public services like K-12 education, roads, sewers and law enforcement.

It will now be up to the courts to resolve the issue.

“It is my duty to uphold and support the laws passed by the legislature,” Gordon said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

“Once those laws are on the books, it is solely the role of the judiciary to determine their constitutionality, not the agencies, boards, or commissions,” Gordon wrote. “For this reason, I believe the Board is incorrect in their order and I believe it is appropriate to go to the judicial branch for clarification.”

The lawsuit was filed in Laramie County District Court and names Jayne Mockler and Martin Hardsocg in their official capacities as board chairman and vice chairman. The third board member, Karl Anderson, is not named as a defendant in the complaint.

“We’ve always known that this was going to have to play out in the courts,” Mockler told WyoFile on Tuesday. “And the sooner the better, because it really is an awful lot on the line for local government, for taxpayers. So the sooner it can get to the court the better.”

The board — whose members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate — warned lawmakers about the cap’s consequences when it was still being debated.

After the bill became law, the board discussed its concerns with the Governor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office. In January, after the board had hired outside legal counsel t o prepare a state-authorized lawsuit challenging the cap, Gordon quashed it.

Now, the Attorney General’s Office is suing the board on behalf of the Governor’s Office.

In a statement, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association expressed its support for Gordon’s “decision to seek judicial clarification.”

“It is important that counties, assessors and taxpayers have clear direction as they move through the annual assessment and certification process,” Jeremiah Rieman, executive director of the association, said in the statement.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus criticized “Governor Gordon’s Board of Equalization” in a Facebook post last week, writing that the board “cannot declare an act of the Legislature unconstitutional. Bureaucrats are not judges.”

In its report, the board openly acknowledged it cannot determine the cap’s constitutionality.

“The State Board lacks authority to declare a statute unconstitutional,” it states.

This story was originally published by WyoFile and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.