After hours of debate and more than two dozen amendments, a bill that would have eliminated property tax for most Wyoming residents and replaced lost revenue with an increase in statewide sales tax has failed.

The House of Representatives voted 14-47 against House Bill 203, "Property tax reduction and replacement act," on third reading Tuesday afternoon. In its initial form, HB 203 would have allowed for a property tax exemption for homeowners of up to $1 million in assessed value, and would have replaced that lost revenue with an additional 2 percentage points of statewide sales tax, increasing it from 4% to 6%.

On Tuesday, the House amended HB 203 to allow for an assessment of one additional percentage point of sales tax for an exemption to property owners for the first $200,000 of fair market value of a single-family residential property before voting it down completely.

Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, who was the main sponsor of HB 203, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that he was disappointed the bill failed, since it would have created the "largest tax cut in the state of Wyoming's history."

"But I think that part of the issue is change is hard," Harshman said.

moar

As is all too typical, a seemingly well-intentioned bill had a lot of rotten baggage. I'm not sad to see this one go.

What baggage was that in this case ?

Honestly, I forgot, and I don't remember where I read the text.