January 20, 2023 |
At the Wyoming Legislature on Thursday, House Bill 3 cleared its final hurdle. Speaker Pro Tempore Clark Stith was in the speaker’s chair when the tax policy legislation for wind farms came up for final reading.
Pictured above: Wind turbines in Carbon County. Photo by Jim O’Reilly/Bigfoot 99.
The legislation returns legal authority of assessing the valuation of wind farms to the state Department of Revenue. After a similar bill failed last year, the authority resides with county assessors this year.
After Wednesday’s lengthy debate over the policy change, lawmakers appeared to have little appetite for any more discussion. House members applauded when an amendment that would have given county assessors more power approving the state valuations of wind energy properties was withdrawn. The accuracy of state valuations has been one of the debating points throughout the discussion of the bill in committee and on the floor.
HB3 with an effective date of January 1, 2024 passed overwhelmingly.
The legislation was sent over to the Senate Thursday afternoon.
