County valuation drops 9%

An annual report produced by the Big Horn County Assessor’s office shows a slight decline in the combined value of all property compared to 2023 when it topped $300 million.

The county’s 2024 valuation was set at $276.7 million, a decrease of nearly 10% from last year’s $303.4 million. In dollars, it amounts to about $26.708 million.

Even though it dropped, the $276.7 million figure is still the seventh-highest total of the past 20 years for Big Horn County, which saw it top out at $307.7 million in 2009, sit between $277.6 and $294.6 million between 2012-2015 and soar past $303.4 million in 2023.

Assessor Gina Anderson said the main reason for the decline in valuation this year is due to minerals. “Oil and natural gas are really down and the railroad also dropped,” she said. 

Oil declined from $91.7 million to $69.5 million, natural gas from $4.1 million to $1.7 million and railroad from $14.2 million to $10.7 million.

“These declines have a significant effect on the school districts, but not the towns,” said Anderson.

In total, the state-assessed value fell from $151.6 million to $123.7 million.

The value of all residential properties, meanwhile, showed a slight increase, climbing from $151.8 million to $153 million. In dollars, it amounted to about $113,000.

As noted by Anderson, the school districts saw the most significant declines.  District 1’s valuation dropped by 13%, District 4’s by 10%, District 3’s by 9% and District 2’s by 5%.

Six of the nine municipalities in the county, including Burlington, Cowley, Deaver, Frannie, Greybull and Lovell, experienced valuation increases.  Burlington, Cowley and Frannie saw jumps of 6% or more; the others were less than 3%.

Manderson experienced the sharpest decline, at 6%.  Basin and Byron saw drops of 5%.

Impact

Sara Schlattmann, the business manager for Big Horn County School District No. 3, downplayed the impact of the valuation decrease.

“The district is not actually impacted as much because whatever the local and county taxes can’t cover, the state is required to make up the difference based on our school foundation guarantee,” she said. “I think it is possible we will see less revenue in the non-mill categories, which could impact our overall budget as we are used to getting about $400,000 in local resources.  

:As a school district we are fortunate to have this calculated guarantee each year based on our student population and several other factors.”

Schlattmann said the Greybull Recreation District and BOCES budgets would be impacted to a greater degree because their mill levy revenue is based on the school district’s valuation.

Tax revenue for the recreation district is expected to drop from $106,000 to $97,000 and BOCES from $53,000 to $48,000.

Heather Howe, director of the Greybull Recreation District, said she projected revenues of $90,000 in her proposed budget back in April.

“We ended up with more,” she said. “Honestly we have had more money the last couple of years than we are used to so we  haven’t had to cut any line items for awhile.”