Letter to the Editor: Proposition 1 would impact schools

Dear Editor:

In reference to Prop 1 to be voted on Nov. 3:

The Greybull schools received about $2.1 million from property taxes this last year. Prop 1 could cut that as much as 25% or more, so somewhere around $500,000 or more of lost revenue to the school.

Wyoming’s constitution guarantees that our schools are funded, so the lost revenue would have to come from the general fund. Although what exactly that would mean, who knows, would they still pay for extracurricular activities, like sports, speech, FFA, what might be cut to maintain the legislators’ definition of “education?” 

Also, with no backfill what state services would have to be cut to pay for our schools? Highway Patrol, State Fair, Wyoming colleges, where will they have to get the money? If you add up the total moneys collected for all the schools in Wyoming, it would be a substantial sum.

In addition to our schools, there are at least 31 special districts in our county, that rely for all or part of their funding from property taxes. Big Horn County government lost $338,436 from last year’s property tax cut. Hard to tell how much more Prop 1 will cost this time.

Vote no to Prop 1. 

Mart Hinckley

Shell