Taxation

Understanding the Mill Levy

Property Taxation

Property taxes are one of the primary sources of income for local governments, counties, school districts, and other special districts like the newly created hospital district.


The county assessor establishes taxable values for most properties within the county and applies the appropriate tax rate to determine the amount of taxes due. This valuation is subject to final approval and certification by the State of Wyoming.


Mineral production is valued by state officials for ad valorem and severance tax purposes.

  • The Sublette County Commission has set the tax rate at the full 12 mills allowed by law.

  • A mill is $1 of revenue for every $1,000 of assessed valuation.

With minerals accounting for 92% of Sublette County's valuation, the commissioner's support for the 12 mill tax rate allows the county to capture this revenue stream while these natural resources are being extracted.

Minerals are taxed at a rate of 100 percent of fair market value, but are taxed only once – as they are extracted. The current year’s mineral valuation is based on mineral sales that occurred the previous calendar year (2021).


IMPACT OF SALES ON RESIDENTIAL ASSESSED VALUE:


Wyoming statutes require all property to be valued at fair market value, except for agricultural land, which is valued by its productive capability.


The county assessor determines the fair market value for homes and property, and takes 9.5 percent of that value to determine the taxable or assessed value of residential homes and real property (11.5 percent for industrial property).


The taxable value is then multiplied by the appropriate mill levy, where each mill is equal to one-thousandth of the taxable value ($1 of revenue for every $1,000 of assessed value).

The County Assessor reports that since early 2020 there has been a migration of home buyers leaving city centers in favor of rural areas of the county, including Sublette County.


Sales from 2021 (and continuing in 2022), have caused a boom in the residential real estate market, with drastically rising sales prices and a demand that is exceeding supply.


Home sales in Sublette County in 2021 increased 22% from the year prior, and residential vacant land sales increased 122% from 2020.


A home with a fair market value of $200,000 would have a taxable value of $19,000 (based on the 9.5 percent residential assessment rate). An assessment of 61 mills on this home (the average mill levy in Sublette County) would result in a tax of $1,159.


(200,000 X .095 X 61) divided by 1000.


Because the assessed value of property is based on very high sales prices of comparable properties that sold in the last year, property owners can expect increases in their assessed values and resulting tax bills.

Although the county taxes 12 mills for county government, property tax notices includes tax rates ranging from 59 to 67 mills, depending upon where the property is located in the county. (Municipal residents are taxed an additional 8 mills.)

A variety of special tax districts in the county impose additional taxation upon property owners in those districts.

These special tax districts range from cemetery districts to road improvement districts in areas where property owners vote to approve these taxes on themselves.


About 73% of your total property tax is used to fund the state's educational system. (The tax is collected here at the local level, but the revenue is remitted to the state for redistribution.) Another 19% of your property tax funds the operations of county government, while the balance goes to special districts.