(The text of this subsection originally appeared as parts of a guest editorial in the Casper Star-Tribune in March 1998. The editorial dealt primarily with the link between lobbyists and tax policy; please see the Accountability section for more information on lobbyist reporting.)

A tax is a tax. Or is it? Sales, property, tobacco, income, gas, inheritance, license taxes - all these and more hit various taxpayers differently.

Organized groups of taxpayers lobby vigorously to shift part of the tax burden onto other taxpayers. No one, it seems, speaks for the ordinary, unorganized citizen. The results are evident at the Wyoming Legislature.

The session began with two major revenue bills. HB 90 proposed a half-cent increase in the current four-cent statewide sales tax, while HB 93 proposed a statewide two-mill property tax levy. The Select Committee on School Finance sponsored both bills, with the revenue earmarked to fund education.

A third element complicates today's tax debate: the elimination of local optional mills for funding schools. As part of the mandate to equalize school funding, local optional mills will cease this year.

Elimination of the optional mills will result in lower taxes for most of us who pay property taxes in Wyoming. Industry - including mineral production, pipelines and railroads - will see the bigger chunk of this reduction because it pays a larger share of the property tax pie than other taxpayers.

Statewide, elimination of the optional mills means a $11.3 million decrease in property taxes for industry compared to 1996, and a $20.1 million decrease compared to 1997 (in most districts, optional mills increased between 1996 and 1997). Property taxes for agriculture, small business and homeowners will go down $7.5 million from 1996, and $11.8 million from 1997.

Even if the statewide two-mill property tax levy had been enacted to replace the optional mills, both industry and non-industry taxpayers would have paid less than in 1996 or 1997, again with industry realizing the larger tax reduction. (A statewide levy of approximately 2.4 mills would have continued property taxes at 1996 levels.)

Statewide, the net effect of increasing sales tax a half-cent without replacing the optional mills decreases industry taxes $1.7 million compared to 1996, and $10.5 million compared to 1997. On the other hand, non-industry taxpayers - mostly consumers at the grocery store - will pay $22.8 million more than in 1996, and $18.6 million more than in 1997.

Local government will also be affected if the statewide sales tax increase undermines voter support for county optional sales taxes.

The limited choices of half-cent sales tax and two-mill levy did not come about accidentally, nor did the demise of the two mills and the revival of the sales tax. Industry lobbying eliminated other options months ago, just as before the 1997 special legislative session on education, when the fourth cent of statewide sales tax was extended until 2002 and a one-mill property tax died in the House Revenue Committee.

A chart illustrating the relative effects of the 1998 property and sales tax proposals follows on the next page.