Court Opinion

ID: 9595386
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:39:38.870956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:36.056379
License: Public Domain

URBIGKIT, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority in determining that the reassessment ordered by the State Board of Equalization after affirmation by the district court should now be affirmed by this court. There is, alternatively, a more basic reason for my decision founded within a fundamental precept of assessment for taxation which should also be recognized. I write this concurrence for the same reason and with the same constitutional perspective utilized in the concurrence in Teton Valley Ranch v. State Bd. of Equalization, 735 P.2d 107 (Wyo.1987).
Empirical market value to the extent determinable, by whatever process, for an individual piece of property or parcel of land, for condemnation or estate valuation, is different from the requirement of taxation which addresses the class and not the individual parcel. In assessment for taxation, it is the rational method equally applied which is the search and not the contemporary sale price or appraiser’s estimate of value.
The constitutional provision in effect until adoption of the November 1988 amendment provided:
All property, except as in this constitution otherwise provided, shall be uniformly assessed for taxation, and the legislature shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real and personal.
Wyo. Const, of 1890, art. 15, § 11.
The 1988 constitutional amendment provided:
(a) All property, except as in this constitution otherwise provided, shall be uniformly valued at its full value as defined by the legislature, in three (3) classes as follows:
(i) Gross production of minerals and mine products in lieu of taxes on the land where produced;
(ii) Property used for industrial purposes as defined by the legislature; and
(iii) All other property, real and personal.
(b) The legislature shall prescribe the percentage of value which shall be assessed within each designated class. All taxable property shall be valued at its full value as defined by the legislature except agricultural and grazing lands which shall be valued according to the capability of the land to produce agricultural products under normal conditions. The percentage of value prescribed for industrial property shall not be more than forty percent (40%) higher nor more than four (4) percentage points *863more than the percentage prescribed for property other than minerals.
(c) The legislature shall not create new classes or subclasses or authorize any property to be assessed at a rate other than the rates set for authorized classes.
(d) All taxation shall be equal and uniform within each class of property. The legislature shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real and personal.
Wyo. Const, art. 15, § 11 (1890, amended 1988).
This constitutional requirement, as more specifically addressed in the concurrence in Teton Valley Ranch, is equality and uniformity. Those criteria address a method to fairly impress the responsibility of taxation upon similar items of property without individually differentiating because of claimed conflicts with “market value.” Bunten v. Rock Springs Grazing Ass’n, 29 Wyo. 461, 215 P. 244 (1923). “Exact justice in matters of taxation is not possible * * * [vjaluation being largely a matter of opinion.” Id. at 476, 215 P. 244.
The point to be made is that these mobile homes cannot be assessed for taxation at a value below comparable properties owned by individual homeowners situated in Sweetwater County or, for that matter, of valuation anywhere in the state of Wyoming. Specifically, geographical location cannot be used to tax a unit at 2.8063% of what the normal taxpayer in Rock Springs could be expected to pay for an equivalent unit. This record provides absolutely no documentary evidence that the condition of the tax no. 17196 mobile home once situated at Bitter Creek1 with a normally assessed valuation of $17,817 was only worth 2.8063% of what a similar unit might have been for comparable taxation purposes when used by a homeowner in Rock Springs or Green River or in Cheyenne, Laramie County, where the purchaser was located.2
*864My challenge to the challenge of Union Pacific is lack of proof that the statewide valuation system for mobile homes is improper or that, even if proper, the process used in this particular case was infirm; for example, because of lack of inspection or denial of evidence of extremely depreciated condition. The only thing that the sales price material demonstrates to me is that Union Pacific wanted to get rid of the units and eliminate possible property taxation, costs. Mobile home dealers, at that time and place and in consideration of the Wyoming economy, were not exceptionally eager to pick up the geographically scattered units.3
It would appear from the sketchy record available that the units were sold in 1987 to Ponderosa Village, a mobile home park operator and wholesaler in the Cheyenne, Wyoming area. It would be interesting to compare (to the extent that units were actually moved to the Cheyenne area following sale) what tax assessment value came to be applied on these units in Laramie County as compared to other units owned by the purchaser or otherwise situated and assessed for value in Laramie County. It does not appear that anyone has addressed this subject of what Ponderosa Village did with the units after acquisition. Whatever may have occurred after incurring the moving expenses from the rural locations where the units had been used by the former owner, tax assessments cannot operate on a geographically distinguished standard so that every separate piece of new property in Wyoming is valued at miles from somewhere and particular location.
We cannot expect more and should not accept less than that the taxation system provides a formula realistically directed towards a value determination uniformly applied to all kinds of property of an equal and similar character. Hillard v. Big Horn Coal Co., 549 P.2d 293 (Wyo.1976); State ex rel. Greenwood v. Pearson, 46 Wyo. 307, 26 P.2d 641 (1933); Bunten, 29 Wyo. 461, 215 P. 244. If we reduce valuations for these seventeen units, then each mobile home owner in Wyoming is entitled to equivalent treatment for his property by application of the constitutional requirement of equality and uniformity within each class of property. Wyo. Const, art. 15, § 11(d). See the cases listed in the concurrence in Teton Valley Ranch, 735 P.2d at 115 and I J. Bonbright, The Valuation of Property Ch. XVIII, Valuation for Tax Purposes: The General Property Tax (1937).

. The unit is a 1973 24' x 60' Gentry mobile home unit computed by the assessor for assessment purposes on an eighty-one percent depreciation basis resulting in a $2,049 assessment valuation upon which the levy of .073994 resulted in a tax obligation of $151.61. The assessor’s ad valorem tax bill for the entire seventeen units totaled $2,789.76. The Bitter Creek unit reassessment by the Board of Equalization resulted in a "fair” value of $500 with an assessed value of $58 and a tax of $4.29 to result in a Sweetwater County refund to Union Pacific of $143.62. Refund amounts under the County Board of Equalization for the seventeen units totaled $2,625.52.
To reach the present stage of Supreme Court decision, the Bitter Creek unit, tax no. 17196, was appraised by the Sweetwater County assessor, contested in hearing and reversed by the Sweetwater County Board of Equalization, reversed by the State Board of Equalization, affirmed by the district court and now subject to this decision. Not yet ended by return for reap-praisement to the assessor of Sweetwater County the novelette or parable of tax no. 17196, wherever it may now be, would make interesting reading.

. I would not particularly subscribe to repetition in anything but dissent or special concurrence, but the county assessor's brief filed before the State Board of Equalization, in introduction, provided:
PARABLE OF THE AMICABLE DIVORCE A not so very long time ago in a galaxy known as San Francisco, it is reputed that a married couple — each in his and her own realm a young urban professional — made a determination that marital bliss was not theirs to have. It was agreed that, given the intellect, sophistication, maturity and stability of Mr. and Mrs. Yuppie, an amicable division and disposition of their rather substantial marital estate would be appropriate and could be achieved.
The real property of the parties — a town home and a country estate — were set over to Mrs. Yuppie. The Yachts, the Maserati sports car, the Cessna airplane and the computer equipment were set over to Mr. Yuppie. Shortly after the divorce — but before Mr. Yuppie could take possession of his portion of the property — his transfer to New York was approved, along with that of Miss Interloper, his secretary. Mr. Yuppie asked his ex-wife if she would store his toys for him and forward them to him as he requested. Being mature, sophisticated and of an even unvengeful temperament, Mrs. Yuppie was only too glad, she said, to accommodate her ex. Over the next eighteen months, Mrs. Yuppie shipped several computers, two yachts and untold other luxury items to Mr. Yuppie. She ferried the Cessna airplane to him upon his request— which is when she learned about his relationship with Miss Interloper.
Soon after learning about Miss Interloper, Mrs. Yuppie received an urgent request from her ex-husband: "Business reversal — need quick cash' — sell Maserati and send money to me. Mr. Y.” The following ad appeared in the paper the following morning:
*864“FOR SALE: 1988 Maserati, immaculate condition; still on warranty; low mileage; appraised at $60,000.00. Will sacrifice for 50.00.”

. From the listed locations, these seventeen units were scattered along the Union Pacific railroad track at places from the first to the last more than 100 miles apart.