Gubernatorial Candidate Accuses Taxpayers of Funding Japanese-Owned Affordable Housing Projects in Wyoming

Rebecca Bextel, running as a third-party candidate for Wyoming governor, claimed during a televised interview that state taxpayers are subsidizing affordable-housing complexes owned by out-of-state investors, specifically naming the Japanese private-equity firm ORIX and unnamed East-Coast firms. She explained that the projects are financed through loans guaranteed by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program and that the properties do not pay property taxes.

Bextel highlighted a “free 99-year lease” given by the town of Jackson to build housing on the site of the historic Jackson Hole Rodeo, suggesting the rodeo could be lost. She said she is suing the town over missing dollars and described the situation as “next-level corruption.” Bextel resigned from the Teton County Republican Party to seek the Constitution Party’s gubernatorial nomination, where she will face Republican nominee Eric Barlow and Democrat Ken Canser in the November election.