CHEYENNE - A legislative subcommittee made progress Monday on clearing up the definitions of tangible and intangible properties for tax purposes in answer to a couple of Wyoming Supreme Court opinions.

The subcommittee of the Joint Interim Revenue Committee is working in response to a request from Wyoming Department of Revenue officials who said those opinions have the potential of eroding the state's property tax base in addition to prompting a flood of lawsuits.

Since those rulings were handed down, public utilities have been claiming that everything from computer software to rights of way should be exempt as intangible property from their property taxes, the officials said.

If all those exemptions were granted, local governments could lose more than $4 million in property taxes, they added during an earlier meeting.

Intangible property, sometimes defined as intellectual property, includes patents on inventions, copyrights and literary, musical, or artistic compositions; trademarks, brand names, franchises or contracts.

Tangible property is defined as property that has a physical presence, like a building.

The two Supreme Court opinions at issue were the cases of RT Communications Inc. and Airtouch Communications.

In the Airtouch case, the court urged either the Revenue Department through rulemaking or the Legislature through amendments to state law to address how the intangible property of companies whose income is unregulated should be valued and either taxed or exempted from taxation.

The subcommittee appeared to favor including the intangible property tax exemptions in state law.

Tom Jones, a lobbyist who represents many businesses and other clients, said a list of exemptions will provoke more lawsuits. He noted the subcommittee had not even discussed maintaining the status quo.

The Department of Revenue, he said, "is crying like a baby because they lost the case in the Supreme Court."

The subcommittee will recommend legislation to the full committee in Casper on Oct. 5.