Legislative Update

A quick update on the session. I will follow with more in-depth information in future releases.

We finished our session on April 7. It has been both a productive session as well as a frustrating one.

This portion of the session began with a virtual session early and committee meetings being held virtually prior to this session. That led to a very compact session that was challenging and fast moving.

It ended up with a budget being passed by both bodies and signed into law by the Governor. The budget was cut an additional $430 million from the initial budget passed last year and cut an additional 324 state positions. The impact of the cuts is across the board and will be felt for years to come.

We passed a capital construction bill for the first time in a year. The bill provides for matching funding for projects at the University of Wyoming and our community colleges as well as other state-owned facilities.

The bill includes construction as well a maintenance dollars. This leaves the general fund side of the budget funded for the next year without having to draw on our reserves.

The not-so-great news was that the House and Senate were unable to reach an agreement on school funding, leaving a $300+ million shortfall in funding education. Without an agreement, we will continue to draw down our savings and cause cuts to our general funded part of our government.

The House continues to want to permanently divert money from income sources into education permanently, while the Senate position is to be transparent and let the people know how much is diverted and where it came from. As of this date, the Governor has talked about a task force to deal with the issue.

Once again, the Senate held true to no new taxes until education is brought under control and has an honest spending plan going forward. Under the current model, taxes will have to be raised over one billion dollars in the next decade to keep up with education – this is unsustainable. A fiscal cliff of cuts of up to 30% are in the future for education if a solution cannot be found soon.

The new round of federal funding has thrown a curve ball into government funding through 2024. They have thrown billions of tax dollars out with major strings attached – it will take a while for the rules to come out and for us to unwind the strings.

Likely there will be a special session in July to deal with the federal funding and how to deal with it. I will write a column when we know more.

A quick update on bills I sponsored or co-sponsored. I passed SF 130 Charter Schools (primary sponsor), that reforms our charter school laws to make them more friendly. I am a big proponent of choice in our education system.

This bill may play a major role in keeping rural schools open in Wyoming in the future. It is a major piece of legislation that took a great effort from many to pass.

SF 102 (Primary Sponsor) allows cooperatives to use money left in unclaimed property for deposits to help with operations of the cooperatives. Many of these deposits go to unclaimed property in other states or go unclaimed forever. This gives a five-year window to reclaim unclaimed deposits before going back to the cooperative.

SF 155 Limiting Firearm Seizure (Primary Sponsor) that keeps government from shutting down gun sales, gunsmiths and shooting ranges down during an emergency unfairly.

I was co-sponsor of HB75 voter ID – I was floor manager and worked hard to get a voter ID law in place. I also co-sponsored SF33 physician assistant amendments that loosens the laws regarding physician assistants in Wyoming – this is a critical law for rural areas such as ours that depend on physician assistants for our health care.

I co-sponsored with Representative Neiman HB 229 that dealt with animal ID – a great bill. There were many bills dealing with the pandemic, running the gamut from coerced vaccinations to many dealing with public health orders – nearly all were killed in the House.

The main one that passed was HB 127 Public Health Amendments that I was a co-sponsor of. The bill as amended gives the governor the ability to appoint the state health officer and allows the health officer to issue a health order for ten days. Any other subsequent orders would be from the governor, no more than 60 days total.

A couple of other bills I cosponsored were HB115 Big Game or Trophy Minimum Age and HB 112 Lifetime Pioneer Trapping Licenses, both which deal with ages on licenses. Many of these bills are subject to action from the Governor and as of this writing have not been signed.

It was my first session as Majority Floor Leader – number two in the Senate, giving me control of all bills that reach the floor of the Senate and the order in which they were presented. It is a great honor and challenge at the same time.

I also serve as Corporations chairman, which will preside over redistricting. I will write a future column in the future on this matter.

It is with great honor that I am able to serve northeast Wyoming as your senator. Many thanks to all for their thoughts and guidance on bills and positions. The input is invaluable. I hope to see most of you in the coming months and during meetings.