The legislators are home, but the Governor is still acting on bills.
And the session can now start to be assessed.
March 12, 2024
The Governor vetoed the charter school grant authorization bill.
None of the election bills survived the session.
Joan Barron, in a Trib op ed run today, has noted how the Senate is now being influenced by the far right and becoming less congenial.
The Wyoming Educational Association, in the same issue, ran a full page age against Casper's Jeanette Ward, a member of the Freedom Caucus, which read:
Ward is from Illinois and relocated from there to Wyoming under the far right's persistent mythical belief that Wyoming's conservatism is the same as the Rust Belt's, although their influence in the state is making the latter true.The same group voted against increasing funding for police retirement, and did it the day of a Sheridan policeman's funeral.
And it wanted to send unallocated ARPA funding back to the Federal government.
FOR RELEASE Immediately
DATE March 11, 2024
CONTACT Ryan Frost, Legislative Information Officer
TO REACH 307.777.7881
2024 Budget Session Concludes
CHEYENNE - With the sound of
the gavel, the Wyoming Legislature wrapped up the 2024 Budget Session on Friday
at the State Capitol in Cheyenne.
At the start of session, a total of 366 bills and
resolutions were numbered for introduction. The Wyoming Legislature passed a
total of 126 bills. Of the 107 pieces of legislation that were introduced in
the Senate, 71 of those bills passed both the House and Senate. The House
introduced 84 bills and 55 of those garnered the approval of both bodies.
Sixty-one percent of committee bills passed both chambers, while 20 percent of
the individually sponsored bills passed both bodies. Legislation that passed both
houses has either been acted on or is waiting to be acted on by Gov. Mark
Gordon.
The Legislature also adopted the State's biennial
budget on Friday, and the bill has been sent to the Governor for his
consideration. He will have 15 days to consider line-item vetoes and sign the
bill. The appropriations and transfers in the bill for the 2025-2026 fiscal
biennium total $11 billion. Of this, $3.4 billion is from the General
Fund, net of de-appropriations and including $170 million of discretionary
transfers to savings.
Both the House and Senate have addressed a broad
range of issues affecting Wyoming residents and while some of these laws will
take effect immediately, many will not go into effect until July 1 of this
year. Lawmakers will begin their interim committee work in the coming weeks.
The Legislature’s Management Council plans to meet and assign interim committee
topics April 1. Wyoming’s Sixty-Eighth Legislature will convene next year on
Jan. 14 for the 2025 General Session.
The Wyoming Legislature encourages the public to
participate in interim activities. The public can use the Legislature's website
at www.wyoleg.gov to find information about interim
legislative committees, including live video streams of committee meetings,
committee rosters, dates and locations of interim meetings, and minutes from
those meetings. The website also provides a free email subscription service for all interim committee
information. -END-
March 13, 2024
Ward was the subject of a second major ad in the Trib.
Ward also drew a lengthy letter to the Editor in the Trib. Usually I don't post those, but I will here as this is interesting.
Ward wasting time with culture wars
Representative Jeanette Ward,
House District 57, has been doing a poor job of representing her constituents and listening to their needs. She has voted against numerous bills that would have helped Wyoming citizens and instead wasted valuable time during the legislative session touting culture war issues. House Bill 50, the “What is a Woman” act, is a prime example of this. During a budget session the legislature has 20 days to pass a budget. That is literally the only job that legislators have during the budget session. It takes a 2/3 majority to get a non-budget bill to the floor for debate. Knowing this, Representative Ward introduced a bill that wasted time and resources and was completely unnecessary. That bill rightly died because it failed introduction.
This session, she also voted against bills that committees had spent many hours considering during the interim period, which was disrespectful to their work and slowed down the legislative process. She voted against funding the 988 suicide hotline even though Wyoming has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, literally voting against saving lives. Last session she voted against most of the bills that would have helped families and disadvantaged Wyoming citizens, including Medicare for Moms, which helps low-income women provide for their babies. Fortunately, other legislators understood the issue and the bill passed. Representative Ward is not interested in helping Wyoming’s most vulnerable citizens, she would rather propose bills that are solutions looking for problems.
This is not acceptable. House District 57 deserves a legislator who listens to constituents, focuses her time on the budget during a budget session, and understands what genuine issues matter to Wyoming. She is not it. We need someone who has solutions to Wyoming problems, not someone who fans the flames of culture wars. Voters need to remember this on election day.
Judy Trohkimoinen,
Casper
This would suggest that perhaps there's a rising effort against Ward, who was endorsed by her predecessor, now Secretary of State Gray, because of her far right views, even though she had next to no connection with the state when she arrived, or people are getting tired of her.
In some ways, this reflects a rising feature of Wyoming's politics in which the old Party is beginning to react more strongly to the Trump Party.
March 15, 2024
Governor
Gordon Signs Bills That Help Reduce Housing Costs, Protect Critical
Infrastructure
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon signed two bills today, one that helps protect key
infrastructure in Wyoming from foreign adversaries, and the other that lowers
the cost of constructing housing
SF0077 - Homeland
defense-infrastructure reporting and investigating requires the state
to annually identify “critical infrastructure zones”. Any property
transactions within those zones will be shared among the county clerks, the
Wyoming Office of Homeland Security and the Wyoming Division of Criminal
Investigation. Those agencies will then determine if the transaction
involves a foreign adversary or a state sponsor of terrorism that could pose a
threat to national or state security or to critical infrastructure.
“Our nation
has never faced graver threats from adversaries both foreign and domestic,”
Governor Gordon said. “Protection of Wyoming infrastructure and identifying
potential threats to our state or national security must be among our highest
priorities. I want to thank sponsor Senator Tara Nethercott, whose experience
and insight were invaluable in the drafting and passage of this bill. It is
imperative that we protect our precious property rights, while we also ensure
we are aware of any potential threats within our state’s borders.”
Senate File 114 -
Contractor licenses-reciprocal recognition requirements require local
governments in Wyoming to recognize contractor licenses issued by a Wyoming
county, city or town. This ensures that qualified contractors don’t have to go
through additional, time-consuming and expensive licensing requirements when
working in Wyoming communities. The bill emerged from the interim work of the
Regulatory Reduction Task Force, which explored a range of ideas that could
help expand housing opportunities for Wyoming’s essential workforce. The Task
Force identified a patchwork of state and local licensing requirements that
contributed to additional construction costs, which were then passed along to
Wyoming home buyers.
“My
administration has been passionate in reducing red tape, and while there is
certainly more work to be done in addressing Wyoming’s housing shortage, this
new law is a small step towards streamlining unnecessarily redundant and costly
requirements,” Governor Gordon said.
Both bills
are effective July 1, 2024.
March 15, cont:
Governor
Gordon Vetoes Bills to Prevent Legislature From Overstepping its Authority and
Creating Confusion for the Public
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon took action on 18 bills today, vetoing one bill
that encroaches on the separation of powers between the executive and
legislative branches, and one that could create confusion for consumers, meat
processors and producers.
SF0013 - Federal land
use plans - legal actions authorized would have duplicated funding for legal actions by the State
and have been unconstitutional. The bill authorized the Legislature to take
legal action against the federal government, and provided a whopping $75
million in borrowing authority for it to do so. In his veto letter, the
Governor lambasted the bill as a “clear attempt to cross, blur and trample the
line of separation between our equal, but separate, branches of
government.”
Governor
Gordon criticized the bill as not being fiscally conservative, pointing out
that $75 million represents 67 percent of the Attorney General’s office
biennial budget. He said that the bill would only “enable duplicative
Legislative litigation safaris that would be counterproductive and contrary to
Wyoming’s well established practice of cooperation between branches.”
The Governor
also expressed concern about the confusion that would be created in the courts
over who represents Wyoming. It is the Executive branch that “is uniquely
designed to provide one voice when it is necessary,” he wrote.
“At best, competing
litigation efforts would only serve to confuse courts as to who represents the
State of Wyoming, and at worst it would enable frivolous and political
pursuits,” the Governor wrote.
The Governor
also vetoed SF0103 - Wyoming
PRIME Act, which as a “trigger” bill, would only become effective if the
federal PRIME Act is passed by Congress. The Governor noted that while he is
supportive of food freedom legislation, the Wyoming PRIME Act could create
confusion among consumers, meat processors and livestock producers. Early media
reports demonstrate the potential confusion created by the bill. Currently, an
attempt to use the provisions of SF0103 by Wyoming producers before the federal
PRIME Act is passed by Congress would put them at risk of fines and license
revocation, and imperil Wyoming’s primacy for its meat and poultry inspection
program. Finally, if the federal PRIME Act is passed by Congress, but is
amended during that process, Wyoming statute would likely need to be changed to
conform, which could unnecessarily delay state implementation.
The
Governor’s veto letters are attached and may be found on the Bills page of the Governor’s
website.
Governor
Gordon signed the following bills today:
SEA0034
SF0014 State fair board-powers and responsibilities.
SEA0035
SF0113 Light and high profile vehicle closures-2.
SEA0039
SF0096 Trusts and bank assets in bankruptcy-clarification.
SEA0040
SF0080 Solid waste management-definition amendments.
SEA0043
SF0053 Sixth judicial district-number of judges
SEA0046
SF0026 Special district vacancies
SEA0047
SF0035 Public records-DOC investigations.
SEA0053
SF0023 Public utilities-energy resource procurement.
SEA0059
SF0100 Prompt payment of insurance claims.
SEA0063
SF0083 Revisor's bill.
SEA0064
SF0090 State-managed local government equity investment pool.
SEA0069
SF0042 Low-carbon reliable energy standards-amendments.
HEA0043
HB0126 Child care is a residential use of property.
HEA0046
HB0058 Forensic genetic genealogy pilot program.
HEA0047
HB0029 Cold case database and investigations.
HEA0051
HB0138 State funds-pool A participation and fund limits.
-END-
March 16, 2024
After a break of one day, the WEA resumbed its advertisements on Jeanette Ward.
March 19, 2024