The Wyoming Legislature moves past the halfway point this week and a number of bills have not made the cut.  The supplemental budget was the focus last week  for both the House and the Senate.  With the large budget surplus there were some opportunities to restore cuts and enhance mental health, social services, education and job training.  The Senate also added $1 billion dollars to permanent savings. 

A number of property tax bills are still moving forward, but a good share of those that were worked on during the interim were either not heard or were killed in committee or on the floor. Senate property tax bills SF 136 passed the Senate and would take the assessment for residential from 9.5% to 8.5%  There was an amendment to try to backfill some of the funds that will be lost by our cities, counties, special districts, schools and colleges but it would be a drop in the bucket with the amount of losses to these entities.  It still has to pass the House.  HB 99 is another property tax bill which passed the House and will be heard in the Senate next week which would look at assets and the statewide median and will also require nine months of residency each year.  HB121 passed the House and is a property tax deferral program. 

My committees passed a number of bills in the past few weeks, including:  HB 79 which would allow a concealed carry permit to be used for identification for voting; HB112, which would increase the penalties of theft to a felony after the fifth conviction; HB111, which would increase the penalties for exposure to fentanyl of a minor; HB10, which would increase the bond amounts required for all elected county officials with the exception of the amounts for county coroners and surveyors; HB14 which makes the amounts of filing fees in civil cases uniform; HB12 which would amend the presumptive child support amounts; HB13, which clarifies the duties of the office of guardian ad litem; SF178 which allows a mountain lion pursuit season; HB 104, Hunting of predatory animals which would allow thermal imaging and infrared light to be used on public land to hunt predators at night; SF 176, Solid waste disposal districts which would allow counties to consolidate if they chose to; and other bills. These are just a smattering of some of the bills we have passed in both the Judiciary and Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources committees on which I serve.

Many of our Senate bills made it across the hall and now we are receiving crossover bills from the House.  We also passed the Senate version of the Capital Construction or Cap Con bill, which has funds for various capital projects around the state.  The Senate has also worked through a number of other bills the past two weeks.  Some of these have been somewhat controversial, including: abortion bills, gender reassignment bills, charter school bills, convention of states legislation, gun legislation, transgender bans on athletic participation, etc.  It remains to be seen which ones move through both houses and on to the Governor’s desk.