As some of you may already know the 67th Wyoming State Legislature barely performed its constitutional duty to get a budget passed. Unlike the federal government, we have to pass a balanced budget, and it was in doubt up to the final deadline.

All but one of our Uinta County delegation — myself, Sen. Fred Baldwin, Rep. Ryan Berger and Rep. Jon Conrad voted to accept the results of the “free committee” final budget. Rep. Heiner did not.

The budget was a compromise between the Senate’s recommendations and the House. The first committee that was set up was $1.1 billion apart and neither side made any progress. The Senate committee waited four days to even meet with the other side and, thus, no one was surprised when nothing was accomplished.

The failure of the first committee was a microcosm of the divisiveness and disgruntlement that has plagued the Legislature this year. It was disappointing to say the least. At times it was embarrassing to see the lack of professionalism and integrity.

Rules were tossed out the window, and we have opened a can of worms for future legislatures to just do a “work around” on committee actions. So, here are just a few actions that would have happened if the budget hadn’t passed:

• WYDOT would shut down services, impacting CDL, driving tests, etc., and all ports of entry and rest stops would close.

• More than 35,000 retirees would not receive their checks, leading to hardships while taking $65 million out of the state’s monthly economy.

• Brand inspectors would not be able to inspect any of the cattle and sheep, which would drastically affect Wyoming ranchers.

• All state parks would close, affecting tourism and businesses in those areas with parks.

• Reimbursements to providers for healthcare clients would be stopped.  This would affect 65,000 members and would also cause hardships for hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, caregivers for disabled individuals and ambulance services.

• Inspection of meat plants would cease, and those plants would lose business and reduce available processing for producers.

• All capital construction and major maintenance would halt, and no contract or payments for any projects would be processed to contractors and vendors. It would halt 300 active projects, costing $23 million.

• The Wyoming DEQ would lose state primacy to regulate oil, gas and other activities, and the federal government would have to carry out these functions.

• Funding to weed, pest and predator districts would cease, resulting in the stoppage of mitigation projects, which would affect ag producers.

• The Office of State Land and Investments Forestry Division would not be able to provide fire suppression support. The fire aviation program would cease, and there would be no FEMA assistance for wildfires.

• The Wyoming Miners Board would no longer be able to process payments, which would affect medical care for thousands of miners who have worked or are still working in the mining industry.

• Tax collections from the Department of Revenue would cease and so would funding for local government budgets and major tax districts.

• Payroll would stop for more than 7,000 state employees, 1,500 community college employees and 3,000 UW employees. They would also be furloughed, and insurance reimbursements would stop.

• Any new oil and gas leases on state lands would cease, and some of the operating rigs in the state would have to lay them down.

• DFS payments to all service providers would stop, including to group homes, residential treatment centers, crisis centers and foster parents.

• The Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston could be forced to close, leaving vulnerable patients without a place to live and receive care.

This is just a small sample of the drastic consequences that can occur when we don’t pass a budget. I would note that our Joint Appropriations Committee worked very hard for almost a month before the session, as well as the governor and all of his department directors.

The budget we passed was 3% smaller than the last budget we passed and, yet, we will be able to put $700 million into savings and provide some much-needed revenue in the form of property tax relief to our Wyoming citizens.

The other main goal this year was to pass property tax relief, and we pushed the following bills across the finish line:

• HB3 will give long term owners who are 65 or older and have paid property taxes in Wyoming for the last 25 years a 50% reduction on their property taxes only on their primary residence.

• HB45 will place a 4% cap on all growth so that we won’t be seeing such huge increases like we have seen in the past two years.

• SF54 will give those who have property valued at less than $2 million, up to a 25% decrease, depending on how much their home is worth, and it is tiered.

• The property tax refund program has been adjusted to 165% of the median income in your county.

• SF89, the veterans exemption, will increase the annual ad valorem from $3,000 to $6,000.

Hopefully, voters will also take a close look at moving forward the legislation to separate the residential tax from the commercial and agriculture tax which will give the legislature a chance to tweak the percentage if we find out these bills are still not providing enough relief to our constituents. 

Two other bills that were somewhat controversial toward the end of the session were HB166 Education Savings Account and HB125 Repeal Gun Free Zones. I voted against both because I had many emails, texts and calls from my constituents who were not in favor of either of these.

It remains to be seen if the governor will sign either into law.

HB166 is clearly unconstitutional, as our Wyoming Constitution does not allow public funds to be used for private or religious institutions. Many of our homeschoolers also reached out with their concerns about this bill ,as well as many of our residents who truly believe we shouldn’t be wasting $20,000,000 of the taxpayer’s money for a bill that will end up in the courts.

If you want to see how vouchers don’t work, just do a little research into Arizona.

After the bill was amended many times, it still gives $6,000 per child in the hands of folks — even those who make $150,000 per year — to prop up private and religious schools. 

HB125 Repeal Gun Free Zones is a bill that I had voted for in the past. In fact, until this bill, I had never voted against any good gun legislation, but this bill in its present form and with all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars we have spent increasing security in our schools made me question whether it was needed.

What is always the most important reason, ultimately, for me to make a vote, is to hear from YOU. I heard from literally many hundreds of our residents who were not comfortable having guns in classrooms, UW and community colleges, government meetings, the Capitol, etc.

I offered an amendment to ask concealed carry folks to just get permission from local school superintendents, so that at least our school resource officers and law enforcement would know who would be carrying for the purpose of increased safety — but it failed.

I also believe in local control, and this bill took that away — but I appreciate those of you who took the time to call, email and text and just know that your voices are heard. Even though I didn’t vote for it, I hope it will increase safety, and that is always the goal — but I will always represent the wishes of the majority of folks back home.

The legitimate gun lobbies that testified on HB125 certainly added some valuable information. The one dilettantish gun lobby, in my judgement and in the minds of many Wyoming citizens (WYGo), doesn’t represent the majority of Wyoming citizens but will continue to show up once a year in Wyoming to spread misinformation.

You might want to do some research into this group from Iowa, which has been investigated, and, in the meantime, you may want to consider supporting legitimate groups like Wyoming chapter of Gun Owners of America, National Shooting Sports, the NRA, etc.

Lastly, the 67th Wyoming Legislature passed a reasonable and thoughtful budget and some good legislation, but we certainly killed some positive bills that could have helped our citizens. Hopefully, you will go to wyoleg.gov to see how your legislators voted on many bills instead of rating scales from those groups who won’t put their name on their sites.

It was a pleasure serving with Sen. Baldwin, who is retiring this year, and also Reps. Berger and Conrad. Thanks again for the opportunity to serve Uinta County, and I will be attending many groups in the upcoming months to give a more in-depth update of specifics on the budget and bills that passed.