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Mental health and addiction emerge as legislative priorities
The state’s mental health and substance abuse treatment network took center stage early in the 2021 legislative session as lawmakers advanced bills to ease licensing requirements in an effort to bring...
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Bill would open up personnel files of top state brass
A new bill would make much of the personnel files of high-ranking, and highly paid, state employees public record. The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee sponsored Senate File 20 – Public...
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Lawmakers pass bills to protect tax revenue from coal bankruptcies
Lawmakers have finalized a pair of bills designed to guard against delinquent and unpaid mineral-production taxes and strengthen the ability of local governments to collect those debts in the event of...
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Water bills spend millions on dangerous, aging infrastructure
Lawmakers appropriated $24.3 million for water development, earmarking significant funding to rebuild the old and suspect LaPrele Dam above Douglas and repair a domestic water line to Midwest and...
View ArticleIt’s time for a just transition in Wyoming
In some of the most ambitious climate action steps ever taken by the U.S. government, the Biden Administration has announced an executive order pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands. Among...
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Lawmakers weigh tax relief for oil and gas, again
When it was conceived, the draft bill to temporarily cut by half the 6% production severance tax on oil and natural gas was intended to help spur drilling and production in Wyoming as the industry...
View ArticlePolice officers should patrol for safety, not profit
Laws have improved in Wyoming since musician Phil Parhamovich passed through the state on tour in 2017. Unfortunately, the same money-making scheme that allowed the government to go after his life...
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School finance: Lawmakers’ biggest remaining challenge
Some hefty matters await Wyoming lawmakers when they reconvene March 1 for the final stage of this most unconventional 2021 legislative session. The supplemental budget bill looms large, and with good...
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The 2021 legislative session is upon us. Here’s what to expect.
CHEYENNE — After a year of operating from their basement offices, places of business and occasionally even backyard patios, the members of Wyoming’s 66th Legislature have finally returned to the floor...
View ArticleIf offered a decade of healthcare funding, will Wyo accept?
Wyoming lawmakers have long argued that the state cannot afford to update its Medicaid program to cover low-income residents. They say it’s just too expensive. It would be a “waste of time” for the...
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Game and Fish eyes backups should courts shut elk feedgrounds
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is making contingency plans to replace winter elk feedgrounds that might be shut by a court order, the agency’s director told a legislative committee last week. A...
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A virus hangs over the Capitol
CHEYENNE – In normal years, the first day of the legislative session in the Wyoming Capitol has certain hallmarks. Lawmakers smile from their seats, applauding speeches from leadership. School...
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As Wyoming faces crisis, Gordon pitches opportunities
CHEYENNE — Gov. Mark Gordon delivered his third-ever State of the State Address to the Wyoming Legislature on Tuesday, cutting trail for the body as it sets to work navigating the state through one of...
View ArticleFind the freshmen
Week one of the Wyoming Legislature’s in-person session in the Capitol is nearly in the books, and for freshman lawmakers, the flurry of readings, introductions and floor debates likely felt like...
View ArticleCritics should pause themselves to consider leasing pause potential
You could argue it’s my nature as an entrepreneur to spot opportunities. Is it too much to hope for that, when presented with an opportunity to make things better, our state and national officials...
View ArticleWyo leaders should focus on the facts in tackling budget crisis
An open letter to Wyoming leaders: With deep concern for Wyoming’s future we need your focus on the critical issues and facts facing our state. 1. Coal, oil and gas production will continue to...
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Week 51: The pandemic in Wyoming from Feb. 27-March 5
Lawmakers returned to the Capitol in Cheyenne this week to resume in-person session work following a year of mostly virtual meetings held to limit the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccinations ramped...
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Guns, abortion, and election law: week one of the session
CHEYENNE – After the gavel fell Thursday morning, Wyoming’s Speaker of the House Eric Barlow (R-Gillette) picked up a stack of paper nearly one foot in height, warning members of the chamber of the...
View ArticleWyo’s GOP is trying to make it harder to vote, even for Republicans
Let’s just say it right up front: A Medicare card is not an ID. It doesn’t have a photo. It doesn’t have an address. It doesn’t have eye color or hair color. It is printed on paper that can be...
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The House vs. Senate tug-of-war over budget wants and needs
CHEYENNE — In 1984, children’s book author Dr. Seuss published “The Butter Battle Book,” a story of two warring factions of creatures, the Yooks and Zooks, who allow their disdain for one another’s...
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