Governor Dave Freudenthal vetoed 4 bills this session (actually he only vetoed certain portions of the Community College bill, so technically he only vetoed 3 full bills). But of those bills, 2 of the bills that he vetoed dealt with conservation districts [...]
The Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG) came out with their monthly report today regarding Wyoming’s revenue picture. We are 2.6% ahead on the sales tax projections and doing really well with everything else.
Severance taxes are ahead of projections by 12.8%
The Opal Hub price is currently $2.59 per mcf [...]
Good article today in Kemmerer paper describing the Workers’ Safety Study that the Judiciary Committee will be working on this year.
[...]
The vote will probably come tomorrow on the omnibus bill that includes both the protection of the Wyoming Range from oil and gas development and the designation of the Snake River as wild and scenic. These were both initiatives of the late Senator Craig Thomas. Both [...]
One of the more prevalent constituent calls I get quite often is complaints that the state moved away from embossed (raised numbers) license plates to the flat numbers on the license plate. When the prison in Rawlins moved to the new North Facility, they did not transfer the license plate [...]
I introduced two bills in the 2009 Wyoming Legislative Session that dealt with alternative energy. Both bills died in the House Minerals Committee.
One was House Bill 28 which you can read at HB 28 Text
This bill would have provided a sales tax exemption for hybrids and [...]
$66.5 million was added by the 2009 Legislature to school operations funding for school year 2009-2010. We add an inflationary adjustment every year (which we call the external cost adjustment (ECA)) and this year the external cost adjustment was 3.7% or $30.9 million statewide. What this means is that Teton [...]
The 2009 Wyoming Legislative Session is over and as part of that session the Wyoming Legislature approved a supplemental budget for 2009-2010. Wyoming works on a biennium budget, meaning that in every even year (2008 being the last budget session) we approve a $3.8 Billion budget for the upcoming two [...]
This is the press release that went out earlier today:
State Representative Keith Gingery of Jackson Hole, stated today that he agreed with Governor Dave Freudenthal’s veto of House Enrolled Act 89 (House Bill 262) Very Rare and Uncommon Areas. Governor Freudenthal vetoed the bill yesterday, March 12, 2009. Rep. Gingery [...]
The 2009 Wyoming Legislative Session is wrapping up this week. We voted on our last official bill today and now we are just waiting around for conference
committee reports to come back in, so we can vote on them. I was unable to keep up the blog this session because [...]
Someone asked the other day, what my normal day is like during a legislative session. Here is how today went.
5:30 Run 20 minutes on treadmill
6:30 Arrive at Capitol
7:00 Chair Judiciary Committee (I sit as the House Judiciary Chairman and we began our day today at 7 a.m. hearing testimony on [...]
In recent years the Wyoming Legislature has been patting themselves on the back for all of the great funding that they are providing for our children. We have become the best funded schools in the nation. In most rating systems that look at schools, Wyoming ranks as either #1 or [...]
The 60th Wyoming Legislature began yesterday with the swearing in ceremony and continued today on Wednesday with the State of the Judiciary speech by Chief Justice Voigt and also the State of the State address by the Governor. Since I am chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I listended perhaps a [...]
The Wyoming Eagle Tribune (the Cheyenne paper) had a good article today that describes the appropriations bill that we are trying to get passed for mental health and substance abuse.
The Jackson Hole News and Guide is reporting today that the Jackson Hole Airport Board, a public Wyoming airport board, is hiring Holland and Hart, a Rocky Mountain Law Firm, for $25,000 to lobby legislators in Cheyenne for them to get their own police force.
I was in Casper a [...]
The number one issue I hear about from constituents is property tax. On this blog we have discussed many different ideas and possible solutions to the property tax problem in Teton County. My pessimism toward a legislative solution increases every day, especially since Governor Dave Freudenthal came out with his [...]
A lodging tax is a tax that is placed on hotel rooms. In Wyoming the lodging tax can be either 1, 2, 3 or 4% depending on what the voters of that community decides. Teton County and Sublette county are the only two counties with no lodging tax. Teton County [...]
Local Governments bring in revenue from different sources including sales tax. Teton County relies more heavily on sales tax than other communities in the state. This has been seen as a good thing because the visitors to Jackson Hole end up paying for a large part of the government services. [...]
One of the provisions of the economic bailout bill that Congress passed last month was completely unrelated to the bailout bill, it was the mental health parity act. A bill that involves the budget has to start over in the House of Representatives. The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction [...]
Many of the seasonal temporary workers that work here in Jackson Hole are here on a H2B visa. These are visas that are issued for seasonal temporary unskilled workers. A large part of our hospitality industry relies on H2B visas. These visas are capped at 66,000 per fiscal year. One [...]
The Joint Appropriations Committee of the Wyoming Legislature makes a recommendation about this time every year as the "external cost adjustment" to school funding for the upcoming fiscal year. The Joint Appropriations Committee has recommended an external cost adjustment of 3.7% for the upcoming year. The legislature will vote on [...]
Now that the election is over, the Wyoming Legislature sets about to get ready for the next session that begins on January 13, 2009. Legislators will be working to get bills finalized in the next few weeks and will spend the end of November and December looking for co-sponsors for [...]
Had to stay up till midnight to finally find out what happened in Laramie and Campbell counties. Campbell county had so many new voters it took them awhile to get their results straightened out. The real suprise was that the numbers stay about the same. Lots of phone calls back [...]
Tomorrow we go to the polls to elect a president. But what is interesting is that we don't actually do this by a national popular vote. You will actually be voting for 3 electors to go to Cheyenne on December 15 and cast their ballot for the candidate with the [...]
On your ballot this year you will see multiple judges up for retention. You will have to vote Yes or No to retain the judge in office.
Wyoming uses the modified Missouri Plan to appoint Judges. When there is a vacancy in a judgeship, there is a committee of 6 [...]
On your ballot you are going to see two proposed amendments to the Wyoming Constitution. They are confusing to read and understand.
The first Amendment deals with the oath of office that all elected officials in Wyoming have to take. The present oath was written in 1890 and is lengthy, [...]
I have put together a comprehensive alternative energy bill that will include the folloiwing:
All new and renovated state buildings and schools over 5000 square feet must meet LEED certification. The U.S. Green Building Council has created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. States such [...]
I wrote a blog last week after attending the school board forum that listed the four candidates that I thought did really well at the forum. The four being Kate Mead, Robbie Farrow, Debbie Meagher, and Liz Dufault. I still really like those four, but I now have a quandry [...]
The all day forum format was a little long, but for those that made it over to the all day forum, it was well put together. The School Board Candidates went at 10 a.m. in the morning for a little over an hour. There are four open seats on the [...]
The first part is the press release that went out yesterday that explains the bill. The second part is the actual bill.
Press Release
State Representative Keith Gingery of Jackson Hole proposed a wolf bill today that will resolve the issues highlighted by Federal District Court Judge Molloy in his recent ruling [...]
Wyoming's unemployment rates increased slightly to 3.2% in June from the low of 2.9% in May. This is almost the same rate that we had last year at this time, which was 3.1% in June 2007. Once again Teton County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. [...]
The Wyoming Department of Employment - Research and Planning came out with an article this month in the Wyoming Labor Force Trends Newsletter that discusses wage gaps in Wyoming's counties. The research and article are by Sylvia Jones, a Senior Research Analyst at the department.
Ms. Jones relates that in [...]
I have been truly suprised at how excited people in Jackson Hole are about Sarah Palin. Ever since there started to be some discussions about Palin coming to Jackson Hole about a week or two ago, that is all I hear about wherever I go. There was a lot of [...]
Governor Palin's speech tonight accepting the vice-presidential nomination was amazing. I had no idea that there still existed a politician like her in America. I didn't think she could do better than she did last week when McCain originally introduced her, but she did. I was so impressed with her [...]
Many people have different ideas for improving our Driving Under the Influence (DUI) statutes. And in every legislative session there are 3-4 different bills proposing to do this tweak or that fix. The problem has been that the changes are being done piecemeal without an understanding of the full implications. Last [...]
As many of you know that read this blog regulaly, my committee, the Select Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, has been working on improving our mental health and substance abuse delivery system in the State of Wyoming. In 2005 I helped to pass a bill that created the [...]
I presently co-chair, along with Senator Aullman, the Select Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. At the end of July our committee met in Casper and voted to sponsor a bill in the 2009 Legislative Session that will change how workers' compensation deals with mental injuries.
Under the current [...]
This past weekend the Class of 1988 of Jackson Hole High School held their 20th Reunion. My class had about 100 graduates in 1988 and about 30 people showed up. Some from as far away as Virginia and Seattle. But there was about 10 of us there that still live [...]
This past weekend Cynthia Lummis, Republican Candidate for Wyoming's lone Congressional Seat, released a list of 31 State Legislators that are endorsing her for the upcoming Primay Election. I am one of those legislators that is endorsing her candidacy. Cynthia Lummis was in the Wyoming Legislature for many years and [...]
Wyoming State Senator Bill Vasey, a democrat from Rawlins, is the Chairman of the Americans for American Energy. [www.americansforamericanenergy.org] Senator Vasey's organization has combined with some other organizations to create a new group called the Stop the War on the Poor. [www.stopwaronpoor.org]One of the bills that they are supporting and [...]
The largest volume of phone calls that I get from constituents is on property taxes. And then it is issues surrounding H2-B Visas. But a close 2nd is workers compensation problems. When I was in private practice as a lawyer back in Lander, I used to represent employees within the [...]
About a year ago, I agreed to meet with a group of Chinese officials that were in Jackson and discuss Wyoming issues with them. Then I met with some folks from other countries, including Sri Lanka, Czeck Republic, Tanzania, Netherlands, Afghanistan, and some others. The State Department has this program [...]
Research and Planning of the Wyoming Department of Employment has come out with their 2008 projections for Industries and Occupations in Wyoming. Sara Saulcy, Senior Economist for the dept., points out that the data shows that Wyoming's population is projected to grow by 39,456 people between 2000 and 2020, an [...]
There were two very interesting articles lately in the Wyo Files blog. The first one deals with the lack of experience in the Wyoming House of Representatives by Marguerite Herman. [www.wyofile.com] and the other article deals with Barbara Cubin. [www.wyofile.com]
This morning the Wyoming Legislative Joint Committees for both Appropriations and Revenue met via televideo across the state. I do not sit on either of those committees, but I took the time to go and attend a portion of the meeting, since it was being done by teleconference over at [...]
The Wyoming Legislature has taken on as a very large project to overhaul the workers compensation program. Many of the problems lie with the present manner in which it is implemented by the executive branch, but there are also legislative changes that can occur. One of the smaller changes that [...]
The Wyoming Legislature Select Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse met on Tuesday at the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston. I serve as the Co-Chairman of the Select Committee. This was one of the most exciting and positive legislative meetings that he has ever sat through. The successes and the [...]
