Legislative session wraps up

Despite there being very little business as usual going on across Wyoming, Governor Mark Gordon has signed a number of bills into law since the 2020 Legislative Session drew to a close. Of those that have been signed, one in particular will likely see the Sundance City Council breathe a sigh of relief.

The Omnibus Water Bill (construction) grants the city enough money to pay back Federal Emergency Management Agency funding that was used to re-site the Cole Water Storage tank in 2012 when it began falling off the hill.

Several years later, FEMA noticed that a National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) study was not done on the land to which the tank was moved. Despite several attempts to appeal the decision, the city was told to repay almost a quarter million dollars to FEMA.

Senator Ogden Driskill proposed in the months leading up to the legislative session that the repayment could be funded through the Omnibus Water Bill. According to HEA-93, the City of Sundance will indeed receive $225,000 for this purpose.

The main thrust of this year’s session was, of course, the budget, which the governor described as a sound fiscal plan while emphasizing that current events have dramatically altered the state’s fiscal outlook.

“Our world in these last four weeks has straddled an historic juncture,” Governor Gordon wrote to the legislature, noting freefalling markets and record-low commodities prices. “This budget urges government to use our limited resources prudently to advance the needed services our citizens depend on. We are a proud and resourceful people and I have never doubted our resolve to navigate through this storm.”

The Governor pointed out that over the past several years, Wyoming has seen record revenues collapse. Coal bankruptcies, low commodity prices and challenges to the agricultural sector are impacting how the state funds its schools, maintains its roads, and provides critical services. He used his line-item authority on 19 sections of the budget bill.

“As I have stated before, I do not believe across-the-board cuts will prove valuable in the task of balancing a budget,” he wrote. “Moreover, I point out Wyoming’s revenue sources have been and continue to be concentrated in the very sectors of the economy that are most volatile.”

Among the additional bills so far signed into law, many will have direct impacts on Crook County residents. Free lifetime licenses for birds, small game and fish will now be granted to any resident over 65 who has lived in Wyoming for at least 30 years in total (not counting years before the age of ten), as well as honorably discharged veterans who are disabled or purple heart medal recipients.

Free archery licenses will be granted to residents over 75 years of age and has continuously resided in Wyoming for 50 years.

A number of new ways will be introduced to allow donations towards wildlife conservation efforts related to the transportation system. These include a new option on vehicle registration applications, when applying for a license or tag, or a conservation stamp, and when applying for a permit to use state parks, recreation areas and historic sites.

The proceeds from such donations will only be used for conservation efforts, such as signage, wildlife corridors, wildlife crossings and game fences.

The state now allows remote education, in the sense that a teacher who teaches a course in a physical classroom setting may also teach it remotely to other students in the same district using interactive delivery. According to HEA-5, a course taught in such a way will not be considered “virtual education”.

HEA-89 authorizes electronic monitoring in long-term care units, and sets the guidelines as to what permissions would need to be given for a monitor to be placed in a patient’s room. The Long-Term Care Electronic Monitoring Act establishes that video cameras and other fixed surveillance devices can be used in a resident’s room and any recordings made would be the property of that resident or their representative.

An act supported by Driskill before the session began will now regulate “gray games” or skill games, which until now have been under very little regulation in terms of where they can be placed or what payouts are given.

“[HEA-95] does not really expand gaming, but it allows the ones that are out there to be regulated fairly tightly with somewhere you can go to if you think you’ve been cheated,” he said before the session.

SEA-41 creates the office of “guardian ad litem”, its director to be appointed by the governor. A guardian ad litem acts as an impartial person appointed by the court to represent children in contested custody cases.

HEA-85 creates a state school nurse, a position that will streamline communication between the three state agencies that school nurses currently answer to: Health, Education and the State Board of Nursing. The state nurse will set standards for healthcare in schools, provide training and collect data about health needs.

Speaking to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Thursday, Michelle Cordova, president of the Wyoming School Nurses Association, said the position could have been of great use as coronavirus arrived in the state. “We needed someone to be a liaison between the Department of Health and the superintendents, and provide accurate health information to all of the school districts,” she said.

The state now has its own budget department, thanks to SEA-58, which plucks the existing budget division from the department of administration and information and provides a director appointed by the governor. All of this will be done by August 15.

The bill also adds the director of the new department to the state’s financial advisory council.

Thanks to HEA-82, the state’s board of mixed martial arts is also getting a rework and will now be known as the Wyoming Combat Sports Commission.

A new Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology has also been created through HEA-73 to “develop knowledge and expertise among its members” in those areas and create legislation accordingly. HEA-84 meanwhile creates a Select Committee on Tribal Relations for matters pertaining to the Wind River Indian Reservation.