Legislative Update

The 2022 Wyoming State Legislature Budget Session has ended and if you have not been watching the nightly updates I do with Representative John Bear on our Facebook pages then here are some of the high points.

I want to start out by saying thank you for allowing me to serve you in the Wyoming House of Representatives. It has truly been an honor. This was a 20 working day session and by doing a short session a lot was accomplished in a very short amount of time.

REDISTRICTING

Two of the biggest issues were redistricting and the biennial budget. As I told many before heading down to the legislature, redistricting was going to be a long and drawn-out ordeal.

It was resolved and voted on with about 45 minutes to spare of the session (11:45 pm Friday).

The new plan will have 62 representatives and 31 senators. Currently we have 60 and 30.

The reason for this change is it to help us as a state stay closer to the allowed +/- 5% deviation between districts. We were having major problems with the Bighorn Basin and with the southeast corner, which was affecting the rural districts to the north.

There were some last-minute situations in Sheridan and Natrona counties but finally these were resolved thus allowing the statewide plan to go through.

This would all have been a lot easier if we could have followed our Constitution, but that was an absolute no-go due to one-man one-vote. But, I digress.

I do believe this plan will help our rural areas be better represented as we see most of our population growth in the larger urban areas. We must protect our rural voice.

BUDGET

The next biggest issue was the budget. I personally have never seen so much money thrown around in my life.

We voted on a $2.7 billion dollar biennial budget for state agencies with an additional $.958 billion of ARPA Direct funds as well.

This figure could be closer to $1.5-1.75 billion when you consider CARES Act funding. Like I said, a lot of money.

K-12 education was also injected with $503 million dollars from CARES, ESSR 1, ESSR 2 and the like. These funds went directly to the districts while others are available for reimbursement to the districts from the WDE.

I did vote to allow districts to keep up to 30% of the monies they receive instead of the current 15%. They will be able to do this for two years in an effort to help them better utilize the funds they are receiving from these injections.

The thought being, they can save these funds for later use instead of having to spend unnecessarily or lose the dollars.

I trust they will use these dollars wisely.

Just so you know, I did vote to spend on projects that in my opinion would have long term benefit to our state. For example, water infrastructure for our municipalities, renovation and creation of water facilities to keep more water in Wyoming working in Wyoming, large project funding to develop and sustain our forests and rangelands in District 1.

There was no appetite to return these Biden bucks, so I felt the wisest use would be something that would have long term benefits to our communities moving forward.

As far as individual legislation, one, if not the biggest, triumph of the session was the passage of HB 92. Supreme Court decision banning abortion. This is a trigger bill that will ban abortions in Wyoming upon the overturning of ROE vs WADE.

In its initial form, all abortions would have been banned but, when it got to the Senate, an amendment was made that would allow abortions in the case of rape and incest.

Senator John Kolb was ready on third reading to remove that amendment but, when he asked the Governor if he would sign it without the amendment, he got the clear impression that he better leave it in there. I have a real struggle with this because this is discrimination against babies that had no say in how they were conceived.

I do not believe their murder will make a horrible situation better. It is still a little person who deserves to live.

We worked on local distribution and reworked how communities qualify, which will see more of these dollars going to smaller towns.

Much of the $458 million that was cut from the budget last year was replaced, but we must realize that this injection is a one-time deal and not spend or create needs that we will not be able to sustain going forward.

There is a lot more to talk about but typing is not my forte and I will be having meetings starting in a couple weeks to go over what happened in all the communities so hopefully I will be able to see you and we can visit in person.

Again, thank you for allowing me to be your representative. It is an arduous task but one I am glad to do. Please call, text or email me with questions and if you don’t reach me, leave a message and will get back to you.

Please pray for wisdom and discernment, I need it to be an effective legislator for you.

And a special thank you to all of you who have let me know you are praying for my family and I as we work our way through this responsibility.

Honored to serve. May the Lord richly bless you all.

Very Respectfully,

Chip Neiman

Representative House District #1