Cooper: ‘We did the right things on the State’s Budget’

Senator Ed Cooper (R-Ten Sleep) feels that last week’s session on the Senate side was productive. 

“We did the right things on the budget. It is a sound budget and I’m comfortable with it,” Cooper said.  He added he was surprised how quickly the budget passed through the Joint Conference Committee. “After all the nonsense we listened to from the Joint Appropriations Committee and the Freedom Caucus, yet in 15 minutes the budget was agreed upon. That tells me that they understood that the people of Wyoming were upset with them. They reached out too far and made cuts for the sake of making cuts and for retaliation.” 

VETOES 

The Senate overrode seven of Governor Mark Gordon’s line-item vetoes.  These overrides were sent to the House. There four of the seven were overrode. It takes 2/3 of both the House and the Senate to override the Governor’s veto. 

Cooper went on that he voted the way he did on the vetoes. 

“I feel like the vote to overturn the veto must be at a higher-level scrutiny and even considered a bill. I read the Governor’s thoughts very carefully and waded through them. All the overrides were based on language vs. dollars. One of them I did override was for a forensic audit of the High Bay Lab at the University of Wyoming (UW).” 

He continued that it is a world class lab. There have been some questions over the last few years regarding finances. He added that he doesn’t believe there is any issues. At the same time, he thought the state should get the audit done to end the speculation. 

“If there is a problem, we’ll find it. If there isn’t a problem, then we don’t need to hear anything more about it,” Cooper said.  

Another veto override passed by the Senate was largely over the separation of power between executive and legislative branches. Cooper voted to sustain the Governor’s override. In question was who manages the number and status of state employees. The legislators restored pay raises but also set guidelines for these. The Governor said it was overreach. 

DIRECT DISTRIBUTION 

Like the Senator has advocated for, the state’s direct distribution program was codified. This means that the distribution securing 8% of the prior fiscal year’s statewide sales and use tax revenues will go to local governments. The money may not be used for salary increases, additional personnel or personnel benefits. 

“Not only did we get it codified, but we also have a good solid number in there. Now the towns, cities and counties can plan on what they have coming. That was good legislation,” Cooper said.  

SCHOOL RECALIBRATION 

Cooper explained he would have liked to have seen more local control in the recalibration. “But what we passed was so much better than what we started with,” he said. “That bill was made by the House side before it came to the Senate. They killed it on introduction. We (Senate) brought it forward. Our education committee did a heck of a job working that bill.” 

Cooper explained the committee would bring it back to the Senate.  The Senators would point out what worked and what didn’t work, especially for small schools.  Cooper relayed they were able to get protections in for the small schools, like those throughout the Big Horn Basin. There are some silos in the bill for teacher and superintendent salaries. Everything else is basically a block grant. 

SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTION ACT HB 130/SF 101 

These twin measure bills were opposed by all 23 sheriffs in Wyoming. The HB was defeated in the Senate. The Governor vetoed SF101 on March 10.  President Trump’s administration sent Gordon a letter supporting the veto.

Cooper explained the optics of the bills:  In 2022 the Legislature passed a second amendment protection act bill that is in place currently. It has been touted as the best second amendment protection act in the nation. In 2023, the lobbyist group Wyoming Gun Owners came back to the legislators with amendments. 

“What it amounted to was the same thing that was in the Missouri second amendment protection act, which was repealed in Missouri. Every year this group comes back with amendments. This year probably had the least number of amendments asked for,” Cooper said. 

The bill said a police officer cannot help the Federal Government solely to confiscate guns. “They can work with the Feds on everything else, but solely – that’s important – to confiscate guns.“I’m pretty torn on the bill. We already have a good second amendment protection act. I was right in the middle of that act to make it happen. It is in place now and I’m very proud of it. While there may be various reasons to pass it this year, it doesn’t hurt the current act. We will work through any issues law enforcement has with it and look at it next year.” 

HB 10 -SEXUALLY Explicit MATERIAL IN Libraries 

Cooper noted it is a bill with a good title, but had a bad bill attached to it. 

“If that bill would have passed as it was written, it would have put the Meeteetse and Ten Sleep libraries at risk of closing. Those two libraries are combined with school libraries,” Cooper said.    

Cooper stated that he voted against the bill, not because he wants sexually explicit material available to children. 

He furthered explained that in Meeteetse the public library is in the school but with a separate outdoor entry for the public. When he spoke to the librarian in Park County, she told him she would probably have no choice but to close the public access to the Meeteetse library if the bill would have passed the way it was written. 

In Ten Sleep, the school has their books in the county public library. In Washakie County, the libraries lost over $100,000 in funding due to property tax cuts. If the school would have had to pull their books, it could have taken another $30,000 of funding from the library. The public library in Ten Sleep would likely have to close. Again, as the bill was written. 

Cooper said that part of the reason it wasn’t a good bill was because it was a big national bill. He calls them “Social Media bills.” 

“Great title, but the title wasn’t everything the bill did. It allowed for any person to walk in a library and say, ‘I don’t like this book and I want it removed.’ If the book was not removed it allowed for that person to be able to sue the library, the county, the school, the librarian, whomever.”

He has asked the State Library Association to take the bill, review it, figure out the compliant process, etc. He will write it into a bill and sponsor it. 

“This is how a bill should be done,” Cooper said. “We get the stakeholders involved. On HB 10, nobody called the library associations to get their input. They just pushed this national bill on us. Maybe in bigger communities it is a problem but our librarians in the Big Horn Basin do an excellent job and we trust them. Those books are not in the children’s section.” 

The senator noted, ironically, that had the bill become law, it would not have been allowed in the libraries with the book of other state statutes. The bill itself has sexually explicative language and illustrations. 

COTTONWOOD CANYON TRAILS SYSTEM 

Senator Cooper said he worked closely with Senator Dan Laursen (R-Powell) to get the appropriations for $1.2 million through the Senate. It went to the house and was cut to $400,000 with a match requirement. When the bill went to the Joint Conference Committee, the amount approved for any trail project is $800,000 with a 1/1 match. 

Cooper voted ‘no’ on the conference amount with the hope it would go back and be increased. It did not. “Maybe if we can raise $200,000, we can have at least $400,000 to start on the trail system,” he said.