Cooper: We are fixing Wyoming elections that aren’t broken

Senator Ed Cooper (R) Ten Sleep noted in a recent interview that there were 45 election integrity bills this session. 

“In the last 45 years we’ve had four prosecutable cases in the state of Wyoming of election fraud. We are fixing Wyoming elections that aren’t broken. I have 100% confidence in our county clerks. They are hardworking, great people with the utmost integrity. They do everything they can to make sure our elections are run properly. A lot of this year’s bills were a power grab.” 

Copper added that the Freedom Caucus killed 20 committee bills. 

“Those are the bills the committees work on during the spring and summer (interim topics). The committees spend hours and upwards of  $1 million to vet, listen to testimonies … the committees met at least three times for two days. The meetings were scattered around the state. They were 100% ready to go but the bills fell out of that caucus’ agenda, so they killed them.” 

He doesn’t know how much time and expense went into the efforts to kill the bills. 

DARK MONEY 

Cooper sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 008 to address money spent in Wyoming from out-of-state groups, known as “dark money,” to influence elections. 

He said the speaker of the house (Rep. Chip Neiman) buried the resolution in his drawer. “We convinced him to bring it out. I put it through the Judiciary Committee (on Feb. 27). It passed out of that committee with a vote of 9-0. But the House kept their Friday evening short as a Committee of the Whole (COW) and left a pile of bills undealt with. We had to be done as a COW by (Feb. 28). The House left at a reasonable time instead of staying late. The Senate was prepared to stay all night if that is what it took. Because they chose to leave early, they left a lot of good bills on the table. It was pretty disappointing.” 

SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET 

For the first time the legislators did not pass a supplemental budget. The senator described the process that led to conclusion.

“The House position was extremely rigid, with no compromise whatsoever. After two tries it was time to walk away. That is what happened. 

“The biennium budget that we passed a year ago is still in effect. This is the budget we are operating on. It is not like we don’t have a budget. In a budget year we make that budget for two years then we have a supplemental budget. What died is the supplemental budget. We still made our constitutional requirement.” 

 Cooper said it was a move in fiscal responsibility. “We were looking in the neighborhood of $500 million of reduced revenues for the state looking forward to next year.  There were a few things that were critical that we got covered in other bills such as restoring the fire funds. With that said, I think there were some cuts there are going to hurt. Overall until we see how things shake out with the price of oil being down 20%, that is a major loss to our severance taxes and with the shift in sales tax, it is going to be significant to the state.” 

Cooper said the Senate was prepared in case the supplemental didn’t pass. “We had contingency plans for every fund that had to be funded. For example, SF0148 (Fire suppression & restoration funding). The House sat on it, stuck it in a drawer, and then realized all at once, crap what are we going to do. They drug it out and amended it to SF0152. Had they done the right thing and passed that bill forward… (SF0148) had a trigger on it. It said it would only go into effect if the supplemental budget failed. We had done things on the Senate side to prepare for whatever eventuality came out of this budget.” 

In his opinion, the House was not prepared. 

SF0069-Homeowner property
tax exemption 

The final bill gives residential homeowners an exemption on 25% of the fair market value of a single-family residential structure and associated improved land, provided that the exemption shall only apply to the first $1 million of the fair market value. 

Cooper added there is no backfill or sunset date. The bill does not affect industrial or ag properties. This means that a lot of the special districts that fall under agriculture will not be affected. An example is irrigation districts. 

“What is affected is anything directly related to residential. Even though the district may not be solely related to residential it will still be cut. Like cemetery, landfill, county roads…the counties are taking a pretty big hit. In the meantime, we did a sales tax shift,” eferring to HB0033 

HB0033-Vehicle sales and use tax distribution-highway fund 

“When you buy a vehicle and you pay your sales tax, the state portion of that tax will now go to WYDOT rather than the state,” said Cooper. “That is a major change in revenue for the state.” 

Cooper expounded that when talking about the $500 million in lost revenue he discussed before, this change will help. The sales tax money from this change may only go toward maintenance and reconstruction of state highways, not federal highways. Federal highways include I-80, U.S. Highway 310 and U.S. Highway 14/16/20. These types of highways receive matching funds from the federal government. State highways such as Wyoming Highways 30, 31, 32 & 35 will qualify for these funds. 

“We need to figure out how we are going to keep our infrastructure up and running. It is a major cut in the general fund of the state, but we need to cut spending.” 

HB0199-(now called) Steamboat
 Legacy Scholarship 

The bill did pass both the House and the Senate. Opponents are urging Governor Mark Gordon to veto the bill. Cooper noted that the legislation can override the veto on any 2025 legislation that was done before Feb. 28. Anything the last week can also be overridden; however, it would take a special session. 

SF0186-Advance Nuclear Reactor Manufacturing fuel storage

“The Freedom Caucus killed this bill last week,” said Cooper. “This bill could be a shift in the entire Wyoming economy as we move forward into revitalizing the nuclear energy. What was said about this bill by its opponents was short sided and misinformation. We are doing everything we can to make sure we don’t lose those manufacturers.” 

This bill will be an interim topic.  

HB0323 SNAP-Supplemental
Assistance Nutrition Program 

This bill died in the House last week. Cooper feels if it had passed there would  have a severe negative impact on the sugar industry, soda industry and can industry locally.