Lawley works for priority funding after supplemental budget dies

The Wyoming Legislature was left scrambling to add some emergency funding to other bills after the State Senate announced it would not approve a supplemental budget.

Rep. Martha Lawley (R-Worland) said, “I was extremely disappointed by the Senate’s unilateral decision late Wednesday night (Feb. 26) to not pass a supplemental budget. This decision has created a lot of chaos concerning some essential funding that was in the supplemental budget. I believe there was a better way to handle this for the benefit of the people of Wyoming.”

She added, “We are frantically working to add amendments to fund the most crucial parts of the supplemental budget into other bills that are currently active. This is not a perfect solution.”

She said her Top 3 priorities are Developmental Disabilities waiver program, increase for case workers and care facilities for adults with developmental disabilities; full restoration of the wildfire fighting funds that were completely depleted in last year’s wildfire season and restoring the full External Cost Adjustment (ECA) for public schools.

Lawley said one example of adding to a bill still before the House are the amendments made to Senate File 125 to address caregivers and caseworkers for folks with developmental disabilities. This bill was on third reading Monday.

On Sunday, Lawley said, “I hope this passes.”

“Another concern I have about doing these emergency appropriations outside of the supplemental budget process is that we are not able to do “Budget Balancers” which is a process in budgeting where we provide authority to move money around among accounts to accomplish the directives of the supplemental budget. Without the ability to do “Budget Balancers” we are in danger of appropriating more money than is currently in the General Fund. That is why the way we are being forced to address these emergency concerns is not the best way to do it. But I will continue to work to address these issues.”

Lawley added on Sunday that it was too soon to see what would not be able to get funded, but noted, “anything that was in the supplemental budget that we can’t find a way to get done through amending pending legislation will not be funded.”

PROPERTY TAX

Senate file 69/Enrolled Act 60 that will provide a 25% property tax exemption for single family residential homes was approved by the House and Senate last week. According to the bill the exemption is only for the first $1 million of the fair market value of the single family residential structure. The exemption only applies if the property owner does not receive another tax exemption.

The bill goes into effect for the Jan. 1, 2025, tax year.

Regarding impact to Washakie County, Town of Ten Sleep, City of  Worland and other special districts, Lawleys said she is working to get refined numbers but believes the 25% reduction in residential property will result in a 4% reduction in revenues.

“The second year forward the 25% reduction will apply to owner-occupied residential property, which would be around a 3% reduction in the current local budget,” she said. Persons must reside at the property for at least eight months.

“But I want to be clear that the 25% number is a recent proposal and our local governments are trying their best to calculate the impact of it,” Lawley said.

With the People’s Initiative requesting a 50% exemption headed to the November 2026 ballot, Lawley said an amendment during concurrence was added that SEA 60 would be repealed as of Jan. 1, 2027, if voters approve the People’s Initiative. Otherwise there is no sunset for this property tax exemption.

On the concurrence, Lawley was “excused” noting she was over in the Senate negotiating to get HB 43 (Age Verification -protecting Kids from online pornography) out of Committee of the Whole the next day, which was the final day for COW.

“We don’t know in advance when these Joint Conference Committee Reports are going to pop up. I didn’t realize I had missed the vote until I returned to the House chamber. I would have voted “No” on the concurrence with the Joint Conference Committee Report. As I have done on every tax bill without backfill for hardship counties. My vote would not have changed the outcome, the conference committee report passed by a wide margin (more than 42 in favor).”

Lawley noted that the Supplemental Budget did have a provision for hardship county backfill, “but the Senate blew that up with their decision to not pass a Supplemental Budget.”

GUN FREE ZONE REPEAL

House Bill 172 was approved by both houses and Governor Mark Gordon announced his intention to allow the bill to go into effect without his signature.

Lawley said, “Ultimately, I was a yes on this bill because this is a constitutional right acknowledged in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I would have liked to have seen more local options for school districts. We tried to put these in last year – we were unsuccessful. The same efforts to give school districts some local control were also unsuccessful this session.”

Lawley added, “I am not unsympathetic to the challenges we have thrust upon [school districts]. I tried to balance the challenges that school districts now face by running an amendment to the Supplemental Budget to fund School Resource Officers in each district to help public schools evaluate and manage any additional safety risks. My amendment failed. I plan to continue to pursue this option in the budget session as well as more funds to secure our schools and keep kids and educators safe.”

SPONSORED BILLS

Governor Gordon signed the second bill sponsored by Lawley last week when he signed House Enrolled Act 26. According to the Legislative Service Office summary of the bill, “This act requires surgical abortion facilities (those that use surgery or medical tools to provide an abortion) to be licensed as an ambulatory surgical center. Each surgical abortion facility must comply with all rules of the Wyoming Department of Health concerning the operation and regulation of ambulatory surgical centers. Under this act, no surgical abortion facility can provide surgical abortions to any pregnant woman without first being licensed as an ambulatory surgical center.”

Surgical abortions must also be reported to the DOH.

Wellspring Health Access, a clinic in Casper that provides for abortions, filed a lawsuit in Natrona County District Court Friday, according to the Associated Press. The AP also reported the clinic is stopping providing abortions until a court ruling.

Lawley said she was not surprised by the filing, but added, “I believe it points out the very need for the regulation. If they needed to shut down and sue rather than comply with commonsense regulations, it makes me wonder just how “safe” this clinic really is.

She said she believes the court will uphold this legislation. “The Wyoming Legislature has the right to set regulations to protect the health and safety of the public. The Wyoming Constitutional provision about health care did not change that in any way.”

She said after the governor vetoed the bill last year she promised to bring it back and she did.

HB 60 Eligibility in Sports did not make it out of the Senate Education Committee by deadline last Thursday. “However, I was able to amend most of the policy from HB 60 into Senator Schuler’s sports bill SF 44. I am confident SF 44 will pass the House on Tuesday. I am hopeful the Senate will concur with the changes the House made,” Lawley said.

House Bill 43 on age verification for pornography passed Senate COW on Friday with significant support, Lawley reported.

“I am hopeful it will make it out of the Senate on Tuesday (third reading).”

EDUCATION FUNDING

According to an article in the Riverton Ranger by Sarah Elmquist Squires and Marit Gookin, the “State of Wyoming lost on every question in a lawsuit filed by the Wyoming Education Association over school funding.

“‘The funding model is unconstitutional,’ wrote Laramie County District Court Judge Peter H. Froelicher in his opinion. ‘The funding model is no longer cost-based. [It] does not properly account for inflation and does not accurately estimate the cost of personnel needed to deliver ‘the basket of goods,’ [IE: quality education].”

Regarding the ruling, Lawley, a member of the House Education Committee said, “I believe the court made a correct ruling based on the facts and the law. There was little doubt in my mind that past state legislatures had violated the Wyoming Supreme Court mandate to provide periodic External Cost Adjustments (ECA) to our public schools. ECAs are basically adjustments for inflation. Since I have been in the legislature, I have advocated for Full Ongoing ECAs to put us in compliance with existing mandates.”

Lawley said after this session the court’s ruling will be a part of the recalibration that will happen during the interim.

According to a Wyoming Tribune Eagle article by Hannah Shields, state lawmakers restored the full $66.4 million external cost adjustment on Friday, amending House Bill 136. The amount had been cut to $48.8 million. The bill is awaiting concurrence by the House.

FINAL WEEK

This is the final week of the 40-day session with adjournment slated for Thursday.

Lawley said people should watch Senate File 153. “This bill puts into statute what the people of Wyoming approved in the last election when they voted in favor of Constitutional Amendment A. The original bill just added the appropriate language but left the current percentage of assessed valuation that is taxed at 9.5%. But the bill was amended in the House to reduce the percent of assessed residential property valuation to be taxed from 9.5% to 8.3%.

She said on Sunday that the bill is slated for third reading in the House Monday.

“There are several proposed third reading amendments adding backfill. I will support backfill amendments and will support the bill if it has backfill,” she said.