Winters shares perspective on Legislative session

Rep. John Winters (R-Ten Sleep) said he believes that the citizens of Wyoming should understand a little about what happened at the budget session this year.
“First of all, everyone should understand that this year’s budget is the largest in state history. There was a real effort down there to increase the amount of money we could give back to the citizens of Wyoming. But it got defeated. Other than that, we got through it” He was referencing the property tax bills that were a part of this session.

PROPERTY TAX
Winters addressed concerns that were voiced by some regarding less tax money returning to counties, cities, towns, etc. “For one thing, the amount of money appropriated for the counties, cities, and towns has gone from $105 to $146 million. This money is for the direct distribution. As I mentioned right off the bat, this is the largest budget Wyoming has ever seen, but that is a real concern. And we didn’t give enough back to the citizens, I believe. There was an effort made several times to increase that to benefit the citizens, [but] it just would not happen.”
Winter added that he pities the county assessors because they are going to have to figure out all the exemptions that were passed in various bills.  Those bills were: HB0003, HB0004, HB0045, and SF0054. “When in fact there was only, I think, about a 2% benefit to the citizens altogether. We needed just one bill to get property taxes down. With four of them, I just don’t understand. To me, it seems almost impossible for these guys [county assessors] to make the right adjustments for everybody involved.”
The representative noted in a written document he provided, “it is important to remember that, with the exception of additional school funds, the counties and municipalities rely solely on the property taxes for funds, including water and irrigation districts.”

SF0111 MULE & WHITETAIL DEER SEPARATE HUNTING SEASONS
Winter said he was disappointed that this bill did not pass the House. It was brought forward to focus attention to the increased number of whitetail deer versus the reduced mule deer population. He introduced an amendment to put more pressure on the whitetail deer by reducing the price of the whitetail licenses. For politically motivated reasons, based on constituent options, the bill did not pass the House.
“The Game and Fish is trying to get something done. This would have helped if we could have got it passed.”

FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF LAND
There were four bills that addressed this issue. They were HB0168, HB0183, SF0102, and SJ0002. Winter said that none of these bills made it, which was a real disappointment to him. “It’s a serious problem in this country.”
SECOND AMENDMENT
Winters was pleased with two bills regarding the Second Amendment. Those were SF0109-Prohibit Red Flag Gun Seizure Act and SF0105-Wyoming Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act.  As of Monday, March 18, neither of the bills had been signed into law by Governor Mark Gordon.
Rep. Winter said he will be running for re-election in the fall. His current term ends Jan. 2025.