Karla's Kolumn

Everyone’s talking about the first full week of the Trump Administration, but are you paying attention to what’s happening here in Worland and in Cheyenne.

Did you know — that the Worland school board voted Monday to no longer pay for the first meal out for athletic and other extracurricular activities? When I first saw it on the agenda I was surprised that they were actually paying for that first meal. When I attended Hot Springs County High School (yes a few years back) we as students were always responsible for that first meal, whether it be packing our own lunch or if everyone agreed to stop somewhere – fast food restaurant or convenience store — then we could buy something to eat.

I remember one trip where our law class went on a field trip to Rawlins. We stopped at a pizza place for lunch and my best friend at the time and I opted to split a large pizza. We had leftovers but it worked out perfect when the bus broke down on the way home and we had to wait for another bus to come.

The teacher actually ended up buying us dinner later that night as well, on the promise if the school didn’t reimburse him we would. The school did reimburse him.

But kudos to the Worland school district in looking at everything and every area for ways to cut costs with budgets expected to get tighter.

Did you know — that in Cheyenne, the Legislature, in these tight economic times, introduced legislation allocating $100,000 from the Office of Homeland Security for the total solar eclipse coming in August? The bill would provide the funding for local governments to apply for grant funding for help with the impact from an increase in people coming to the area to view the solar eclipse.

Thermopolis, who is in the path to view the total eclipse had scheduled a meeting to discuss preparations. It has been rescheduled for next month due to the snowstorm that hit Tuesday.

The bill also calls for a “Total Solar Eclipse Day” and allow state employees eight hours of administrative leave on Aug. 21 “or another day of the employee’s choosing.”

The bill has been referred to the Travel Committee.

Did you know — that if you own pigs and want to feed someone else’s garbage to your pigs you need to get a $1 permit and boil that garbage before feeding it to your pigs? There is current legislation in Cheyenne to increase the permit to $5.

Did you know — that there is legislation requiring sales tax on online purchases to Wyoming? The bill has passed the House and is now awaiting Senate action. Some argue the bill will hurt local businesses. I see the bill as making things more equal for businesses. In a world where more and more shopping is being done online, local retail shops are having a hard time competing. Add on top of that where they have to pay sales tax to the state and thus pass on that charge and charge sales tax to their customers, but online vendors don’t, doesn’t seem fair in my mind.

I don’t see it hurting customers much as we’re already paying sales tax locally.

And sales tax is, in my opinion, the fairest tax that can be levied as everyone pays it.

Did you know — that the Legislature has a bill on General File in the House to raise salaries for the top five elected officials, making them equal to the supreme court justices for the governor and to circuit court judges for the other officials? The raises amount to a $60,000 increase for the governor and $25,000 for the other elected officials. While I have no problem with the governor getting paid the same as a supreme court justice, I’m just wondering if now is the right time for such a significant raise increase. The problem with raises is they are ongoing costs. Once you give them you can’t go take it back.

There’s a lot happening in our backyard and while it is important to keep our eye on D.C., we can’t take our attention off what’s happening now in Wyoming and Worland and how decisions can impact our lives right now for the better or for worse.