Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND - When the Wyoming Legislature begins work for the 2022 budget session they will have a "tight 20-day schedule" to get through the budget, redistricting and distributing the American Rescue Plan Act federal funds.
State Rep. Mike Greear, who is the speaker pro tempore, said the legislative leadership is "determined to get through this in the 20 days." Some legislators have tossed around the idea of having a special session following the budget session to work on other bills.
He said redistricting will take a lot of time and the nine committees will each have a handful of bills to work, along with the budget and the ARPA funds of $1.2 billion.
Regarding ARPA funding he said the governor has his priorities "that aren't as flushed out as they need to be. The ARPA funds will be utilized for replacement funds, which gives us some freedom within the general fund for maybe some short-term savings, long-term savings, reinvestment in capital projects, for re-funding programs that have been cut in the past."
He said some legislators are still in the cut mode, while the governor is trying to set aside larger buckets for energy development, economic development, education, and down the list. But it's fine to set in these larger buckets but if we don't have a clear plan on how to spend it, in my opinion, we need to spend a little time and energy planning with a clear strategy and not just spending money to spend it. That's what scares me going into this session. There's going to be a lot of spending because of all of the federal dollars without good planning behind it."
As chairman of the House Minerals Committee he has been spending time working on energy development. "We've got a series of opportunities in the state of Wyoming that are lining up with national priorities," he said, including nuclear energy and hydrogen development.
Another opportunity is carbon capture, sequestration and utilization, which Greear has been working on for several years. He said, "Coal-fired electricity is a very good base for the foreseeable future for electrical generation and national energy security. There are still the targets out there to have two capture facilities in the U.S. and our goal is to have one of them in Wyoming."
Regarding personal bills, Greear said he scaled back this year but he took the lead on a Judiciary Committee bill. The bill would increase the cap on county attorney salaries. Currently the cap is at $50,000. The bill would raise the cap to $100,000.
The State Constitution says the legislature sets the county attorney salaries. The state pays only $50,000 with a cap at $100,000. He said the state should allow counties to pay above the $100,000.
As for the budget Greear said Wyoming had "a pretty good year as a state without ARPA funds."
As chairman of the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, he said there is one bill that returned after they looked at it several years ago.
House Bill 45 authorizes and requires the Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Quality Council to establish a voluntary assigned trust option for reclamation bonds.
Greear said the bill allows mining companies to shift the bond requirements from surety bonds into the designated trust. He said the funds are there for bonding as needed, they are secure from creditors and it ensures good bonding for reclamation.
The committee also set up a program for the Wyoming Business Council to provide assistance with respect to the transfer of small businesses. "We had the discussion that this was a need in Wyoming, small town Wyoming in particular."
Under the bill loans can be guaranteed for succession of small businesses. "We see that a lot in Worland and Thermopolis," Greear said.
