Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
At the close of the third week of the 2024 Wyoming Legislative Budget Session, District 20 Senator Ed Cooper (R-Ten Sleep) stated that the process of reaching concurrency on the budget was behind schedule.
He said in an interview Sunday, “The appropriations committee has until Monday to finish the budget, and we’ll either approve it or disapprove it on the floor. If we can’t do that, then a new committee is appointed and we basically have until the end of the week to get this worked out; if we don’t get it done, there are three more days available to stay. Keep in mind, it costs $100,000 a day to stay in session, so I think we have a responsibility to get this budget out.”
He added, “We asked for a report on the status of the budget negotiations on Friday. The chairman of appropriations only told us, ‘negotiations are continuing,’ he wouldn’t give us any information. I’m not sure why it’s a secret, but we’d sure like to know where we’re at.”
After Cooper made these comments in an interview on March 3, the budget failed to reach concurrency on Monday, and a new committee was appointed.
Budget issues aside, Cooper had news on the progress of several bills to report. He said, “I thought we had a pretty progressive week last week. We came together on some things; again, there’s some division, but overall I think the week went pretty well.”
PROPERTY TAX
EXEMPTIONS
Cooper stated that legislators had settled on three property tax exemption bills to provide immediate relief to taxpayers.
Senate File 0054, Homeowner tax exemption, provides relief to all residential property owners capped at $200,000 of the fair market value of the property. Cooper said, “That’s going to have a huge positive effect for us here in the Basin … but the big worry with that bill was that there was no backfill to the counties. Well, right now the state has a little extra money, so we put a backfill in there to the counties, municipalities and special districts to keep them whole. There is a sunset on it a couple years out, and if we fall into hard times as a state again, it may be repealed; you need to keep that in mind.”
Senate File 0054 has passed out of both Senate and House committees, and was approved by Committee of the Whole in the House on March 5. Deadline for third readings in the second house for bills is Thursday (today).
Meanwhile, Cooper said that House Bill 0045 will provide relief via implementation of a 5% cap on how much property taxes can increase per year.
Lastly, House Bill 0003 will provide additional property tax exemptions to Wyoming residents of 25 years and over and at least 65 years of age.
Both House Bill 0045 and House Bill 0003 have passed out of the House and were approved on second reading in the Senate on March 5.
Cooper said, “Between those three, I think we’re going to get some real meaningful property tax relief for everyone, and it should be across the board, it should be equitable, and we’ve taken a hard look at it to make absolutely sure that it’s constitutional.”
PERSONAL BILLS
Cooper is sponsoring Senate File 0074, Special districts-reversal of dissolution for noncompliance. This bill allows county commissioners the discretion to not dissolve special districts that are momentarily noncompliant rather than dissolving and reestablishing them. He said, “It’s going right on through, that seems to be in pretty good shape.”
Senate File 0074 has passed through both the Senate and the House, and is awaiting signature by Governor Mark Gordon.
He is also sponsoring Senate File 0089, Veterans ad valorem exemption-amount. This bill increases the annual exemption on property taxes afforded to veterans from $3,000 to $6,000 annually. Cooper said, “That’s got a lot of really positive feedback. The only thing that the House has wanted to do to it since they got it is to increase the exemption even more. We asked them not to do that; Let’s keep it where it’s at, and make sure it can get through appropriations. It’s a good solid exemption, and if we need to bump it up in a few years, we can.”
Senate File 0089 has also passed through both Senate and House committees, and was placed on general file in the House on March 5.
ENERGY
Over the last week in the Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, Cooper said they were able to pass some important CO2 sequestration bills.
“One of them was House Bill 0032, and what it does is it tightens up the requirements for unitization for CO2 sequestration to protect landowners and their neighbors more. It also simplifies things for the oil and gas side of things. It’s good legislation; it’s necessary to tighten things up,” Cooper said.
He added, “On the House side, Senate File 0042 is going through. That’s the one that the generators are asking for help on, to make sure that our statutes keep them in line with [Internal Revenue Service] and [Environmental Protection Agency] requirements. It keeps them in line with low-carbon energy production standards.”
House Bill 0032 is awaiting the governor’s approval. Senate File 0042 has passed through second reading in the House as of March 5.
CHLOE’S LAW
Cooper spoke about Senate File 0099, also known as Chloe’s law, which seeks to prohibit gender change procedures from being performed on children under the age of 18. Cooper said, “This one I’m torn on; I fully agree with the concept of it, but we have fought really hard to protect parental rights, and to say that health care decisions are the right of parent to make; now we’re deciding it’s only the right of the parent when we want it to be, and I struggle with that. I originally voted no on it, but I changed my vote to an ‘aye’, and we got the bill through and it will probably be in the courts also.”
Chloe’s law has passed second reading in the House of Representatives as of March 5.
“We’re continuing to really test our courts and see if our moral values are constitutional,” Cooper added.
GUN FREE ZONES
Cooper stated in the interview that Monday’s conversations on House Bill 0125 would be difficult. A controversial bill, House Bill 0125 would repeal gun free zones across the state. The “do pass” vote failed in the Judiciary Committee on a 2-3 vote, however the Senate voted 16-15 to recall the bill from committee and it was debated by the Committee of the Whole Tuesday and approved.
Cooper on Sunday had said, “The chatter on it has been really strongly against, both in our district and out … I spoke with an educator who grew up in Otto and now teaches in the Cheyenne area, and she educated me on how what’s right for Washakie County schools doesn’t necessarily apply in bigger cities where they have more frequent gun safety issues.”
He added, “She understood our dilemma, I’m very much pro Second Amendment and I think that gun free zones infringe on that somewhat … Again, we’re back to the constitutional issue; I’m afraid that the gun free zones infringe on gun owner rights, but I’m also really concerned about student safety.”