Wyoming Legislature update

Senator Wyatt Agar has been keeping busy the past couple weeks with budget negotiations, but reported Tuesday afternoon that it has been finalized and both chambers voted for it.

Agar noted the House added about $9 million over what the Joint Appropriations Committee — of which he is a member — had proposed, with the Senate cutting about $20 million from the committee’s recommendation, though following further negotiations both chambers wound up with about the same amount the joint committee had recommended.

With regard to education, Agar noted the external cost adjustment, or ECA, which is used to help Wyoming schools offset inflation, ended up right back at around $18 million, and school capital construction costs were kept at the original amounts recommended by the governor.

Agar further reported that both chambers voted in favor of Senate File 93 late last week. The bill would allow Wyoming Game and Fish to designate a grizzly bear hunt or relocation. He expects it to be signed into law this week.

A bill sponsored by Agar, Senate File 68, has also passed the House and the senator is waiting for the schedule from the governor as to when it will be signed into law. The bill calls for an act relating to food and drugs that would prohibit misrepresentation of a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry. Essentially, it helps consumers know they are buying meat harvested from livestock, poultry or exotic livestock or meat grown in a lab from stem cells of animals.

The meat bill is a major piece of legislation, Agar said, as nine other states are considering similar measures but are waiting to see what Wyoming does.

There are a couple contiguous bill forthcoming, Agar noted, and he is not in favor of either. One is House Bill 293, which would improve dilapidated housing at the University of Wyoming. Agar is particularly concerned that the bill calls for $88 million to be taken away from the legislative stabilization reserve account.

Agar is also against House Bill 220, which would impose a tax on big corporations that have more than 100 shareholders, though he knows this bill already has an uphill battle as it’s been laid back twice and struggled to be heard on the floor.

Another concern for Agar has been the state funded capital construction bill, Senate File 162, as it began at $20 million but due to people “hanging projects on it,” it grew to $119 million. Through negotiations the past couple weeks, he said, it has been brought back to that original $20 million.