I noticed that in last week’s update, I mislabeled House Bill 102 as the Elk Feed Ground Closings-Requirements (I fully blame it on copy and paste error). My apologies; it is actually the Wyoming Preference Act. This bill passed the Committee of the Whole (C.O.W.).

As for the Elk Feed Ground Closings-Requirements (HB 101), it passed second reading in the House.

HB 06, Enrolled Act No. 2: This establishes procedures for mergers of acquisitions of supervised trust companies.

HB 16, Improvement and Service Districts Limitations: This bill was strongly opposed by special service districts around the state, including HRSID in Hoback Ranches. This bill would have limited the ability of special service districts to self-govern. I strongly opposed this bill, and we were able to table it in committee, with the help of many people who called in to testify.

HB 26, Fuel Tax: It failed in the House Revenue Committee.

HB 52, Wyoming School Protein Enhancement Project: This bill provides funding for school districts to be able to increase the use Wyoming meat products in their school meals. This bill passed the House and the Senate and was passed back to the House for Concurrence.

HB 98, Public Heath Orders – Reforms: This failed on introduction.

HB 162, Medical Treatment Opportunity Act: This bill allows for Medicaid expansion. This attempt has been brought up in previous years and was unsuccessful. This is the farthest this bill has ever progressed. It passed the House, crossed over to the Senate and introduced into the Senate Labor Committee. This bill would open up the opportunity for low-income earners to have health care. It has substantial federal funding. If you support this legislation, contact the members of the Senate Labor Committee.

HB 173, School Finance Funding: This bill has received a lot of press and attention. It has been vigorously debated. This bill was amended many times and is seen by House leadership to be the best option in terms of education cuts. This bill passed the House and will cross over to the Senate. The Senate has its own bill, so some compromise will need to happen. I will report out more on this issue.

HB 182, Personal Income Tax: This bill failed on introduction.

HB 189, Mine Product Taxes for Natural Gas Consumed On-Site: That clarifies the severance tax on natural gas that would normally be flared or vented. This gas, which is byproduct of oil drilling and can be legally vented, is now being captured and used for electrical generation on-site. Interestingly enough, in turn, this electrical generation provides for “mining” of bitcoins onsite also.

HB 209, Regulation of Marijuana: It died in the House. Wyoming is one of only six states where marijuana is fully illegal.

SF 16, New Net Metering Systems: This bill was killed in the House Corporations Committee. With vital input from ranchers and many other home electrical generators including rooftop solar, these citizens testified against the idea of this bill that home generation of electricity was subsidized. I was strongly against this bill and worked hard to stop its progress.

These are only a portion of the bills that were discussed in the House. For a full picture, please go to wyoleg.gov.

Stay well and stay safe.

Jim Roscoe, HD 22