The legislature adjourned from the 2021 Regular legislative session with one remaining major issue failing to be resolved... education financing. The Guest Article by former Rep. Mike Madden, Chairman of the Revenue Committee, is reprinted in this Newsletter.
The attached 2021 Final Bill Tracking Report closes out the Regular Legislative Session as almost all bills have been signed. A few malingering measures must be giving the Governor pause as stakeholders await his signing them into law. Here is what remains as of this publication.
HB-0158 "Local land use planning and zoning" and SF-0157 "Property rights - limitation on local authority", both place limitations on local governments from requiring or conditioning compliance with local land use plans that restrict private property rights. Both bills have specific nuances that need to be harmonized. The Governor is holding discussions with bill sponsors (Rep. Harshman & Sen. Driskill on HB-0158 and Sen. Hicks on SF-0157). Watch for an interim topic possibly to resolve differences.
SF-0085 "Property tax - reporting and exemption." Sen. Affie Ellis and Rep. Mark Baker ushered this legislation through the legislature with lots of procedural maneuvering. The bill died in the Senate before being reconsidered and narrowly passed (18-12). The House passed the bill on a 35-24-1 vote. This bill is a common sense measure that creates a de minimum business property value of $2,400 subject to timely reporting. The conflict arose when County Assessors testified their concerns about dropping well over half of the current enrolled filers from the system. Sen. Ellis reasoned that such practices cost the counties more to process and track than they receive in tax payments. Apparently the Governor is conferring with County Assessors before signing or vetoing ... which clearly will not sit well with the business community if he vetoes it.
Special Session Looming
With the passage by Congress of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is the most recent round of COVID-19 stimulus packages. While the Wyoming legislature took pains to assure that additional relief from Congress could be acted upon if passed, they had no way of knowing any new provisions Congress decided to act upon. Accordingly, the legislature will need to meet ... currently planned for July 12, 2021, and pass conforming statutes and authority for spending the ARPA funds. Given the legislature's inability to pass legislation resolving the education funding shortfall and that the ARPA has funding built in to aid education programs, a re-visitation of the HB-173 stalemate will be interesting to observe.
Interim Committee Topics to be Assigned
The Wyoming legislature's Management Council will meet on Friday, April 17, 2021 to consider and assign interim topics. First the Committee will consider how many meetings will be held given the State's budget woes. WPMA has requested and initially approved the issue of statewide stamping of cigarettes and taxation of all tobacco products regardless of destination in the state. Both the Select Committee on Tribal Relations and the Joint Revenue Committee gave their initial approval on topic. The Management Council will weigh this subject against other requested topics in the Friday meeting. With two Committee's forwarding the topic, it is anticipated that it will be approved for at least one committee.
BILL TRACKING
