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January 11, 2007Day 3 – Thursday INDEX OF BILLS COVERED IN TODAY’S REPORT HB 19: Incest – Increase in Penalties TODAY’S ACTION ON BILLS HB 19: Incest – Increase
in Penalties HB 19 would increase the penalties for a felony conviction for incest. A conviction would be punishable by imprisonment up to 15 years (compared to the current maximum of 5 years), a fine up to $10,000 (compared to the current maximum of $5,000), or both. The House Committee of the Whole passed HB 19 on Thursday, and the bill will move on to second reading on Friday. HB 25: Domestic Violence Counseling Period HB 25 would amend the time period a person who has committed an act of domestic abuse may be required to participate in counseling or other appropriate treatment. Currently, counseling may be required for up to 90 days. HB 25 would allow counseling or other treatment for the abuser to be required for as long as a protection order was in effect. The House Judiciary Committee will hear HB 25 on Friday morning at 8:00 am. HB 47: Prevailing Wage Amendments HB 47 would authorize a single statewide wage district for the purpose of calculating the prevailing wage on state-funded contracts, would authorize the Department of Employment to investigate prevailing wage violations upon its own volition, would remove a requirement that prevailing wage determinations must use employment security law wage reports, and would provide a bid preference of one percent (1%) to contractors who participated in the Department of Employment’s prevailing wage survey. The House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee will hear HB 47 on Friday during the noon recess of the House. HB 93: Sales Tax
on Food – Permanent Exemption 2 HB 93 would permanently exempt groceries from sales taxation. The bill would also alter the sales tax distribution formula to reimburse local governments for the estimated revenue decrease they would otherwise experience as a result of not applying sales tax to food. The House Revenue Committee will hear HB 93 and another bill on the same subject (HB 154) on Friday morning at 8:00 am. HB 98: Curriculum Choice Wyoming high school students who wish to be eligible for Hathaway scholarships must complete the success curriculum as defined by state statute. HB 98 would establish the success curriculum as the default course of study for high school students. Students and their parents would have the option to choose a less rigorous curriculum, but would have to be fully informed about the consequences of that choice and would have to sign a written waiver acknowledging the consequences on eligibility for Hathaway and other scholarship opportunities. The House Education Committee voted down HB 98 on Wednesday, but because Senate rules do not require recording committee votes in which a bill is defeated, the vote record is not available. HB 115: School Finance - Amendments HB 115 would address a number of matters relating to the financing of public schools in Wyoming. The bill would extend the summer school, extended day school, and instructional facilitator programs, would clarify the enrichment program part of the extended day program, and would direct the Wyoming Department of Education to recommend permanent funding for these programs for consideration by the 2008 Legislature. HB 115 would continue the ongoing review and evaluation of the at-risk program, and would initiate a review of distance education programs. The House Education Committee will hear HB 115 on Friday upon adjournment of the House. HB 120: Sex Offender Registration HB 120 would amend a number of provisions related to required registration of convicted sex offenders. The bill would reduce the time in which an offender must register, eliminate district court hearings to determine the level of risk for re-offense that an offender may pose, eliminate risk levels for re-offense, require all levels of sexual offenders to register, make registration information about all offenders public, increase the time of required registration for offenders, and increase the penalties for failure to register. Opponents of this bill argued that it would remove due process safeguards, take away judicial discretion, and treat all sexual offenders including adolescents as sexual predators, with no consideration for specific case circumstances or likelihood of re-offense. The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear HB 120 on Thursday, but committee action on the bill has not yet been released. HB 154: Sales Tax
on Food – Exemption HB 154 would extend the exemption of groceries from sales taxation until July 2013. The bill would alter the sales tax distribution formula to reimburse local governments for the estimated revenue decrease they would otherwise experience as a result of not applying sales tax to food. The House Revenue Committee will hear HB 154 and another bill on the same subject (HB 93) on Friday morning at 8:00 am. SF 12: Sex Offenses by Corrections Personnel SF 12 would establish a crime for sex offenses committed by corrections staff against persons under supervision by the corrections facility. It would also provide that consent of the victim is not a defense against such crimes. Wyoming currently has no law against sex offenses by corrections staff against residents or inmates of the correctional system. The Senate Committee of the Whole passed SF 12 on Thursday, and the bill will be heard on second reading Friday. SF 46: School Finance – Recapture – 2 SF 46 would implement an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that was approved by the voters of the state in the 2006 general election. SF 46 would statutorily require school districts that are subject to recapture to remit the excess revenues to the state for the 2006-2007 school year and every year thereafter. Contractual obligations encumbered before March 15, 2007 would be honored and deducted from 2006-2007 recaptured amounts. Recaptured revenues would flow into the public school foundation account. The Senate Education Committee will hear SF 46 on Friday morning at 8:00 am. SF 72: Indian School Education Programs SF 72 would require contractual arrangements between the State of Wyoming and the joint business councils of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indian Tribes to provide educational programs that address conditions of unemployment, poverty and lack of adequate job skills on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The bill would provide an appropriation of just over $1 million from the general fund to the governor’s office to fund the contracted programs for one year, starting July 2007. The Senate Revenue Committee passed SF 72 on Thursday. SF 73: State-Federal Partnership Schools SF 73 would authorize partnership agreements between Wyoming and the federal government to establish state-federal partnership school districts in Wyoming. Such agreements would allow partnership school districts on the Wind River Indian Reservation to be incorporated into the state school system, and partnership schools would be included in Wyoming’s system of school finance, state retirement and school building maintenance programs. State financial support for partnership schools would be reduced by any federal revenue that was available to partnership schools. Partnership school districts would be required to follow uniform state educational program requirements and student performance, accountability and high school graduation requirements. The Senate Revenue Committee laid back SF 73 on Thursday, and will resume work on the bill on Friday. SF 83: Wyoming Business
Council – Repeal Sunset SF 83 would repeal the sunset date for the Wyoming Business Council, which currently stands to be terminated on July 1, 2008. The Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will hear SF 83 on Friday 15 minutes after the noon recess. The Equality State Policy Center is opposed to the bill, arguing that the corporate style structure of the Wyoming Business Council, with at-will employees and public-private funding (primarily public to date) was supposed to be experimental. A report by the Legislative Service Office last year was inconclusive about the effectiveness of the Council, and the ESPC believes that the sunset date should not be repealed before additional, serious evaluation of the success or failure of the experiment has taken place.
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