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January 18, 2007Day 8 – Thursday INDEX OF BILLS COVERED IN TODAY’S REPORT HB 34: Jury Duty Pay TODAY’S ACTION ON BILLS HB 34: Jury Duty Pay HB 34 would increase the amount jurors would be paid from the current $30 per day to $40 per day. It was estimated this would cost an additional $20,000 to $30,000 per year in state court costs. Local court costs were not estimated. The House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed HB 34 on Thursday, and the bill is now on general file. HB 36: Rape Shield Law HB 36 would specify the type of evidence related to a victim’s sexual conduct that is admissible or not admissible in a sexual assault trial. The House unanimously passed HB 36 on third reading on Thursday, and the bill has been sent on to the Senate. HB 46: Workers’ Compensation
Coemployee Immunity HB 46 would amend the workers’ compensation co-employee immunity statute to give immunity from civil liability to an employee for causing a work related injury to a co-employee. This would mean that a person could knowingly send a co-employee into a dangerous situation, and unless a deliberate intent to cause physical harm or injury could be proven, the person would be legally immune from civil liability. The House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee defeated HB 46 on a tie vote on Thursday. HB 52: Game and Fish – License
Revenue Recoupment HB 52 would create a license revenue recoupment program, under which the Wyoming Game and Fish Department would be reimbursed from the general fund for license revenue lost as a result of statutorily designated free and reduced priced hunting and fishing licenses. The House Appropriations Committee will hear HB 85 to consider its $1.4 million appropriation on Friday at 7:00 a.m. HB 59: Moist Snuff Tobacco Tax HB 59 would add a specific tax on moist snuff tobacco, which is currently taxed in a group with all tobacco products other than cigarettes at a rate of 20% of wholesale purchase price. Under HB 59, moist snuff (also known as chew) would be taxed at a rate of fifty cents ($0.50) per ounce. The House Committee of the Whole passed HB 59 on Thursday, and the bill will move on to second reading on Friday. HB 60: Home Owner’s
Tax Credit HB 60 would simplify and expand for one year a current state program that provides a tax credit to eligible homeowners. These changes would apply to property taxes imposed during the calendar year 2007. The bill would appropriate $5.3 million from the general fund to pay for the tax credits. The House Appropriations Committee amended HB 60 to remove its $5.3 million appropriation, and then unanimously voted to send it to general file with a DO NOT PASS recommendation. HB 62: Natural Resource Large Project Funding HB 62 would authorize funding for two large projects under the Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act that have been approved by the board of the trust fund. The Bates Creek Watershed Restoration project would receive $200,000 and the Lander Front mule deer project would receive $230,000. The House Appropriations Committee will hear HB 62 on Friday at about 8:30 a.m. HB 70: Game and Fish – License
Fees HB 70 would increase hunting and fishing license fees by 20%, effective in 2008. It would also increase application, conservation stamp and permit fees, selling agent fees and landowner coupon payments by 20%, and would generate about $5.6 million in additional revenue for the Game and Fish Department annually. The House Committee of the Whole passed HB 70, and it will move on to second reading on Friday. HB 71: Game and Fish – License
Fees 2 HB 71 would automatically adjust all fees charged by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and landowner coupon payments to account for inflation, using the implicit price deflator as published by the United States Department of Commerce as the index to determine the annual rate of increase or decrease. The House Committee of the Whole passed HB 71, and it will move on to second reading on Friday. HB 73: Sales Tax Holiday HB 73 would specify that, for one weekend every year, sales of certain personal items would be exempt from sales tax. On the first weekend in August, people buying clothing costing $100 or less per item, computers and related computer equipment costing $1,500 or less per item, and school and sports supplies costing $50 or less per item would not be charged sales tax. The decrease in sales tax revenue from the proposed tax holiday could not be estimated, because retail sales are not segregated into these categories or by these financial thresholds. HB 73 did not contain any provision for revenue impacts to local governments. The House Revenue Committee will consider HB 73 on Friday at 7:30 a.m. HB 85: Game and Fish - Funding HB 85 would provide a one-year appropriation of $5.66 million from the general fund to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, to be used for specified programs that benefit Wyoming citizens in general, regardless of whether they hunt or fish. The programs on which the general fund money could be spent would include sensitive species programs (including terrestrial and aquatic native nongame species and trophy game conflict resolution); habitat programs; conservation education programs; sage grouse planning and protection; and veterinary programs (including brucellosis, chronic wasting disease and other disease management programs). The House Appropriations Committee will consider HB 85 at about 7:45 a.m. on Friday. HB 93: Sales Tax
on Food – Permanent
Exemption 2 HB 93 would permanently exempt groceries from sales taxation, and would alter the sales tax distribution formula to partially reimburse local governments for the estimated revenue decrease they would otherwise experience as a result of the exemption. The House Revenue Committee initially approved HB 93 over a similar bill (HB 154), after recommending a sunset date of 2013 for the exemption, so legislators could see if revenue lost by local governments was being adequately addressed by the tax redistribution in the bill. The Revenue Committee approved the amended HB 93, 7-2, with Representatives Ken Esquibel (D-H41, Cheyenne) and Mary Gilmore (D-H59, Casper) voting against the measure because they favored HB 154, which had better provisions for ensuring that local governments would be fully reimbursed for lost revenue. The House Committee of the Whole took the unusual step of refusing to consider the bill as reported out of committee, instead sending it back to the Revenue Committee with instructions to simplify and clarify it. The Revenue Committee will reconsider HB 93 on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. HB 106: School Bus Seat Belts HB 106 would require school buses to have seat belts, and would require the driver and passengers to wear a fastened seat belt when the bus is in motion. Currently, school buses are exempt from seat belt laws in Wyoming. It would cost an estimated $11.9 million to retrofit Wyoming’s current school bus fleet with seats that have seat belts, and would cost about $2.9 million in each of the following two years in increased new bus costs. The House Transportation and Highways Committee considered HB 106 on Thursday, but no report on committee action has been filed. 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 Appropriations Committee will consider HB 115 on Friday when the House recesses for lunch. 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 types 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 Appropriations Committee unanimously passed HB 120 on Thursday, and the bill is now on general file. HB 124: Eminent Domain - 2 HB 124 would strengthen landowners’ standing in legal actions to condemn their private property for public or private projects. It would allow better compensation for landowners, would require reclamation and restoration of property acquired by eminent domain, and would limit condemnation authority for urban renewal projects. It would also eliminate the maximum amount on relocation expenses for a displaced farm, organization or small business (now capped at $10,000). The House Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Committee unanimously passed HB 124 on Thursday, after passing a series of amendments to the bill. The committee took out language that would have broadened the range of potential appraisal methods by which landowners could be compensated, but extended the period of time landowners would have for negotiations after formal notice of potential condemnation proceedings. HB 138: Wyoming Workforce Housing Infrastructure Program HB 138 would set up a new state program to offer grants and low- or no-interest loans to cities, towns, counties, special improvement districts and joint powers boards to pay for workforce housing infrastructure and community land trusts. The stated purpose of HB 138 would be to facilitate the provision of adequate housing, the supply of which is considered inadequate in some areas of the state as a result of the expansion of extractive mineral industries and other economic development. HB 138 would appropriate $30 million to fund the grants and loans, and would cost about an additional $900,000 for program administration annually. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will hear HB 138 at 8:00 a.m. on Friday. HJ 4: Initiative and Referendum
Requirements HJ 4 would place an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution to modify the signature requirement for a petition for an initiative or referendum before the voters in the next general election. Currently, a petition must be signed by at least 15% of the voters in at least two-thirds of the counties of Wyoming. The proposed amendment would change the requirement to at least 15% of the qualified voters in at least two-thirds of the state’s senate districts. The current petition signature requirements are generally thought to be unconstitutional, because the county distribution requirement is in conflict with the constitutional requirement of equal representation. Because senate districts are based on population, signature requirements based on them would offer more equal representation. However, some opponents of HJ 4 believed the signature requirements would still be too high to provide a reasonable opportunity for volunteer petition efforts to succeed. The House Rules Committee unanimously passed HJ 4 on Thursday, and the bill is on general file. SF 33: Open Containers of Alcohol SF 33 represents the fifth attempt in five years to strengthen Wyoming’s law regulating open containers of alcoholic beverages in motor vehicles. Current law (adopted in 2001) only prohibits the driver of a vehicle from possessing an opened container of alcohol, but does not apply to passengers in vehicles. SF 33 would extend the prohibition on open containers to any person in a motor vehicle while it is in motion. The Senate passed SF 33 on Thursday, 26-3 (1 excused). The three senators who voted against the bill were Senator Cale Case (R-S25, Lander), Senator John Hines (R-S23, Gillette) and Senator Curt Meier (R-S3, LaGrange). The bill will now move to the House. 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 passed SF 46 on Thursday, 26-3 (1 excused). Senators Pat Aullman (R-S16, Thayne), Stan Cooper (R-S14, Kemmerer), and Michael Von Flatern (R-S24, Gillette voted against the bill. SF 46 will now move to the House. SF 51: Temporary Instream Flows SF 51 would permit the state buy, lease, or accept water rights for temporary instream flow purposes. Currently, temporary water use laws do not allow instream flow as a temporary use. SF 51 would allow temporary use for instream flows for up to two years, and a temporary transfer of water rights for instream flow would not be allowed if another water appropriator was harmed by it. The Senate Committee of the Whole passed SF 51 on second reading, and the bill will move on to third reading on Friday. SF 55: Water Quality – Effluent
Standards SF 55 would expand the authority of the Administrator of the Water Quality Division of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to recommend rules related to standards of effluent water quality. Under SF 55, the Administrator would be allowed to recommend the required use of best management practices and a maximum quantity of water that may be released in connection with a discharge. The Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will hear SF 55 on Friday 15 minutes after the Senate recesses for lunch. SF 72: Indian School Education Programs SF 72 would require 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 the coming year. The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed SF 72 on Thursday, and the bill has been placed on general file. 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. The Senate Revenue Committee considered SF 73 on Thursday, but no report on committee action has been filed. 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 passed SF 83 on second reading on Thursday, and the bill will move on to third reading on Friday.
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