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January 19, 2007Day 9 – Friday 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 Committee of the Whole passed HB 34, and the bill will move on to second reading on Monday. 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 passed HB 52, 5-2, with its $1.4 million appropriation intact, with Representatives Alan Jones (R-H25, Powell) and Frank Philp (R-H34, Shoshoni) casting the two NO votes. HB 52 has been placed on general file. HB 58: State Employee Longevity Pay HB 58 would permanently increase longevity pay for state employees from $30 per month to $40 per month for every five years of service. In the 2006 Budget Session, the Legislature passed an amendment to the budget bill that temporarily increased longevity pay to $40 per month, but that will revert to the $30 level at the end of the current two-year budget cycle (July 2008). The House Committee of the Whole passed HB 58 on Friday, and the bill will move on to second reading on Monday. 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 passed HB 59 on second reading, and the bill will move to third reading (final vote) on Monday. 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 unanimously passed HB 62 on Friday with the appropriation unchanged, and the bill has been placed on general file. 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 passed HB 70 on second reading, and it will move on to third reading (final vote) on Monday. 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 passed HB 71 on second reading, and it will move on to third reading (final vote) on Monday. 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 defeated HB 73 on a 4-5 vote. Representatives Ken Esquibel (D-H41, Cheyenne), Mary Gilmore (D-H59, Casper), Tom Walsh (R-H56, Casper) and Dave Zwonitzer (R-H2, Cheyenne) voted in favor of the bill. Representatives Pete Anderson (R-H10, Pine Bluffs), Tom Lubnau (R-H31, Gillette), Mike Madden (R-H40, Buffalo), David Miller (R-H55, Riverton) and Mark Semlek (R-H1, Moorcroft) voted against the measure. HB 80: Minimum Wage for Tipped Employees Current Wyoming law requires that all employers pay their employees a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, matching the federal minimum wage. But in an interesting exception to minimum wage requirements, employers are required to pay only $2.13 per hour to tipped employees. HB 80 marks the third attempt in three years to eliminate the exception to minimum wage standards for tipped employees. The bill would require that all employers pay at least $5.15 per hour (matching the federal minimum wage) to tipped employees. The House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee will consider HB 80 on Monday at 8:00 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 passed HB 85 on Friday, 6-1, after amending the bill’s appropriation down to $2.8 million. Representative Owen Petersen (R-H19, Mountain View) cast the single NO vote. HB 85 is now on general file. HB 93: Sales Tax
on Food – Permanent
Exemption 2 HB 93 would permanently exempt groceries from sales taxation, and as introduced would have altered 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 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 passed a substitute version of HB 93 on Friday, which would permanently repeal the sales tax on food and which contained no provisions for making up lost revenue to local governments. The substitute bill passed by the committee would fund a study by the Department of Revenue to determine the amount of revenue local governments would lose, and Representative Del McComie (R-H54, Lander) promised he would bring a bill in the 2008 legislative session to make up local government loses. HB 93 wouldn’t go into effect until July 2008, and local governments are presently being reimbursed under the temporary sales tax exemption on food, so if Representative McComie’s plan succeeds next year, local governments would not experience a decrease in revenue. HB 95: Quality Child Care HB 95 would continue implementation of the quality child care program that was started by the 2006 Legislature, which authorized first year spending on the program to set up the program, develop rules for the quality rating system and devise the scholarship component of the program. HB 95 would authorize the Wyoming Business Council to fund child care facilities through the business ready community program. The bill would create a quality child care system to encourage the availability of high quality care for children in licensed facilities. The system would consist of a quality rating system; scholarships for families for higher levels of quality care; educational grants for child care providers; technical assistance, quality assessment and business management services; and capacity enhancement grants. Appropriations totaling $12.3 million to fund HB 95 were contained in a separate bill, HB 96 (Quality Child Care Appropriations. The House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee will consider HB 95 on Monday after the House adjourns. 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 unanimously passed HB 115 on Friday, and the bill is on general file. 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 considered HB 138 on Friday, but a report was not filed. HB 169: Clean Coal Technology HB 169 would create a sales tax exemption for equipment used to construct “clean coal” power plants that would have reduced pollution impacts compared to traditional coal-fired power plants. Pollution control equipment that would be tax exempt would include circulating fluidized bed combustion, low nitrogen oxide burners, supercritical boilers, electrostatic precipitators, scrubbers, flue gas desulphurization, selective catalytic reduction and mercury filtration, and carbon dioxide sequestration equipment. Coal gasification facilities that convert coal into energy without combustion would likely also qualify for the tax exemption. The LSO was not unable to determine the likely fiscal impact of HB 169, because of the unknown level of construction activity that might occur in Wyoming, but they speculated that a $600 million construction project might translate to about $10 million in sales tax revenue that the state would lose if this sales tax exemption were in place. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will hear HB 169 on Monday morning at about 8:30 a.m. HB 188: Endangering children and Unborn - Methamphetamine HB 188 would classify intentional prenatal exposure to methamphetamine as criminal child endangerment that would lead to a felony conviction punishable by imprisonment up to five years, a fine up to $5,000, or both. The House Judiciary Committee will consider HB 188 Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. 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, the ESPC argued that the signature requirements would still be too high to provide a reasonable opportunity for volunteer petition efforts to succeed. The House Committee of the Whole passed HJ 4 on Friday, and the bill will move on to second reading on Monday. 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 passed SF 51, 17-12 (1 excused). The bill will now move to the House. 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 defeated SF 55 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 passed SF 83, 23-6 (1 excused). The bill will now move to the House. SF 100: Public School Teacher Incentive Programs SF 100 would provide funding for school districts for incentive payments of $2,000 to teachers who are certified and teach in more than one subject area throughout the school year, and for incentive payments of $4,000 to teachers who hold national board certification. It would cost the school foundation fund about $628,000 to fully fund these two incentive programs. The Senate Committee of the Whole passed SF 100 on Friday, and the bill will move on to second reading on Monday. SF 102: Children’s
Advocacy Centers SF 102 would allow children’s advocacy centers (which provide comprehensive services to children who are victims of sexual and physical abuse and neglect) to apply for state and federal funding from the attorney general’s office, through the crime victim’s compensation program. SF 102 would appropriate $1.5 million from the general fund to pay for the program. The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider SF 102 on Monday, either before the day’s session begins or upon adjournment.
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