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2005 General Session
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Current Wyoming law, dating back to 1919, states that counties must designate and officially accept roads in Wyoming as part of their county highway system, and that only those roads designated and accepted by counties would be considered public (state or county) highways. The Legislature passed this provision so that counties, who are responsible for maintaining highways, could have the final say about which routes they wanted in their transportation system.
Another old, federal law known as R.S. 2477, dating back to 1866, gave the federal government the right to grant right-of-ways across public lands not already set aside for special uses (such as wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests, etc.) to build new roads. Congress repealed this old law in 1976.
HB 240 would have changed Wyoming statutes to allow roads to be designated as county highways, using the old R.S. 2477, even where counties had never claimed them as part of their highway system, if the roads existed on federal public lands at any time prior to 1976. In other words, it would have allowed counties to claim roads as part of their official road system, as long as the road existed before 1976 on lands that were federal at any time before 1976.
Proponents of HB 240 maintained the bill was meant to help users of historic ranch roads on BLM lands. Proponents stated the bill was not intended to allow reopening of old roads on public lands that have since been closed.
Opponents argued that the bill sponsor's intentions did not match up with the actual effect the bill could permit. They noted that since HB 240 would apply to all land in Wyoming that was federal public land at any time prior to 1976, it in fact would apply to almost the entire state, including most private land in the state. Thus, the bill would allow highway claims to be made across what is now private property, and it would be difficult or impossible for federal and state land managers to limit vehicle use to protect wildlife or the land resource.
HB 240 passed the House, 57-2 (1 excused), but failed in the Senate on third reading, on a 15-15 tie vote.
The votes listed below are the House and Senate third reading votes. A YES vote means the legislator wanted to expand the right of counties to claim old roads as part of the county highway system. A NO vote means the legislator did not want to expand counties' road-claiming rights.
| Bighorn Basin Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 18 | Hank Coe (R) | No | |
| H 24 | Colin Simpson (R) | Yes | |
| H 50 | Pat Childers (R) | Yes | |
| S 19 | Laness D. Northrup (R) | Yes | |
| H 25 | Alan Jones (R) | Yes | |
| H 26 | Elaine Harvey (R) | Yes | |
| S 20 | Gerald E. Geis (R) | Yes | |
| H 27 | Debbie Hammons (D) | Yes | |
| H 28 | Lorraine Quarberg (R) | Yes | |
| Casper-Area Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 27 | John Barrasso (R) | Yes | |
| H 35 | Roy Cohee (R) | Yes | |
| H 36 | Gerald Gay (R) | Yes | |
| S 28 | Kit Jennings (R) | Yes | |
| H 56 | Tom Walsh (R) | Yes | |
| H 57 | Thomas A. Lockhart (R) | Yes | |
| S 29 | Bill Hawks (R) | No | |
| H 37 | Steve Harshman (R) | Yes | |
| H 59 | Mary Gilmore (D) | No | |
| S 30 | Charles K. Scott (R) | Yes | |
| H 38 | Bob Brechtel (R) | Yes | |
| H 58 | Ann Robinson (D) | Yes | |
| Cheyenne-Area Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 4 | Tony Ross (R) | No | |
| H 7 | Doug Samuelson (R) | Yes | |
| H 41 | Becket Hinckley (R) | Yes | |
| S 5 | John Hanes (R) | No | |
| H 8 | Larry Meuli (R) | Yes | |
| H 42 | Pete Illoway (R) | Yes | |
| S 6 | Wayne H. Johnson (R) | No | |
| H 9 | Bryan Pedersen (R) | Yes | |
| H 10 | Rodney "Pete" Anderson (R) | Yes | |
| S 7 | Kathryn Sessions (D) | No | |
| H 11 | Wayne Reese (D) | Yes | |
| H 43 | Dan Zwonitzer (R) | Yes | |
| S 8 | E. Jayne Mockler (D) | No | |
| H 12 | Layton Morgan (D) | Yes | |
| H 44 | Floyd Esquibel (D) | Yes | |
| Gillette-Area Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 23 | John Hines (R) | No | |
| H 31 | Thomas E. Lubnau II (R) | Yes | |
| H 52 | Burke Jackson (R) | Yes | |
| S 24 | Michael Von Flatern (R) | No | |
| H 32 | Jeff Wasserburger (R) | Yes | |
| H 53 | Frank Latta (R) | Yes | |
| Lander/Riverton-Area Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 25 | Cale Case (R) | Yes | |
| H 33 | W. Patrick Goggles (D) | Yes | |
| H 54 | Del McOmie (R) | Yes | |
| S 26 | Robert A. Peck (R) | Yes | |
| H 34 | Frank Philp (R) | Yes | |
| H 55 | David Miller (R) | Yes | |
| Northeast/East Central WY Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 1 | C.L. Townsend (R) | Yes | |
| H 1 | Mark Semlek (R) | Yes | |
| H 2 | Ross Diercks (D) | Yes | |
| S 2 | Jim Anderson (R) | Yes | |
| H 5 | James C. Hageman (R) | Yes | |
| H 6 | Dave Edwards (R) | Yes | |
| S 3 | Curt Meier (R) | Yes | |
| H 3 | Deborah Alden (R) | Yes | |
| H 4 | Edward A. Buchanan (R) | Yes | |
| Sheridan-Area Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 21 | Bruce Burns (R) | No | |
| H 29 | Jerry Iekel (R) | Yes | |
| H 51 | Rosie Berger (R) | Yes | |
| S 22 | John Schiffer (R) | Yes | |
| H 30 | Jack Landon (R) | Yes | |
| H 40 | Doug Osborn (R) | Yes | |
| South Central WY Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 9 | Mike Massie (D) | No | |
| H 13 | Jane Warren (D) | Yes | |
| H 45 | Kevin A. White (R) | Yes | |
| S 10 | Phil Nicholas (R) | Yes | |
| H 14 | Kermit C. Brown (R) | Yes | |
| H 46 | James Slater (R) | Yes | |
| S 11 | Bill Vasey (D) | No | |
| H 15 | George Bagby (D) | No | |
| H 47 | Kurt Bucholz (R) | Yes | |
| Southwest WY Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 12 | Rae Lynn Job (D) | No | |
| H 48 | Marty Martin (D) | Yes | |
| H 16 | Pete Jorgensen (D) | Excused | |
| S 13 | Tex Boggs (D) | No | |
| H 17 | Stephen Watt (R) | Yes | |
| H 60 | Bill Thompson (D) | Yes | |
| S 14 | Stan Cooper (R) | Yes | |
| H 18 | Mick Powers (R) | Yes | |
| H 39 | John Hastert (D) | Yes | |
| S 15 | Ken Decaria (D) | No | |
| H 19 | Owen Petersen (R) | Yes | |
| H 49 | Bruce Barnard (R) | Yes | |
| West Central WY Legislators | House 3rd 2/8/05 | Senate 3rd 3/1/05 |
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| S 16 | Pat Aullman (R) | Yes | |
| H 20 | Kathy Davison (R) | Yes | |
| H 21 | Randall Luthi (R) | Yes | |
| S 17 | Grant Larson (R) | Yes | |
| H 22 | Monte Olsen (R) | Yes | |
| H 23 | Keith Gingery (R) | Yes | |
See Southwest Region for H 16 and S 12 | |||