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Numeric List Budget Accountability Health & Human Services Justice System Education State Employees Taxation & Revenue Wildlife & Environment Worker & Public Safety Tribal Affairs Senior Citizens	HB 121: Emergency Energy Assistance Trust Fund 2006 Budget Session Sponsor: Task Force on Utility and Tax Relief          HB 121 would have established a permanent trust fund called the Wyoming Energy Assistance Trust Fund (WEATF). All money deposited into the WEATF would have been inviolate and could never have been withdrawn. Interest generated by the WEATF would have been used for emergency energy assistance to Wyoming residents who are unable to pay their home heating bills and who have exhausted all other sources of state and federal assistance. Up to $1000 would have been available per desperate household.          The WEATF would have consisted of all funds received as gifts from any source, matched equally by state funds. Interest from the trust fund that was not expended or obligated at the end of each fiscal year would also have been deposited into the WEATF.          HB 121 would have appropriated $10 million from the general fund to provide money for the state's equal match of all gifts. The bill also contained a $50,000 appropriation to the Department of Family Services to administer the trust fund and emergency energy assistance program.          Supporters of HB 121 characterized the bill as providing a safety net of funds of last resort for families with heating bills they cannot pay. They noted that as natural gas, coal and oil prices have soared to record highs, the state and mineral producers have received record high revenues while Wyoming residents have suffered higher heating bills resulting form higher energy prices. Supporters of HB 121 believed it was the moral obligation of the state and private industry to assist those Wyoming residents who cannot afford their increased heating bills and still maintain an adequate standard of living. They believed that if the state offered to match their contribution, industry and others enjoying high revenue would contribute to the trust fund.          Some opponents were somewhat skeptical that industry would contribute to the level that supporters predicted, while others thought other tax relief measures being considered by the 2006 Legislature would provide more assistance to a broader range of Wyoming families.          Although HB 121 appeared to enjoy a fairly wide measure of support, passing the House vote for introduction 53-6 and passing both the House Revenue and House Appropriations Committees unanimously, the bill was not brought up for a House floor vote before the deadline for that action.