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2006 Budget Session
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SF 36 represents the fourth attempt in four 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 36 would have extended the prohibition on open containers to any person in a motor vehicle while it is in motion.
Passengers in chartered busses or limousines would have been exempt from the ban. Resealed bottles of alcohol could have been transported in areas of the vehicle that are inaccessible to the driver and not normally occupied by passengers, such as a trunk, cargo area of a sport utility vehicle, back of a pickup truck, or locked compartment of a recreational vehicle. The ban would have applied to passengers in recreational vehicles in motion on public streets or highways.
Last year's bill ultimately failed because of disagreement on this last point, when the House and Senate could not agree on whether the ban should apply to passengers in recreational vehicles. Last year, the Senate did not want the prohibition to apply to recreational vehicle passengers, while the House insisted that it should apply to all passengers in all private vehicles while they are in motion.
SF 36 would have allowed restaurant patrons to take partial bottles of wine home, if they were properly resealed for transportation.
Proponents maintained that SF 36 would improve safety for all drivers and passengers on Wyoming highways, citing statistics that show the high number of Wyoming traffic accidents in which alcohol is a contributing factor. They noted that if passengers in a vehicle are drinking, it greatly increases the chance that the driver also will drink while driving. Law enforcement authorities pointed to the obvious enforcement problem of having the restriction apply only to the driver, noting that a drinking driver can simply pass the bottle to a passenger before a law enforcement officer gets to the window.
Opponents, though fewer in number this year, continued to maintain that there is no compelling reason to prohibit passengers in a vehicle from drinking if they want to.
After amending SF 36 to specify that alcohol in recreational vehicles could be carried in secured compartments (instead of locked compartments, and was in the bill as introduced), the Senate passed the bill 25-5.
In a move that stunned most observers (virtually all of whom expected that the bill would finally pass this year), the House defeated SF 36 on final reading, 30-29 (1 excused). The House actually voted twice on third reading: the first vote was 30-28 (2 excused), which was one vote short of passing the bill (a bill must receive a majority of votes to pass, which is 31 in the 60-member House). The House then voted to reconsider, rounded up Rep. Tom Lockhart (R-H57, Casper) who was excused for the first vote but who was a known supporter of the bill, and revoted on third reading. Rep. Lockhart did vote YES for the bill, but Rep. Erin Mercer (R-H53, Gillette) changed her vote from YES to NO, which ensured the failure of the bill by one vote.
The votes listed below are the Senate and House third reading (final passage) votes (the House vote is their final third reading vote). A YES vote means the legislator wanted to make it illegal for anyone in a motor vehicle to possess an opened bottle of alcohol. A NO vote means the legislator did not want to make it illegal for everyone in a car to have an opened container of alcohol.
| Bighorn Basin Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 18 | Hank Coe (R) | Yes | |
| H 24 | Colin Simpson (R) | No | |
| H 50 | Pat Childers (R) | No | |
| S 19 | Ray Peterson (R) | Yes | |
| H 25 | Alan Jones (R) | No | |
| H 26 | Elaine Harvey (R) | Yes | |
| S 20 | Gerald E. Geis (R) | Yes | |
| H 27 | Debbie Hammons (D) | Yes | |
| H 28 | Lorraine Quarberg (R) | No | |
| Casper-Area Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 27 | John Barrasso (R) | Yes | |
| H 35 | Roy Cohee (R) | No | |
| H 36 | Gerald Gay (R) | Yes | |
| S 28 | Kit Jennings (R) | Yes | |
| H 56 | Tom Walsh (R) | No | |
| H 57 | Thomas A. Lockhart (R) | Yes | |
| S 29 | Bill Hawks (R) | No | |
| H 37 | Steve Harshman (R) | No | |
| H 59 | Mary Gilmore (D) | No | |
| S 30 | Charles K. Scott (R) | Yes | |
| H 38 | Bob Brechtel (R) | No | |
| H 58 | Ann Robinson (D) | Yes | |
| Cheyenne-Area Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 4 | Tony Ross (R) | Yes | |
| H 7 | Doug Samuelson (R) | Yes | |
| H 41 | Becket Hinckley (R) | Yes | |
| S 5 | John Hanes (R) | Yes | |
| H 8 | Larry Meuli (R) | Yes | |
| H 42 | Pete Illoway (R) | Yes | |
| S 6 | Wayne H. Johnson (R) | Yes | |
| H 9 | Bryan Pedersen (R) | Yes | |
| H 10 | Rodney "Pete" Anderson (R) | Yes | |
| S 7 | Kathryn Sessions (D) | Yes | |
| H 11 | Wayne Reese (D) | No | |
| H 43 | Dan Zwonitzer (R) | No | |
| S 8 | E. Jayne Mockler (D) | Yes | |
| H 12 | Layton Morgan (D) | Yes | |
| H 44 | Floyd Esquibel (D) | Yes | |
| Gillette-Area Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 23 | John Hines (R) | No | |
| H 31 | Thomas E. Lubnau II (R) | Yes | |
| H 52 | Burke Jackson (R) | Excused | |
| S 24 | Michael Von Flatern (R) | Yes | |
| H 32 | Jeff Wasserburger (R) | Yes | |
| H 53 | Erin Mercer (R) | No | |
| Lander/Riverton-Area Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 25 | Cale Case (R) | No | |
| H 33 | W. Patrick Goggles (D) | No | |
| H 54 | Del McOmie (R) | Yes | |
| S 26 | Robert A. Peck (R) | Yes | |
| H 34 | Frank Philp (R) | No | |
| H 55 | David Miller (R) | No | |
| Northeast/East Central WY Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 1 | C.L. Townsend (R) | Yes | |
| H 1 | Mark Semlek (R) | No | |
| H 2 | Ross Diercks (D) | No | |
| S 2 | Jim Anderson (R) | Yes | |
| H 5 | James C. Hageman (R) | No | |
| H 6 | Dave Edwards (R) | Yes | |
| S 3 | Curt Meier (R) | No | |
| H 3 | Deborah Alden (R) | No | |
| H 4 | Edward A. Buchanan (R) | No | |
| Sheridan-Area Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 21 | Bruce Burns (R) | Yes | |
| H 29 | Jerry Iekel (R) | Yes | |
| H 51 | Rosie Berger (R) | Yes | |
| S 22 | John Schiffer (R) | No | |
| H 30 | Jack Landon (R) | No | |
| H 40 | Doug Osborn (R) | Yes | |
| South Central WY Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 9 | Mike Massie (D) | Yes | |
| 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) | Yes | |
| H 15 | George Bagby (D) | No | |
| H 47 | Kurt Bucholz (R) | No | |
| Southwest WY Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 12 | Rae Lynn Job (D) | Yes | |
| H 48 | Marty Martin (D) | No | |
| H 16 | Pete Jorgensen (D) | Yes | |
| S 13 | Tex Boggs (D) | Yes | |
| H 17 | Stephen Watt (R) | Yes | |
| H 60 | Bill Thompson (D) | No | |
| S 14 | Stan Cooper (R) | Yes | |
| H 18 | Mick Powers (R) | No | |
| H 39 | John Hastert (D) | No | |
| S 15 | Ken Decaria (D) | Yes | |
| H 19 | Owen Petersen (R) | Yes | |
| H 49 | Bruce Barnard (R) | Yes | |
| West Central WY Legislators | Senate 3rd 2/22/06 | House 3rd 3/8/06 |
|
| S 16 | Pat Aullman (R) | Yes | |
| H 20 | Kathy Davison (R) | No | |
| H 21 | Randall Luthi (R) | No | |
| 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 | |||