Session Update
The fourth and fifth weeks of the 2025 legislative session included debate over the state budget. Lawmakers voted for or against funding for programs related to healthcare, public education, wildfire relief, and more.
In the final weeks of the session, the House and Senate will need to negotiate to find a compromise between their two separate plans to fund the state.
Meanwhile, several bills to decrease public school funding and divert funding to private schools advanced, along with proposals to politicize education and tax cuts for homeowners and coal companies that will defund local services in our communities.
Topic deepdive
Healthcare
The Senate voted to increase funding for healthcare providers who offer mental or maternal health services to patients on Medicaid. The House rejected similar proposals. The Senate supported funding to hire more traveling nurses to care for patients in state custody. Both chambers rejected a grant program for hospitals to increase maternity care.
The Senate advanced a bill that seeks to define “healthcare” in Wyoming law to explicitly exclude abortion.
Education
The House and the Senate both voted to fund a pre-K program for students with disabilities. The House rejected funding for cost-of-living salary increases for school staff. Both chambers rejected funding for school safety officers.
A bill to create a universal private school voucher program advanced in the Senate, while the House approved a vague bill to force districts to inform parents about school assemblies.
The House killed a bill to ensure hungry students get lunch during the summer, but they advanced two bills to decrease public school funding, as well as another that makes school board elections partisan.
Other
The House and Senate both approved funding for a grant and loan program to help landowners recover from wildfires.
Both chambers approved a tax cut for coal companies that will decrease public services in our communities, while the House backed a historically large property tax cut that will do the same.
The House narrowly defeated a bill that would encourage hunters to break federal law, while the Senate rejected a bill that would make solar power more expensive for homeowners.
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