As unemployment spikes during the pandemic, Wyoming workers are increasingly unable to make housing payments. Federal measures and the goodwill of banks and landlords do not offer Wyoming families the housing protections they need.
The increased ability for towns and counties to raise revenues is a nod toward diversifying Wyoming’s tax structure. But because the new revenues will come from sales tax, they will come at the highest cost to the state’s poorest residents.
A veto by Governor Mark Gordon helped House education advocates fend off severe funding cuts pushed by the Senate throughout the Wyoming Legislature’s 2020 session. But they couldn’t stop them all.
The bill would criminalize doctors who fail to perform life-saving measures for infants meant to be aborted but that are accidentally “born alive”—a law that would rarely, if ever, be applied in Wyoming, since abortions after 12 weeks are illegal here and fetuses are not viable until at least 20 – 23 weeks. Two other anti-abortion bills have been defeated.
A tax rebate program for elderly and disabled poor people and a cost-of-living increase for retired state workers both passed the House. But the bills died in the desk of Senate President Drew Perkins, who refused to introduce them for consideration.
Wyoming’s Legislature is overwhelmingly made up of rich old men who have the time and money to serve as “citizen” lawmakers. The budget measure they defeated would have made the Legislature more accessible to younger working people.
The program won’t be enough to impact global markets, but it will help distract state residents from the fact that there is no plan to transition Wyoming away from dependence on a dying industry.
The proposal is pushed by Ken Ivory, a longtime public land transfer advocate and lobbyist for the software company lined up to get the half-million-dollar contract.
The Senate is proposing nearly $40 million less than the House for the state education budget, looking to cut funding for cost-of-living raises, transportation, discretionary funds, and compensation for National Board Certified teachers.
The Legislature’s approval of an actual tax increase suggests that lawmakers understand cuts alone can’t fix Wyoming budget crisis.
