Session Overview
In the first two weeks of the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 session, the House prioritized Freedom Caucus bills over the normal functions of government, advancing do-nothing policies on hot-button social issues instead of addressing actual problems that impact our lives and communities.
Both chambers advanced their own extreme property tax cuts, which will defund basic services at the town and county levels.
Public education came under attack from several fronts, and the first of what will be many anti-abortion bills emerged.
Lawmakers did sponsor a number of positive, productive bills—but it is anyone’s guess whether the Freedom Caucus leaders will let them see the light of day.
Topic deepdive
Healthcare
The Joint Appropriations Committee killed a recommendation by the governor to increase the rate at which healthcare providers are reimbursed for OB-GYN and mental health services to Medicaid patients.
A committee voted down a bill to ensure mentally ill people in the criminal justice system receive proper care, and House leadership is holding back another that would fund K-12 mental health.
A bill to help people with medical debt avoid harm to their credit scores was introduced, and a bill that would close all abortion clinics in Wyoming advanced to the House floor.
Education
A committee advanced a private school voucher program that would divert $45 million in public money to private and internet schools, and homeschooling. The House passed a bill to remove all accountability from homeschool curricula.
A bill was introduced to remove the state requirement that professional teachers earn professional teaching certificates. The Joint Appropriations Committee eliminated from the budget a cost-of-living pay raise for janitors, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and other non-teacher school staff.
The Senate voted down a bill that would have provided free books to young children to help them learn to read.
Other
A Freedom Caucus priority bill to stop “woke” investments by the state passed the House despite potentially costing the Wyoming retirement pension fund $5 billion.
The House and Senate each passed their own versions of property tax cuts that would cost schools, towns, and counties more than $200 million a year.
The Senate passed a commonsense bill that would make it harder for neighbors to protest new housing developments, with only two votes against it.
A bill that would formally legalize “corner crossing” from one parcel of public land to another has broad bi-partisan sponsorship, but House leadership is currently holding it back.
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