The 67th Legislative Session has been one of many surprises and some strange happenings in the Senate. After a rousing State of the State address by Gov. Mark Gordon, we were energized to get to the work of the people. 

However, the first day brought upheaval, as there was a complaint filed against Senate Pres. Ogden Driskill to reinstate the former Chairman of the Joint Appropriations on the Senate side.

It seemed to dampen the focus of the session as we approached this budget session with a budget that had clearly been developed and led by a different chairman.

Even though we have just finished up the Senate side of the budget, it is obvious from the huge difference in the Senate and House positions that we are going to have difficulty coming to a position of compromise.

The main focus of this session, besides the budget, has been the discussions and work on 20 different property tax bills. We have five or six that are still being worked through committees and the Senate. Hopefully, we can agree on two or three that will give our citizens the relief that they need.

There were many interim bills that were defeated this year, which is also disappointing, as they have been worked through judiciously and vetted throughout the interim with joint committees. When those bills are defeated, it is at a cost of $5,000 to $6,000 each and have, in the past, generally been pushed to the top of the list.

One of the few successes from my Senate TRW committee is the passage of HB67-Wyoming Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund administration-2. This bill provides the governance of this trust fund that will help to provide opportunities for any community or nonprofit to put proposals forward to enhance recreation and economic development with plans to improve or develop trails, motorized or non-motorized, shooting sports, archery, hiking, boat ramps, climbing, etc.

We are also working bills presently on separating the mule and whitetail hunting, big horn sheep reintroduction into the Sweetwater Rocks, dealing with compensation for landowners for lost forage due to overage of wildlife, etc.

Education bills have been getting hammered pretty hard this year, and I believe there has been a real assault on public education. I know how hard our educators work and how important our support staff and administrators are to the success of the 90,000 public school kids.

Keep doing good things, and we just need to work on Wyoming solutions for Wyoming issues instead of the focus on “hot button” issues that are not happening in the Equality state.

Our judiciary committee has been dealing with a variety of bills that run the gamut, from intimidating judges, simple assault, hemp with synthetic additives, E-cigarettes and illegal substances, cold case data bases, gun bills, etc.

All in all, we have passed some bills that will be helpful for our constituents and, as always, some didn’t make the cut.

We have a few short days to try to come to some type of compromise with our budget and, if that doesn’t happen, it will cost the taxpayers more money because of the fact that some of our legislators would rather focus on their re-elections or their one-sided beliefs rather than trying to find some middle ground.

It’s important to continue to email, text or call. Some days we get over a hundred emails, so make sure that you identify that you are from Uinta County, and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for all of your support.