CHEYENNE — Gov. Mark Gordon met with members of the media Wednesday, March 12, to share his thoughts on the outcomes of the 2025 Wyoming legislative session.

A prominent theme concerned the role national issues played in dominating the discussions throughout this year’s 37-day general session.

Gordon said he was saddened by how much national agendas got in the way of what he believes to be the necessary work of the Legislature.

“Thinking about how some of these issues were brought from out of state and really had momentum to them on a national level, I spent a lot of time worrying about those things,” he said. “And there was a certain amount of absolutism that I think maybe got in the way of the best outcomes for Wyoming people.”

According to the Wyoming Legislative Service Office, 178 bills were passed in 2025, similar to the number of bills passed in 2021, and around 500 bills were discussed.

Also in 2021, 60% of committee bills passed. Committee bills are discussed during the Legislature’s off-season, formally known as the interim. This year, however, 13 committee bills, slightly less than 50% of them, were blocked on introduction by a voting bloc that decided to not hear the bills.

Typically, around 20% of committee bills filed each session fail to become law, Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, who has served in the Legislature since 2013, previously told the WTE.

The blockades largely came from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline Republicans, which had a majority in the House of Representatives.

There is no formal Wyoming Freedom Caucus in the Senate.

“It was interesting watching the wind down of the (previous) Legislature and how many of those people understood that with the new Legislature coming in and a big bloc being there that there really wasn’t much that they would be able to get accomplished.

So, they kind of went down without a lot of enthusiasm. I think Wyoming lost a little bit because of that,” Gordon said Wednesday.

Going into the session, the Freedom Caucus pushed a “Five and Dime” plan to pass bills supporting its top five priorities through the House within the first 10 days of the session.

This included goals like requiring proof of residency and U.S. citizenship to vote in Wyoming; prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education; banning state investments in environment, social and governance funds, and reducing property taxes.

Gordon said there were some good ideas in the plan, but some other efforts challenged his vetoes from the previous year’s budget session. He said he thought there could have been more productive approaches to lawmaking to best serve Wyoming residents.

“It’s kind of stupid that they came away with ‘the way we’re going to run next year’s session is by overriding everything the governor did last time.’ Really, what I think you should be doing is thinking about what’s best for the people of Wyoming. This isn’t a battle between the Freedom Caucus and Governor Gordon. This is about governing Wyoming in the best interest,” he said.

“... It’s just sort of disappointing that we get lost in this political discussion.”

An example Gordon provided of this is the fact that the Legislature didn’t pass the governor’s requested supplemental budget this year, which would have provided additional funding for areas without sufficient funding.

Wildfire funding

Going into this year’s legislative session, Gordon said he had a few top priorities in mind, some of which were addressed.

His biggest hope was that the Legislature would address the state’s ability to respond to wildfires after more than 850,000 acres in Wyoming burned last year, the largest fire acreage in Wyoming since 1988.

In Gordon’s $692 million supplemental budget request, $140 million of that was earmarked to restore the acres burned in 2024 and to be ready for another devastating fire, if it were to happen. He said he was disappointed that the budget was not approved, and he is concerned for what could happen to the Cowboy State if it experiences another bad fire year this year.

“Am I concerned? Absolutely,” he said. “Last year, we went through $50 million, used up all of my contingency, all of the Homeland Security’s contingency, and went into our borrowing authority pretty substantially.”

He said that a special legislative session may be in order if another devastating fire season were to occur in 2025.

Impact on municipalities

The Wyoming Association of Municipalities advocated against bills that would further cut property taxes due to concerns that it would hinder municipalities’ ability to provide essential services.

However, the Legislature still approved a 25% property tax cut on assessed value up to $1 million across the state with no backfill from the state government.

Gordon said he is concerned with how localities will deal with the loss in funding, but said it is good to not have communities relying on the state for support.

“(Backfill) makes you much more dependent on the state, and as we’re seeing now with what’s going on at the federal level, that dependence can be very problematic for local communities over time,” he said. “So, I’m hoping the Legislature has a moment to think a bit about what their role is relative to local government.”

Another concern in Cheyenne has been the number of gaming facilities coming to the area. Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins advocated for legislation that would give municipalities more control over deciding which gaming facilities can set up shop in town, an authority that currently primarily falls to the county commissioners and the Wyoming Gaming Commission.

However, all of those bills failed.

Gordon said this is another area he believes the Legislature missed on this session, and he said he hopes it can be looked at in the interim.

“I’ve always maintained that we want to give local communities some ability to weigh in on how that growth happens,” he said. “Again, it’s an incredibly important part of Wyoming, but I also think local communities should have a chance to be able to say where, when and how many of those kinds of industries need to be in their communities.”