Two key facts to know about Wyoming’s K-12 education funding

During the course of reporting on Wyoming’s K-12 education system, two major themes have repeatedly come up in WyoFile’s

conversations with sources.

The first theme is that Wyoming moves money around from wealthy school districts to those with less resources. You could call it playing Robin Hood on a $1.6 billion dollar scale.

The second theme is that changes to the federal revenue flow could make K-12 education into a major liability for the General Fund Budget.

Let’s take a minute to examine these two themes.

The state plays “Robin Hood” with school funding

This flow chart explains how local and state revenues combine to reach the “guaranteed” level of funding calculated for each school district. (Courtesy Legislative Service Office)

The funding for Wyoming’s 91,000 K-12 students is decided by a complicated formula that redistributes revenue from wealthy schools districts to those with less resources.

It starts with a “guaranteed” revenue target that is set by the state. All school districts are funded up to a guaranteed dollar amount set for each district. That number is determined by the average population of students attending, plus costs for special education and transportation, and other factors.

The local districts attempt to meet their “guarantee” threshold though local tax collections. Each district collects revenue from a 6-mill county property tax, a 25-mill district tax, property sales taxes, and a number of additional sources (see “Funding the Block Grant” chart).

If local tax revenue doesn’t reach the guaranteed amount, the extra money is made up by the School Foundation Program, which has a total budget of about $1.657 billion each biennium.

The School Foundation Program gets revenue from a variety of sources, the most important of which are Federal Mineral Royalties, property Taxes, state investment income, and “recapture” of excess revenue from wealthy districts. (Courtesy LSO)

Much of the School Foundation Program (SFP) revenue comes from Federal Mineral Royalties. The other major revenue sources are investment income, 12 mills of property tax, and “recapture” of excess funds from wealthy school districts. (See pie chart.)

If  districts bring in more tax revenue than their “guarantee”, the state then “recaptures” the excess and puts it into the School Foundation Program to be redistributed to the poorer school districts.

It’s something like a Robin Hood scheme, where money collected in mineral-rich Sublette County and Campbell County flows to Niobrara County.

The system of revenue distribution came out of several Wyoming Supreme Court lawsuits that resulted in mandates for equal school funding across the state.

Wyoming’s K-12 funding is just part of a robust public education pipeline that also includes nearly $1 billion in biennial funding for the University of Wyoming and Community Colleges. In total, Wyoming spends about $3.3 billion every two years on public primary and secondary education. (See spending chart below.)

If federal funding drops, Wyoming must pick up the tab

This is a point that legislators and state budget experts mention again and again: the structure of Wyoming’s education funding could make it a major budget liability.

Over the past few decades, Wyoming has received enough revenue from minerals—much of it produced on federal lands—to operate the School Foundation Program almost entirely independent of General Fund operating revenue.

But if that federal funding stream slows or dries up, the School Foundation Program can become a liability to the General Fund or other state accounts.

Specifically, if the School Foundation Program doesn’t pull in enough revenue to meet the district “guarantees”, the unmet needs must be covered by funds referred to as “augmentations”. (See Funding the Block Grant chart.)

A variety of scenarios could lead to the need for augmentations to the SFP. WyoFile recently published an article that explained how federal cuts could impact Wyoming’s K-12 schools:

Wyoming’s entire education pipeline, from K-12 through the community colleges and UW, costs the state about $3.3 billion per year. The funding has grown substantially since 2005 as the state has tried to improve educational outcomes. (Courtesy LSO/Click to enlarge)

Each biennium, Wyoming’s General Fund pays a scant $18.9 million of the $2.443 billion needed to fund the Department of Education, school construction, and the operation of K-12 Schools.

Of that $2.443 billion total, about $231 million comes from direct federal funds, and nearly $800 million comes from Federal Mineral Royalties and Coal Lease Bonuses (aka federal energy money).

Percentage-wise, the state’s General Fund is paying about .77 percent of the cost for primary education, while direct or indirect federal payments cover about 42 percent.

While it might seem that Wyoming is well-off to have so much federal mineral money to pay for its schools, that situation actually creates a huge risk: if the federal money goes away, the state must bridge the gap in funding — from the General Fund, savings, or other state sources.

During each biennium since 2009-2010, the School Foundation Program has gotten about $600 million from Federal Mineral Royalties—more than one third of the $1.6 billion spent by that account each biennium.

A reduction of the state/federal split of federal mineral royalties from its current 49 percent to 37.5 percent (the pre-1976 level), could mean a drop of $100 million to the SFP.

In light of recent sequestration of Federal Mineral Royalties, that’s a risk Wyoming leaders are keeping a close eye on.

For more on K-12 funding in Wyoming, read this release from the Wyoming Department of Education.

Despite public input, no Wyoming finalists for Dept. of Education job

While no one knows who Gov. Matt Mead will choose to be the next director of the Department of Education, one thing is certain: The leader will not come from Wyoming.

That unanticipated outcome comes at the hands of the State Board of Education, which gathered extensive public comment to develop a candidate profile. Back in March, the state board chose Ray and Associates from a slate of six consulting firms to head up the process. The company then conducted a survey asking stakeholders what kind of person they would like to see in the job. That brought 200 responses.

Ray and Associates developed the candidate profile through two public input sessions, and contacted more than 40 stakeholder groups. At every step of the process, they asked respondents if they could suggest anyone from Wyoming who ought to apply for the job. The consultants contacted more than 300 individuals in 45 states to ask if they’d be interested in applying. About 30 of those contacted were from Wyoming, according to State School Board member Sue Belish.

In the end, 84 people applied for the director position, with about a dozen from Wyoming.

“I was surprised at the people from Wyoming who did not apply,” said Belish. “When I looked at the list of 84 names who did apply, I did not think those people from Wyoming would have made it to the final list. I just didn’t think they had the experience.”

Ray and Associates offered recommendations for which candidates to interview. However, the State Board of Education had access to materials of all 84 finalists, and made the ultimate decision using input from public forums with the finalists.

Department of Education Interim Director Jim Rose was initially a finalist, but took his name out of the running because he prefers to go back to his job directing the Wyoming Community College Commission.

That left Gov. Mead with three out-of-state candidates to choose from: Tony Apostle, Richard Crandall, and Norman Ridder.

Apostle is a former superintendent from Pullayup, Washington, a city of 37,000 near Tacoma. Crandall is a state senator from Arizona and CEO of Crandall Corporate Dieticians, while Ridder is the superintendent of Public Schools in Springfield, Missouri. Both Apostle and Ridder have overseen school budgets of more than $200 million, while Crandall headed up a legislative committee on education.

Gov. Mead had hoped to select the new director by the end of last week, but he delayed the decision, saying he needed more time. “I was just thrilled with the passion of the people I interviewed which makes it a difficult choice,” Mead said. “I was very impressed with their passion and their desire to move to Wyoming.”

Mead may announce his selection as early as Wednesday June 12th, but the decision could be put off another week while he makes a trip to visit a coal port and an oil-sands project in Canada.

Mead said none of the three finalists are ignorant of the ongoing controversy surrounding the oversight of the Department of Education. In the last legislative session, lawmakers transferred management of the Department of Education from the Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill to the appointed director.

“[The three finalists] are aware of Senate File 104, and they say this looks like a great opportunity in Wyoming where you have continuous public support for education, where you are actively seeking the best way to do things,” Mead said.

Each biennium the state spends more than $1.6 billion in state and federal money on public education. In the last decade Wyoming has built dozens of new schools using coal lease bonuses from mineral leasing on federal lands.

Many people expect Wyoming’s public school system to improve in the quality of education delivered. “If it can’t be done in Wyoming I’m not sure where it can be done,” said Belish. “There are cities that have more kids than we do. We have resources — lots of resources. We have money, and people who care about education.”

At a recent hearing before a legislative committee, consultant Paige Fenton-Hughes said several of the out-of-state finalists commented on the camaraderie and lack of polarization among Wyoming’s State Board of Education. She noted in particular that the candidates couldn’t tell which board members were Republicans and which were Democrats. Finalists were impressed that the board members seemed to enjoy each others’ company, which apparently differed from their past experience.

“The board didn’t send to the governor any status quo lovers,” Fenton-Hughes said. “These are visionary folks. They are very forward thinking, and very different from each other.”

Belish said the interview process allowed for in-depth consideration of how well each candidate could manage a large, complex organization. It also allowed the board to analyze the candidates’ views on education, and to gauge whether each candidate would be able to cooperate with various constituents at the state and local level. “That is not something we typically ask candidates who run for [Superintendent of Public Instruction]. Being able to delve into those areas is a good thing,” Belish said.

The search process gives Belish hope that Wyoming will be able to develop a systematic approach to improving education across the state. “I think we are on the cusp of turning this new chapter and figuring out how we can all work toward the same end. Let’s have that discussion about what we expect a high school grad to know, and still have room for flexibility and innovation at the local level,” she said.

Interim Education Committee discusses information management, suicide prevention, bus safety

On Monday the Joint Interim Education Committee met in Casper for its first meeting following the 2013 legislative session.

The committee first discussed an audit of the Wyoming Department of Education’s Information Management unit, which handles data collection for the agency.

Consultants from RTI International presented results of a rapid audit conducted on the Information Management division. The report found that the unit had numerous organizational challenges that prevented it from accomplishing its reporting duties on time. Heavy attrition within the unit has led to some workers managing responsibilities normally shared by multiple employees.

The consultants recommended a realignment of organizational strategy and structure within Information Management, and the hiring of a Services Manager, Data Architect, and Statistician as soon as possible. The Joint Committee asked legislative staff to draft a memo for Gov. Mead requesting that Information Management positions not be consolidated into the state’s new Department of Enterprise Technology Services until the Department of Education had time to complete a full realignment of the unit.

Following the RTI presentation, the committee discussed consolidation of reporting requirements to minimize data collection burdens on local school districts. Currently school districts file over 60 reports with the Department of Education each year.

In the next agenda item, the committee heard from Attorney General Gregory Phillips and Department of Family Services head Steve Corsi regarding drafting of a bill to require teachers to complete two hours of suicide prevention training each year. The committee moved to draft a bill using language modeled after the Jason Flatt Act.  Suicide prevention training could be completed by teachers on their own time. Online materials would be provided for free by the Jason Flatt Foundation, through and there would be flexibility over what curriculum could be used.

Following an adjournment for lunch, the committee heard information relating to school bus safety. Fremont County School District #6 Superintendent Diana Clapp spoke about the risks of school bus “drive-bys”, in which a motorist illegally passes a bus that is stopped.

In December 2011, Mikayla Strahle, an eleven-year-old student, was killed by a driver who passed a stopped school bus in Fremont County. The group presented information gathered by Stephin Little Shield from Wind River High School about school bus safety laws in other states. Several middle school students from the district who were friends of Mikayla Strahle were in attendance.

The group called for drug testing of school bus drivers involved in accidents, similar to procedures for holders of Commercial Drivers Licenses. They also asked the committee to consider prosecuting school bus drive-bys with penalties similar to DUI convictions.

The group also showed footage from a pilot project to place video cameras on school buses within the district. The cameras capture license plates numbers and vehicle descriptions that can be used in issuing “drive-by” citations. In Fremont County District #6, at least one citation has already been issued using video footage of a “fly-by.”

Each year, the state collects information on how many cars illegally pass buses. In a one-day survey conducted in February,  bus drivers across the state counted 115 school bus “fly-bys” in the morning, 28 in the afternoon, and  154 in the evening.

When extrapolated across all of Wyoming for the 170-day school year, that corresponds to 20,125 illegal passes in morning, 4,900 in the afternoon, and 26,950 in the evening, annually.

“We could collect enough money [in fines] in one year to pay for these cameras. That’s kind of staggering,” said, Rep. Matt Teeters (R-Lingle). The collected money would go to the School Foundation Program.

Currently the state reimburses local districts that buy internal cameras for monitoring passengers on the bus. So far there are 742 internal cameras across the state.

Meanwhile, districts have just begun to install external cameras to monitor outside traffic.  Six buses in Fremont County and two in Evanston have installed external cameras. Motion detector cameras have also been used in Converse County, Natrona County, Campbell County, and other parts of the state.

In one month, cameras on Converse County buses provided evidence used in issuing 18 citations, which resulted in convictions 100 percent of the time. In April, the same cameras caught 45 violations. Convictions are rare without visual evidence.

Department of Education officials estimated it could cost between $1.65 million and $3 million to install external cameras on all 1,500 school buses in Wyoming.

Federal Mineral Royalty sequester exposes risks to Wyoming’s funding

Two months ago the Department of the Interior informed Wyoming that sequestration would take a bite out of the more than $900 million in federal mineral royalties the state receives each year.

The loss in revenue amounts to $53 million for Wyoming, or a 5.1 percent reduction.

Officials estimate that the loss in revenue will mean $28 million less for the Budget Reserve Account, while another $24 million will be shaved from deposits made to the School Foundation Program and the School Capital Construction Account.

If all revenue projections hold, Wyoming can cover the reduced revenue to the Budget Reserve Account by drawing on the Statutory Reserve Amount, a cushion lawmakers are required to set aside in each budget. The state also has enough money in its Permanent Land Fund Holding Account to absorb the hit to the School Foundation Program and the School Capital Construction Account.

Drawing on the savings account for schools and the Budget Reserve Account will prevent an immediate crisis, but it will also reduce money available for unmet needs.

The decrease in capital construction money won’t stop any current projects, but it may mean some students could have to wait longer for new schools to be built, and contractors might have less campus projects to pursue. For most Wyoming residents, the sequestered revenues for the School Foundation Program and the Budget Reserve Account won’t create direct challenges, though they will certainly cause headaches for the state’s leaders.

The drop in revenue adds pressure to an already trimmed General Fund budget, which Wyoming lawmakers cut by more than $60 million earlier this year. State fiscal planners say the additional, unanticipated loss of $53 million in federal mineral royalties revenue represents a major disruption.

“It’s significant. It really throws a wrench in the works,” said Bill Mai, the administrator of the state Economic Analysis Division. ”It blows your forecast out of the water with little warning.”

Each biennium, Wyoming gets about $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in federal mineral royalty payments (FMRs), which account for a sizable portion of the state’s entire two-year $8.9 billion budget. More FMRs flow to Wyoming than any other state, largely because of extensive coal mining on federal land in the Powder River Basin.

Gov. Matt Mead and Treasurer Mark Gordon both criticized the way the federal government withheld the FMRs without prior notification. According to Mai, at least one official (Gordon) questioned whether FMRs would be subject to sequestration, but no one at the federal level told Wyoming what to expect.

“It’s pretty aggravating to have to deal with something like this,” Mai said of the sudden nature of the reduction. “You get this notice that says, ‘Oh, by the way we kept 10 million out of this (monthly FMR) payment.’ Only the feds get away with that.”

Wyoming’s budget is built using revenue forecasts that factor in projections for mineral prices and rates of production, among other variables. For the most part, the revenue estimates keep the state on a steady fiscal path, but there are always wrinkles. Mai called changes in federal policy “un-forecastable” events.

So just how will the cut in FMRs affect Wyoming?

Each year Wyoming splits up the royalty revenue to fund a variety of accounts. The largest share of the royalties goes to the Budget Reserve Account, which transfers much of its balance into the General Fund each year. That money helps fund the Department of Health, the Department of Corrections, and the bulk of most other programs outside of K-12 education and school construction. This is the money that provides the bulk of state services to state residents.

Mai estimates the sequestration of FMRs will result in about $28 million less for the Budget Reserve Account (BRA) for 2013.

The loss in revenue isn’t likely to force readjustments in existing agency budgets. Instead, about $6 million could be pulled out of leftover transfers that would normally go into the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account, also known as the “rainy day fund.”

The state will have to draw on other sources to cover the remaining $22 million in lost BRA revenue. The funds will likely come  come from the Statutory Reserve Amount, which equals 5 percent of the General Fund budget, or $104 million. “You could call that reserve a good policy for handling unanticipated times like these,” Mai said.

Alternatively, if the state has a good investment year in 2013, the money could come from capital gains on investment accounts, but that won’t be known until September 2013.

The other major accounts receiving the bulk of FMRs are the School Foundation Program (SFP) and the School Capital Construction Account (SCCA).

Deposits to the School Foundation Program will be cut by $14.3 million due to sequestration. That reduction could be covered by a transfer from the Permanent Land Fund Holding Account, preventing any adverse impacts to Wyoming’s teachers and school children.

Finally, the School Capital Construction Account will see deposits decreased by about $10 million due to a reduction in Coal Lease Bonus payments — also part of the sequester of the $53 million in federal mineral royalties. The SCCA could also cover its shortfall by using money from the Permanent Land Fund Holding Account.

Despite its name, the Permanent Land Fund Holding Account isn’t an inviolate investment account where the corpus can’t be touched. Instead, it is a savings account that generates investment income, while also allowing spending of the principal. The Common School Permanent Land Fund is the inviolate investment account for education, akin to the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund and feeds the General Fund.

The drop in royalties is part of a trend in reductions in mineral revenues for Wyoming. Last year, Congress chose to stem the flow of Abandoned Mine Lands money to Wyoming, a move estimated to cut revenue to Wyoming by more than $700 million in the coming decade, or roughly $70 million to $80 million each year.

“Under current projections, [the FMR cut] shouldn’t drag any of the accounts underwater. If it continues, we are talking $107 million minimum (in lost revenue every two years),” Mai said. “That’s not much different than the hit we just took from the loss of the (AML funds). Between the two of them, you’re talking over a billion dollars in hits [over the next few years] provided the sequester continues.”

Wyoming’s School Foundation Program can exert a “call” on General Fund revenue through “transfers in, if necessary.” (Courtesy Legislative Service Office)

For Wyoming, the real danger in this trend is that at some future date the School Foundation Program may not receive enough FMRs to cover ongoing operation of K-12 schools, and other funding sources like property taxes won’t make up the shortfall.

If that occurs, the legislature is required by law to transfer money from the General Fund to fund education for the state’s children. In that way, a loss in FMR funding for schools could have a negative effect on every departmental budget that relies on the General Fund.

“Things are developing in such a way that it could become a major problem for us in the not so distant future,” Mai said.

Reporter’s note: This post was updated on 5/28/2013 to clarify the role of savings in addressing FMR cuts.

Editor’s note: This post follows on the recent feature “Wyoming: Where Independent People Rely on Federal Funds” and a previous post “How a letter withheld $53M in mineral royalties from Wyoming.” Look for further coverage of risks to Wyoming’s finances in the upcoming weeks.

Online encyclopedia WyoHistory.org sheds light on Wyoming’s past

WyoHistory.org recently launched its online encyclopedia, which is spearheaded by Casper historian Tom Rea.

This week Capitol Beat offers a column reviewing the new online encyclopedia WyoHistory.org. Full disclosure: this reporter has written for the site, and supports its mission entirely.

Next time you have a question about Wyoming history, don’t go to Wikipedia. Instead, try WyoHistory.org, a homegrown online encyclopedia created by historian and former Casper Star-Tribune journalist Tom Rea.

Conceived in 2010, WyoHistory.org has more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and essays about Wyoming history.

The idea for the project came out of essays written by Rea for the Casper schools. He wanted to see the material more widely disseminated. With the assistance of the Wyoming State Historical Society, Rea wrote a number of grants and started hiring writers to produce the content in 2010.

Three years later, the site has a wide offering of essays covering the state’s rich past. With a few clicks, one can read about the fur trade, Red Cloud’s War, the Fort Laramie Treaty, railroads, the cattle industry, and Wyoming water law.

For those wanting to quickly orient themselves to the landscape of the state, Laramie writer (and WyoFile contributor) Emilene Ostlind has penned a comprehensive series of essays on each of the major river basins in Wyoming. In a few minutes time, one can get grounded in the eons of natural history contained in the basins of the Green River or the Powder River.

The site offers profiles of notable Wyoming characters like Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross (the first female governor), Elwood Mead (father of Wyoming water law), J.B. Okie (sheep tycoon), and Tom Horn (range detective).

Readers can peruse encyclopedia articles about virtually every town in the state, along with a variety of rich oral history interviews. Authors include Wyoming historians Lori Van Pelt, Sam Western, John Davis, Anne Chambers Noble, Phil Roberts, Barbara Bogart, and many more.

An interactive map shows places mentioned in articles and essays on WyoHistory.org. (Courtesy WyoHistory.org)

The layout of the site is attractive and intuitive, featuring numerous historical photographs from the state’s archival collections.

Perhaps the best feature of the site is a map with symbols indicating Wyoming places that are featured in WyoHistory.org articles. By hovering over a pin, one can quickly see what has been written about that part of the state. It also provides insight to what parts of the state contain uncharted historical territory, at least so far.

Rea’s project envisions a new way for lovers of Wyoming to learn about the history of the state. During the official launch of the site at an event hosted by the Western History Center at Casper College, Rea commented that books have served as the perfect technology for disseminating knowledge for thousands of years. But today’s readers want new ways to engage with history using multimedia technology that is digital and mobile.

Holding up his mobile phone, Rea told the audience that this small device represented the most advanced technology for sharing information. In his other hand, he lifted up a copy of T.A. Larson’s Wyoming: A History. The 695-page monograph was first published in 1965, with revisions in 1978 and the first paperback printing in 1990.

Rea noted that Larson’s book is widely considered to be the best, most comprehensive historical synopsis of Wyoming’s past, drawing on his lifelong career as a historian at the University of Wyoming. Generations of UW students took Larson’s Wyoming History class, still required for many students.

But today, Larson’s book does not have the potential reach and interactivity offered by online content available on computers and mobile devices. As a devoted Wyoming historian, Rea had to seize the opportunity to spread knowledge more efficiently.

The website has already enabled Rea to tap into a global network of people interested in Wyoming history that simply wouldn’t be available with traditional technology. He regularly gets emails from out of state readers and even people in Europe who are reading the site.

The resulting network can create surprising and meaningful connections. In one instance, Rea was able to connect a reader whose ancestors had been missionaries in Big Horn, Wyoming in the 1880s, to local historian Judy Slack, archivist of the Wyoming Room at the Sheridan library. The reader provided letters to Slack, who helped get them shared through the local historical society.

Those kind of interactions, along with the heavy research and writing conducted by Rea’s team of Wyoming history authors, make WyoHistory.org one of the most significant humanities efforts in the state’s recent past.

The landscape of Wyoming instills in its residents a desire to explore. We range over mountains and plains, and up into canyons where we can see bedrock laid down millions of years ago. In this way, the state makes us curious about where we are, both in space and in time.

WyoHistory.org feeds that desire to learn the territory. Like all good history, it helps us learn where we came from, and where we might be going.

Visit WyoHistory.org to donate or sign up for newsletter notifications when new articles are published.

New University of Wyoming president Robert Sternberg aims to invest in people

Incoming president Dr. Robert Sternberg on a recent visit to the University of Wyoming. (Courtesy University of Wyoming)

At a meeting of the University of Wyoming trustees last week, incoming university president Robert Sternberg announced a set of fundraising priorities that didn’t put capital construction at the top of the list.

Instead, Sternberg aims to raise money for students, professors, and business incubators, with the ultimate goal of developing ethical leaders that can lead a life of service.

Sternberg’s fundraising goals indicate that the university will continue its efforts to invest in students and teachers so the institution can better serve the state.

For the past decade, the university has made major investments in its physical plant, upgrading virtually every part of the campus. Those upgrades have been a major focus of fundraising efforts, and a priority for the state legislature. In total, the university has invested over $564 million in new and planned construction since 2005.

At the same time, a freeze in salaries since 2010 led President Tom Buchanan to call for the legislature to increase faculty pay, even at a time of statewide budget cuts.

During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers committed $65 million toward a $110 million transformation of the university’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. The “Tier-1” engineering school project will involve large-scale construction, but the legislature also plans to provide the salaries needed to attract 25-30 new professors. (For more information read this plan released May 5.)

Meanwhile, the university made a supplemental budget request asking lawmakers for $5 million in pay raises across all departments. In the end the legislature granted $1.8 million in one-time bonus pay.

As an aside, the legislature also made changes to the Public Records Law that would allow the university to maintain a confidential search process. The decision came after a lawsuit filed by several media organizations asking for a release of candidates names, which had been withheld on the advice of the search firm Greenwood/Asher and Associates. Following a last-minute public announcement of the names of four finalists, Robert Sternberg was named on February 24th as the successor to president Tom Buchanan.

Sternberg’s arrival may signal a new chapter for the university in which the investment in people won’t be so dependent on the legislature. In the meeting with university trustees on May 1, he laid out his five top fundraising priorities, all centered on academics. His priorities (paraphrased) include:

1. Activities that promote ethical leadership and develop leaders who can make the world a better place.
2. Developing incubators that connect to the top economic sectors in the state, including agriculture, energy, natural resources, and technology.
3. Financial aid for attracting and retaining students.
4. Graduate fellowships and assistantships to draw top students who can boost the research output of the university.
5. Endowed chairs and faculty salaries.

Sternberg noted the impact of investing in academics: “If you donate for a scholarship, you change the world forever. The world is a different place for your having been in it,” he said.

Sternberg noted the university already has a great deal of capital construction underway. While it’s vital to have good facilities, he cautioned against pursuing so many capital construction projects that they reduce fundraising resources for other areas. As a caveat, Sternberg said remodeling the dorms could become a priority because of its importance in recruiting student athletes.

Regarding the University of Wyoming Foundation, Sternberg said he’d like to see it get even bigger and stronger than it already is. Currently the university has an endowment of about $350 million.

Sternberg’s desire for foundation growth will likely be modeled after his experience at Oklahoma State University, where he currently serves as provost. Oklahoma State has a $452 million endowment, but recently exceeded the $1 billion goal of its “Branding Success” fundraising campaign.

T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire oil magnate and hedge fund investor, donated $100 million to the effort, on top of his previous $500 million in gifts to athletics and endowed chairs.

The funding goals of the OSU campaign bear some resemblance to Sternberg’s priorities for Wyoming: $500 million for student scholarships, $200 million for professor salaries, $200 million for capital construction, and $100 million for programs and services that benefit the state.

Sternberg has a major affinity for land-grant schools like Oklahoma and Wyoming because they have a mission of service.

Created under the Morril Act of 1862, land-grant schools received title to federal lands that could be sold to fund education in agriculture and engineering. The land-grant schools aimed to promote an educated populace with the skills to develop the states and territories.

That emphasis on practical education is still reflected in the University of Wyoming’s mission statement:

“As Wyoming’s only university, we are committed to outreach and service that extend our human talent and technological capacity to serve the people in our communities, our state, the nation, and the world.”

That mission of service is part of what attracted Sternberg away from his past positions as professor at Yale and dean at Tufts, and eventually to provost at Oklahoma State and president at the University of Wyoming.

“I like to be in a university that doesn’t think it has arrived,” Sternberg said. “It’s much more exciting to be in a place that feels like it can always do better.”

Through the course of his career, Sternberg grew to dislike academic elitism. He believes a university’s quality can’t be judged simply by college rankings. Instead, Sternberg thinks it should be reckoned by the wisdom and ethics of its graduates, and whether they develop the leadership and desire to serve and give back to their community.

As he moved further from the Ivy League, Sternberg grew to prefer schools that provide broad access to students. Wyoming’s Hathaway Scholarship program has produced a dynamic Sternberg likes: education widely available to as many students as possible regardless of economics.

Sternberg said he “loves” the opportunity for the university to nourish not just academic pursuits but also applied research. “It’s inherent in the DNA of a land grant school to work in partnership with the people of the state,” he said.

That attitude, combined with Sternberg’s professional credentials, his interest in ethics, a passion for the outdoors, and an understanding of Wyoming likely helped him secure the position.

Previously Sternberg was a member of the psychology faculty at Yale University from 1975-2005, where his research focused on teaching and learning. He also studied, creativity, wisdom, love and hate, intelligence, and relationships.

Sternberg is a noted critic of tests that assess students in an unfair manner, an interest stemming from his own challenges with test anxiety. After testing poorly on an IQ test and getting a C in an intro class at Yale, he majored in psychology and graduated summa cum laude.

Since earning his PhD at Stanford, he has been awarded numerous honorary doctorates, and served as the president of the American Psychological Association.

From 2005-2010, Sternberg was dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University near Boston. In 2010 he was the sole finalist for the provost position at University of Colorado-Boulder, but elected to take a position at Oklahoma State, which he preferred because of its land-grant mission.

As provost at Oklahoma State University, Sternberg worked as the school’s chief academic officer. His duties included scholar development, assessment, and oversight of the colleges, honors program and library.

Sternberg also gained experience in bridging the gap between scholarship and economic development, having served on a board at OSU that boosted start-ups based on a faculty research.

There are some parallels between Sternberg’s previous job at Oklahoma and his new job in Laramie. Both universities are land grant institutions located in historically oil-producing states where the school mascot is the cowboy. Further, both schools have about 1,800 faculty and staff, though OSU’s Stillwater campus body numbers about 24,000 compared to Wyoming’s 14,000.

When it comes to organizing thoughts and insights into digestible form, Sternberg is a big fan of lists. He’s written numerous articles with lists on topics ranging from how to transition from being a professor to an administrator, to how to make ethical decisions, and most recently how to succeed in a job search.

In his meeting with the University of Wyoming trustees, Sternberg presented a list of 15 values that he will promote and develop at the university:

1. academic excellence
2. academic integrity and ethics
3. diversity of academic viewpoints, politics, learning styles, geographic origins, and economics
4. academic freedom
5. service to the state, the nation, and the world
6. promotion of active citizenship and leadership
7. shared governance, collaboration, and transparency
8. passion for the university and the state
9. creativity
10. critical thinking
11. practical thinking and common sense
12. wise thinking and promotion of the common good
13. building the local community in Laramie
14. globalism
15. mutual respect and dignity

Sternberg says he and his wife Karin have long dreamed of moving to the Rocky Mountain West. His wife — also a psychology professor — comes from Weingarten, Germany, a town of 24,000 in the southern part of the country near the Swiss and Austrian Alps. They saw Wyoming as an ideal place to live, both for their hobby of hiking and for their children, a set of two-year-old triplets.

“As a place to live and bring up kids, it’s the best place. It’s a whole life. We like the values of this state,” Sternberg said. “The people are everything I hoped for.”

For a sampling of Sternberg’s writings published at Inside Higher Ed, click here.

Fires, Game and Fish, and education on interim committee to-do list for May

The Wyoming Legislature’s Interim committee activities for May 2013. To view this calendar with clickable links to committee agendas, visit the Legislative Service Office website. (Courtesy Legislative Service Office)

Barely two months have passed since the end of Wyoming’s legislative session, but lawmakers are about to get back to work. A series of interim committee meetings begins around the state in May, giving legislators a chance to prepare for next year’s short 20-day budget session.

Much of the important legislative work happens in the interim. Committees usually meet three times over the course of the spring, summer and fall. Typically interim meetings last 1-3 days, during which the committees discuss topics set out in agendas beforehand. Click here to see the interim calendar with links to each committee’s agenda.

All interim committee meetings are open to the public. No prior arrangements or registration are required, though it is helpful to inform the committee chairs if you wish to speak on a specific issue. Lobbyists well-versed in the issues attend all the meetings to present their points of view.

So what’s in store? The month of May begins with the National Council of State Legislatures meeting in Denver from May 2-4. Many of Wyoming’s lawmakers belong to this non-partisan organization, which gathers legislators from other states to share ideas. Informational seminars at the Denver conference will focus on demographics, immigration, preventing violence, hydraulic fracturing, water quality, renewable energy, education accountability, agriculture, and health reform. Read the full agenda here.

The Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Interim Committee will meet May 6-7 at Northwest College in Powell. Topics will include:

• Report on fire danger from Wyoming State Forestry Division
• Update on raw milk, interstate shipment of meat and pest control from Dept. of Agriculture
• Discussion of groundwater policies from State Engineer’s office
• Animal cruelty provisions update from Wyoming Livestock Board
• Read the full agenda here.

The Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee will have a three day meeting from May 6-8 at the First State Bank in Guernsey. The committee will discuss funding needs and license fees increases for the Game and Fish Department, which were both major topics of during the last legislative session. Other topics include:

• Reports from Dept. of Tourism, Dept. of State Parks and Cultural Resources, Natural Resources Trust Fund, and the Game and Fish Department.
• Funding needs for Dept. of State Parks and Cultural Resources
• Read the full agenda here.

The Select Committee on Legislative Facilities will meet at the state Capitol in Cheyenne on May 9^th to discuss the capitol renovation and restoration project. Read the full agenda here.

The Select Committee on Statewide Education Accountability will meet May 9-10 at the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Building in Casper. Topics include:

• Report on Phase I of the Statewide Education Accountability System
• No Child Left Behind Waiver
• Statewide Students Assessments
• District graduation requirements
• Outreach plan for accountability system
• Phase II Teacher/Leader Accountability
• Wyoming Department of Education Status Report.
• The full agenda is here.

The Joint Judiciary Committee will meet May 13-14 in Teton Village. Topics include:

• Jury pool selection
• 24/7 sobriety program
• Controlled substances update
• Probation supervision, criminal history records, apprehension of offenders, home incarceration, and work release
• Criminal statutes and penalties
• Aggravated assault
• Post-conviction relief
• Game wardens/state park rangers update
• Mental health and involuntary commitment cost reduction
• Juvenile justice update
• Residential treatment facilities
• The full agenda is here.

The Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee will meet May 14 and 15 at the Campbell County Public Library in Gillette. Topics include:

• Solid waste landfill funding
• Coal bed methane update
• Reclamation and bonding issues
• Federal mineral royalty reduction
• Atomic Energy Agreement State Feasibility Study
• Wyoming Infrastructure Authority
• Cameco Resources, Inc.
• The Moneta Divide project
• State agency efficiency
• Wyoming Business Council
• University of Wyoming
• Wyoming coal export issues
• Energy Producing State Coalition
• Groundwater baseline monitoring
• Wyoming Energy Plan
• Read the full agenda here.

The Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee will meet at the Best Western in Lander May 28-29.

• Funeral directors’ practice act and coroners’ standards
• Own risk solvency insurance standards
• Guarantee association model act and electronic delivery of insurance documents
• Campaign finance reporting and voter identification
• Business fraud prevention and modernization of business entity reporting systems
• Legal publication requirements for local governments
• Utility ratemaking for renewable resources
• Telecommunications act and universal service fund review
• Misclassification of building industry employers as independent contractors
• Roofing and siding contractor regulation.
• The full agenda is here.

The Education Committee and the Revenue Committee will meet June 3^rd and 4th, while the Labor Committee will meet June 4^th and 5^th. Agendas will be made available on the Capitol Beat and the LSO website as they become available.

How a letter withheld $53M in mineral royalties from Wyoming

By now you’ve probably heard that $53 million in federal mineral royalties (FMRs) will be withheld from the state of Wyoming due to sequestration — the mandatory federal spending cuts that went into effect in March.

The news came in a letter dated March 22^nd from Gregory Gould, the director of the Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resource Revenue (ONRR). In three short paragraphs he explained that Wyoming would be getting $10.6 million less in royalty payments each month for the next five months, effective immediately.

Federal Mineral Royalties above $200 million are split with one-third going to the SFP and two-thirds going to BRA. See page 7 of the 2013 Fiscal Data Book for more information. Wyoming statute 9-4-601 defines the split.

The loss in royalties results in $17.6 million less for the state’s School Foundation Program, which funds public schools, and about $35.3 million less for the Budget Reserve Account, which feeds Wyoming’s General Fund.

Moments like this underscore how easily Wyoming can lose money that flows from the federal government.

Last year, the state learned it would lose $82.7 million in annual federal Abandoned Mine Lands Funds it had enjoyed for years. With Wyoming currently getting nearly 40 percent of its state budget from the federal government, revenue adjustments like this can really sting.

So just how did this recent loss in mineral royalties happen?

It goes back to the Budget Control Act of 2011, the law that put the so-called “sequester” in motion. Those voting for the bill included Wyoming Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, both Republican, and Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis, also a Republican.

Sequestration was designed to be a blunt instrument with cuts so painful they would force the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach an agreement on deficit reduction. When that didn’t happen, President Obama ordered the sequestration forward, placing the blame for the cuts squarely on Congress.

A report from the Office of Budget and Management put it plainly:

“The Administration has no discretion in the calculation and allocation of the reductions. Instead, the reductions have been calculated pursuant to the requirements specified in the Budget Control Act.”

The sequester went into effect on March 1^st, and three weeks later Wyoming got its letter of bad news, which sparked a strong reaction from Gov. Matt Mead:

“When the State reduced its budget by over 6% it did not achieve its reductions by withholding mineral revenue due under state leases. That would be taking someone else’s property. Similarly, the Department of Interior should not be able to meet its budget reduction by taking mineral revenues which belong to the states under the law.”

By contrast, Pat Etchart, spokesman for the ONRR, said the Department of Interior was following the law:

“The Budget Control Act mandates across-the-board 5.1 percent reductions. By law mineral states are not exempt from the sequestration. ONRR recognizes the hardships this may impose on states, but it is obliged to fulfill its mission in compliance with existing law.”

The statute controlling how federal royalties are disbursed to the states is 30 U.S.C 191. Until 2008, it required a 50-50 federal/state split of mineral royalties. Royalties flow from production companies to the ONRR, which divides the money among states, Indian tribes, and federal programs like the Reclamation Fund.

In 2008, Wyoming’s royalty split dropped to 48 percent because of Public Law 111-322, in which Congress took back 2 percent from the states for “net receipts sharing.”

Still, Wyoming is ahead of where it was before 1976, when states got only a 37.5 percent share of mineral royalties. That year, Wyoming’s congressional delegation helped boost the state share of mineral royalties from 37.5 percent to 50 percent through an amendment to section 35 of the Federal Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.

In Wyoming, Sen. Cliff Hansen (Republican) gets much of the credit for that change, but Democrats Sen. Gale McGee and Rep. Teno Roncalio also supported the effort. (The amendment was made in section 317(a) of the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976. See page 28 of FLPMA here.)

The boosting of the state share of royalties to 50 percent resulted in an additional $2.8 billion in revenue for Wyoming over the years.

In 2012, Wyoming got $995 million in royalties from minerals produced on federal lands within the state. To put that in perspective, Wyoming’s share amounted to almost half of the $2 billion in royalties distributed to all the states last year.

But today, the combination of congressional gridlock and the ongoing federal budget crisis threaten the royalty revenue. As Sam Western noted in a recent WyoFile essay, the federal government can restrict the flow of mineral revenues to Wyoming. The House and Senate have the power over how to split up federal money generated by leasing federal lands. They can also cut the flow by sequestration.

After receiving the letter from ONRR, Gov. Mead asked Attorney General Gregory Philips to examine if the state had any legal recourse for reclaiming the royalties. The answer came back in the negative, leaving only the option of taking up the matter with Wyoming’s congressional delegation.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Gregory Gould’s Letter to Treasurer Mark Gordon

Gov. Mead travels to Dubai to promote fracking research by Mohammad Piri

Zayed Road in Dubai. Wyoming Governor Matt Mead recently traveled to Dubai to promote University of Wyoming professor Dr. Mohammad Piri’s research into unconventional oil production. (Wikimedia Commons/Saudi from Saudi Arabia)

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead recently returned from a trip to Dubai where he worked to boost trade and promote the work of Dr. Mohammad Piri, a professor of engineering at the University of Wyoming.

During the trip Mead met with representatives of the oil company Saudi Aramco in hopes of building a research partnership with the University of Wyoming. He also met with officials from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, a Muslim university located in Dahran, Saudi Arabia.

“The work being done at the University of Wyoming by many folks, but in particular led by Mohammad Piri, is cutting edge, and as a result has gained global interest,” Mead said. (Dr. Piri’s website has photos of many executives and politicians visiting his lab.)

Dr. Piri researches the flow of liquids and gasses through rocks. Specifically, he uses a CT scanner and x-rays to analyze core samples of rocks and visualize the pore space within. That information can help increase the effectiveness of fracking on tight rock formations.

Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest exporter of oil. As Saudi Arabia’s reserves of conventional oil decrease, the company has joined the global effort to recover more petroleum through fracking.

Should Saudi Aramco decide to support Piri’s research, it would follow other companies like Hess and EnCana that have donated to the professor’s lab in hopes of improving the science behind unconventional oil recovery.

Gov. Mead’s trip to the Middle East was funded by non-state dollars, according to a press release.

The trip to Dubai comes after a series of energy industry donations obtained by the University of Wyoming Foundation, which is led by Ben Blalock. The industry gifts combined with legislative appropriations will provide over $110 million to rebuild the College of Engineering at the University of Wyoming. The project is the largest in university history.

WyoFile previously reported on state funding for the College of Engineering and Dr. Piri’s work in the feature Legislature, industry invest $115 million in UW engineering.

An audio clip of Gov. Mead explaining the trip is available here.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Wyoming will now issue drivers licenses for “Dreamer” immigrants

The Wyoming Attorney General’s office decided last week to issue driver’s licenses to immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (Courtesy of Tom Forst)

In a reversal of policy, Wyoming will begin to issue drivers licenses to young immigrants who are authorized to live and work in the United States. The change will allow immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to take the state driver’s test. Those who pass can drive legally and purchase car insurance.

Until now, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WyDOT) had denied licenses to those enrolled in the DACA program. Under DACA, immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children won’t be prosecuted for a period of two years. (Such immigrants are often known as “Dreamers”.) After registering with DACA, they can get federal work permits and temporary social security numbers that allow them to pay into the Social Security Administration.

For those non-citizens who come to Wyoming on a visa, having a work permit and social security number is all they need to get driver’s licenses. However, WyDOT had withheld licenses from DACA participants on the understanding that they remain in violation of U.S. immigration laws.

The federal executive branch refuted that interpretation in recent documents. That led the ACLU of Wyoming and immigration lawyers Elisabeth Trefonas of Jackson and John Huss of Casper to ask the attorney general’s office for a policy review. The Human Rights Practicum at the University of Wyoming also offered information.

Attorney General Gregory Phillips conferred with Gov. Matt Mead’s office, then made a decision on Friday, April 5th.

News of the change has already made it to Jackson, where DACA enrollees have contacted attorney Elisabeth Trefonas asking when they’ll be able to take their driver’s tests.

“It means they don’t have to look over their shoulder any time they go anywhere. Like their friends, they can work, drive, and act like they belong here,” said Trefonas. “I remember when I was sixteen (and getting a license) was your symbol of freedom. To be approaching your mid twenties and not being able to get yourself to work, it’s got to be a relief.”

The attorney general’s office directed WyDOT to notify its 29 license bureaus about the policy change this week. Assistant attorney general Doug Moench said notification of local WyDOT offices is underway.

Wyoming’s change of position leaves Arizona and Nebraska as the only states still denying drivers licenses to DACA recipients.

Reporter’s note: WyoFile reported on the DACA license issue in the March 19th feature Dreamers seek driver’s licenses in Wyoming. Planet Jackson Hole and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle republished the story under WyoFile’s policy of free content sharing.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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2013 Session Notes: Wyoming’s legislature is conservative, neighborly

A group of Senators applaud to show their gratitude to legislative staff sitting in the third floor balcony. (WyoFile/Gregory Nickerson)

In a departure from the normal Capitol Beat news format, this week’s offering is a perspective column from me, WyoFile’s government and policy reporter.

There’s a lot you can say about the Wyoming legislature. It’s small, fiscally conservative, anti-federal, and very Republican. But it’s also socially moderate, efficient, and congenial. After spending the better part of two months covering the session this winter, I left feeling impressed by how informal and personable our legislature is.

My reporting in Cheyenne required a temporary move from my home in Laramie. Rather than face the treacherous summit of I-80 on a daily basis, I rented a basement room from an old UW friend. Each morning I showed up in the capitol wearing a tie and a bright red ID badge that said “Legislative Media.” It wasn’t hard for lawmakers to see me coming.

Over the course of the session I saw lawmakers debate issues ranging from budget cuts to bible classes, and worked to provide a balanced take on the news.

Most of what I saw in Cheyenne fit well with what I’d learned about Wyoming politics in graduate school. Our legislators aren’t exactly progressive, but they aren’t radically conservative either. The small-government mindset, not religion, forms the platform of most Republicans here. In many ways, the legislators are a valid representation of their home communities, and Wyoming’s current population. (The state used to have a legislature more evenly split between the two parties, but that was  decades ago.)

You may not agree with the positions taken by the legislature, but how they get it done is admirable. As far as states go, Wyoming has a very efficient political process. It takes in a wide variety of ideas, and in a short 40-day session puts bills through a rigorous vetting that allows for plenty of debate. It takes eight “yes” votes for a measure to pass.

Compare that to the six-month legislative sessions some states have, and Wyoming’s lawmakers look very good. They know how to make laws fast, and then get out of Cheyenne before they suffocate the public under a pile of statutes. Whatever they don’t finish they relegate to the interim, or some future session. For the most part, the people writing our laws are citizen legislators, not politicians, and they want to get back to their regular lives. They don’t make much money in Cheyenne, and most are there because they care broadly about Wyoming and hope to make a difference.

The legislature has a strong culture of statesmanship. There is no shouting, no personal attacks, and no agitated voices on the floor of either chamber. Anyone who makes a personal jab at a colleague gets a stern talking to from House and Senate leadership.

If a lobbyist makes a personal attack on a legislator, lawmakers circle the wagons. They don’t take kindly to off-color insults to one of their own, and will visibly support their colleagues who are under attack. I saw that support for both Rep. Lynn Hutchings (R-Cheyenne) and Sen. Leland Christiansen (R-Alta).

On the other hand, if a lawmaker makes a callous remark to a citizen, as Rep. Hans Hunt did in his letter to a Cheyenne citizen, legislative leaders won’t necessarily come to the rescue.

It’s a very close-knit group, particularly in the Senate, which has 30 members. The lawmakers sometimes have decades-long relationships. Two people might be on opposite sides on most issues, but still really like each other. In the 60-person House, lawmakers may not know each other as well, but the same feeling prevails.

There’s a lot more humor and laughter on the floor than I had expected. During debate on the driest topic, someone always finds a way to insert a joke. There isn’t an hour that goes by without some levity. Sometimes there are good-natured pranks, ranging from white-elephant gifts to full-fledged rubber band shootouts. That kind of behavior isn’t often captured by the audio recordings or news coverage. Sometimes it shows up on Twitter. But when you see it in person, it makes people human.

Throughout the session, dozens of official visitors and school groups come through the Capitol. When these citizens show up in the chambers, the lawmakers stop what they are doing and give a standing ovation to the visitors. It helps lighten the mood, and makes the lawmakers remember who they are working for.

As a journalist, I came to like most of the people I covered, even as I tried to develop a critical understanding of their views. Many were friendly, knowledgeable, open, and didn’t mind answering tough questions, though some of them made me earn their confidence once they saw my media badge. Sometimes there can be a knee-jerk distrust of the media — likely the result of past experience with reporters. Lawmakers want to know they’ll be treated fairly and given a fair hearing in news coverage.

Part of the pleasure of reporting from the Capitol was getting to know some of the members of the Cheyenne press corps. Up in the third floor media room, I had stalwart Associated Press reporter Ben Neary on the desk to my left, and the astute Bob Beck from Wyoming Public Media on my right. I also got to rub shoulders with Becky Orr and Trevor Brown from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, and Kyle Roerink and Laura Hancock from the Casper Star-Tribune. I think they all out-tweeted me using the #wyleg hashtag.

On the other side of the room Casper Star-Tribune reporter Joan Barron worked from the desk she’s occupied year round for decades. The background knowledge she brings to her work is nothing short of remarkable. She never said just when she came to the Capitol, but I expect she’s been there longer than anyone, whether reporter, legislator, or state employee. Even so, she shows no signs of burnout. (By the way, her name is pronounced Jo-Ann.)

As with any institution, a few people do most of the hard work. Many of the newer legislators are just trying to keep their heads above water, and they look to more experienced people they respect to see which way to vote on issues they may know nothing about.

It takes a really, really smart person to keep up the flow of information. The best legislators can take in huge amounts of information, remember things they learned months ago in interim meetings, and then communicate that effectively in debates. The high-level skill of synthesizing information is very valuable.

Well-educated people run the show and occupy all the leadership positions. Many of them have legal training, but any background that involves the accumulation and application of a large amount of knowledge is good preparation. Those who don’t have that ability fall behind rather quickly.

A lot of the lawmakers have serious knowledge on the issues. But you’d be fooling yourself to think that any legislator knew every bill. A lot of them focus on amending bills on their pet issues, and when a bill comes up about branding or road kill, they just look to one of their respected colleagues to see how to vote.

You might find this odd, but a lot of the legislators, and the lobbyists, are really tall. These are the guys and gals who felt confident at an early age and never lost that. Out of curiosity I did a quick internet search and found that yes, tall people disproportionately hold positions of leadership.  Think Al Simpson, Mike Massie, Sen. Charlie Scott (R-Casper), Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander), Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton), Sen. Bruce Burns (R-Big Horn). All these guys, and some of the ladies may not be as tall as Abe Lincoln, but are still over six feet. I think it has less to do with voter preference than the achievement level of people with high confidence.

Having seen the legislature at work, I do worry that Wyoming will continue to have a difficult time developing secondary industries. Most folks are focused on maintaining the status quo when it comes to mineral revenues that supply most of our tax base. There are huge impediments to innovating Wyoming’s economy. We’re making some strides in diversification, but for the time being we’re looking to structure our state government to accommodate booms and busts, rather than addressing the root causes of economic volatility that come with our mineral economy. If it were easy to change that, it would have already been done.

I would also point out that much of Wyoming’s efforts to resist the federal government seem futile if you consider just how dependent we are on Washington D.C. They hold the purse strings on much of our revenue, particularly for federal mineral royalties. As much as we might disagree with the inefficiencies, wastefulness, and ineptitude of Washington, taxpayers across the nation are footing much of the bill for many of the services provided by the state of Wyoming. Even Gov. Matt Mead acknowledges that. Left to our own tax revenue, Wyoming would be a very Spartan place. A fair assessment of the support the federal government gives Wyoming would add a lot to the political discourse in the legislature, and the state generally.

It was a little disappointing to see only minimal citizen participation on most bills not relating to social issues. There might be a handful of citizens in committee meetings, but most people who showed up were paid to be there. Professional lobbyists who have long-standing relationships with lawmakers do a lot to shape opinion and debate. The average citizen really doesn’t have time to show up at an 8 a.m. committee meeting in Cheyenne. Some bills get debated over a period of weeks, making it challenging for citizens to stay involved.

Yet when I went home to Laramie on the weekend, people surprised me with how informed they were about what was going on in the legislature. Sometimes they were following issues I hadn’t judged to be significant, but had a lot of local importance. Certainly there are well-informed people in every community, which is a very good thing.

A significant number of people do get the chance to visit the capitol during the session. I ran into friends I knew from my hometown, including my sixth-grade social studies teacher from Big Horn Middle School — the very person who first gave me the assignment to read and summarize stories in the local newspaper.

It’s one of the joys of living in Wyoming to keep those kinds of connections. To paraphrase a saying I heard from Michael Walden-Newman who oversees Wyoming’s investment portfolio, “In Wyoming, everybody is connected somehow, and if they aren’t yet, they will be soon.”

Politics is all about relationships, especially in this state. It’s wise not to burn bridges. In Wyoming, we’re all neighbors, and it’s important to remember that in the legislature.

Getting things done does depend on who you know and who has confidence in you. Luckily, there are less hurdles of gaining access than you might find in other states.

For those interested in getting involved, the next interim meeting will happen April 12^th in Casper, when the Joint Interim Committee on Healthcare will meet to discuss health insurance exchanges. Click here for the agenda.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Legislature 2013 in Pictures

Over the course of Wyoming’s 2013 legislative session, WyoFile’s Gregory Nickerson provided readers with in-depth coverage of the issues lawmakers debated. In addition, Nickerson was able to capture the session with a camera, documenting the intense, but sometimes playful, nature of the eight-week session.

[slideshow gallery_id="1"]

Management council sets interim topics, legislature adjourned February 27th

Members of the Joint Management Council met on the evening of Tuesday February 26th to discuss topics for interim legislative committees. The council includes majority and minority leadership from the House and Senate. (Gregory Nickerson/WyoFile)

The House and Senate heard all the bills on their schedule and adjourned on Wednesday, February 27th, four days before the 40-day deadline for finishing the General Session.

The night before the close of the session, Wyoming’s Joint Management Council met to approve interim topics chosen by legislative committees. In total, 21 regular committees and select committees will meet in the interim to discuss topics ranging from juvenile justice to landfill remediation.

Many of the interim topics will continue discussions that didn’t get fully resolved this session. Legislators will revisit funding for the Game and Fish Department after voting down hunting license fee increases this session. They will also consider highway funding since the gas tax passed this month will cover a portion of the projected $134 million shortfall. Less than $70 million of the gas tax money will go to the Department of Transportation, with the rest going to local communities.

Interim committees will also take a serious look at juvenile justice, an issue that didn’t get much attention this session, but has been a major topic of debate in the past.

The Select Committee on Education Accountability will continue work on reforming schools, while the Education Committee will look at topics like early childhood education and the Jason Flatt Act, which is aimed at suicide prevention.

After voting down optional Medicaid expansion this session, the legislature will continue to work on health care reform in the interim. In particular, the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee will monitor how the Affordable Care Act affects state health programs. It will also reexamine the possibility of Medicaid expansion.

The Revenue Committee plans to take on the large and potentially problematic topic of reorganizing statutes that cover special districts. Laws relating to hospitals, water, fire, and other districts are currently spread out in many parts of Wyoming’s statutes. The Management Council noted that consolidating those laws into one place would likely take several years, and might be better accomplished by an outside entity.

Finally, the Corporations Committee will take a serious look at telecommunications issues in preparation for a total rewrite of  telecom law slated for 2015.

Many of the interim committees have tentative dates set for their work sessions, typically with a two-day meetings in the spring, summer and fall. The membership and schedules for the committees is available here.

Ironically, some of the bills that come out of the interim committee process promptly die when the session rolls around. Membership changes often leave session committees with only a handful of members that studied the issue in the interim and helped draft legislation. The House version of the silencer bill suffered this fate in the 2013 session, only to be brought back as a Senate File later on.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Gov Mead vetoes three parts of budget bill, adds $25M in fire funds

By striking this line of the budget bill, Gov. Mead boosted the amount of money that can be transferred from landfills to fires from $5 million to $30 million. With the stroke of a pen he made available $60 million in emergency fire funding for this summer. (Courtesy office of Gov. Mead.)

Today Gov. Matt Mead vetoed three sections of the supplemental budget bill passed by the House and the Senate, while criticizing several other parts that he let stand.

Most notably, Gov. Mead vetoed the legislature’s funding proposal for fighting fires.

The budget bill provided $30 million in General Fund dollars for fires, and added another $5 million that could be taken out of the landfill remediation account. That language ignored the proposal Gov. Mead made in November to set aside $60 million for fires.

Mead’s action keeps the $30 million in General Fund dollars for fires, but allows the state access to another $30 million from the landfill remediation account if the money is needed. The landfill remediation account would be replenished in the 2015-2016 budget bill.

In a letter to House and Senate leadership, Gov. Mead said he hopes that the state doesn’t have to spend the full $60 million he made available for fires, but that it’s important to plan for emergencies.

Gov. Mead also vetoed a section of the budget bill that would sweep excess revenues at the end of fiscal year 2013 into the “rainy day” fund.

Mead’s action would hold the sweep of funds until the end of fiscal year 2014, which would allow any surplus this year to help cover shortfalls next year.

The remaining veto struck a section that would require agencies to submit 4 percent, 6 percent, and 8 percent budget reductions for 2015-2016.

“Rather than increasing government efficiency, this makes for considerable work and eats into time and resources which could be put to other use. In addition, this ties me to specific reduction figures, when a greater reduction may be needed or it may be best to hold spending flat,” Governor Mead said.

Gov. Mead also objected to language that could reduce General Fund spending on one-time projects, rather than just cutting from standard operating budgets.

Several other sections of the budget concerned Gov. Mead, but not enough to warrant a veto. He objected to language requiring the University of Wyoming to report its policies on selecting deans and artwork because such matters do not pertain to the budget.

Mead worried about a provision to lock the school foundation money into permanent savings, making it unavailable to cover short-term deficits in the school budget. He said he would ask the legislature to reconsider this policy in 2014.

The governor also objected to the state taking on maintenance costs for community college buildings constructed with local money. Lastly, he objected to the legislature’s one-time bonus for state employees because he prefers raising salaries according to studies that identify fair market pay.

A press release of Gov. Mead’s vetoes is available here. For a more detailed letter detailing Mead’s positions to House and Senate leaders, click here.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Bill to raise seismic testing bond to $5k goes to committee

A thumper truck similar to those used in seismic surveys in southeastern Wyoming uses a vibrating plate in the center of the vehicle to send shock waves into the earth, creating a 3D map of subsurface geology that helps drillers find oil and gas. (photo © Maitri Erwin — click to enlarge)

This Thursday the Wyoming House Agriculture Committee will consider a bill to provide landowners with more protection from seismic companies that trespass or damage private land. The measure previously passed the Senate.

Senator Bruce Burns (R-Sheridan) sponsored Senate File 136 – Seismic Exploration-3 after the House Judiciary shot down an interim bill on the same topic.

Specifically, SF 136 would raise the damage bond for seismic companies from $2,000 to $5,000 for the first 1,000 acres controlled by one owner.

Companies would post another $1,000 bond for each additional 1,000 acres held by the same owner. Parcels under 40 acres in size held by different owners could be pooled under a $5,000 bond. The bonds are posted to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the bill isn’t necessary because companies already post bonds that cover their entire project. The project bonds have ranged from $25,000 to $300,000.

Earlier this week Hinchey proposed an amendment to allow companies to pool all parcels less than 1,000 acres in size under a single $5,000 bond. This would preclude companies from having to post a $5,000 bond for every parcel between 40 acres and 1,000 acres. The committee did not indicate whether they would take on Hinchey’s amendment.

The bill would also require companies to work under a valid mineral lease or reach a surface use agreement with the landowner.

This provision could stop speculative seismic testing, where companies survey geologic formations in hopes of later selling the data to an oil and gas developer. The Powder River Basin Resource Council supports the legislation.

The House Agriculture Committee will hear more testimony on Senate File 136 on Thursday morning. If the committee approves the bill it will pass it out for three hearings on the House floor.

A similar bill to raise the damage bond to $10,000 failed in the 2011 legislative session, as reported by WyoFile. Sen. John Schiffer (R-Kaycee) sponsored that measure.

The renewed effort at seismic bond legislation comes on the heels of surveys that covered large swaths of the Niobrara oil play in eastern Wyoming. For more on Niobrara seismic testing, read this WyoFile feature. During the play some seismic companies accessed private property under the $2,000 damage bond filed with the state. The most speculative companies used the $2,000 bond to force access onto private land without first reaching a surface use agreement with landowners, or demonstrating that they worked on behalf of a mineral leaseholder.

Since 2010 the Powder River Basin Resource Council has argued that the $2,000 damage bond could not begin to cover the cost of ruts and fence damage left behind by some seismic crews.

The group noted that the relatively low price of the bond encouraged companies not to reach surface use agreements, which can cost $5 to $10 an acre on ranches that contain thousands of acres.

Update: The House Agriculture committee passed Senate File 136 on Thursday, February 21st with a vote of 7 in favor and 2 opposed. The bill had no amendments. If the bill does not make it off General File by February 22 it will die.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Rep. David Miller offers bill to study transfer of federal lands to Wyoming

Middle Piney Lake on United States Forest Service land in the Wyoming Range. House Bill 228 would study transferring federal lands to the state of Wyoming. (USFS Photo)

Last fall state lands hawk and Utah state representative Ken Ivory appeared before a Wyoming legislative committee  calling for the transfer of federally owned lands to Western states.

Now it seems Rep. David Miller (R-Riverton) has taken up Ivory’s cause in Wyoming with House Bill 228 —Transfer of federal lands-study.

You might remember Miller for his 2012 “doomsday” bill, which inspired a tongue-in-cheek amendment proposing Wyoming acquire an aircraft carrier.

Miller is an economic geologist from Riverton and CEO of the uranium company Strathmore Minerals Corp. He told WyoFile he disagrees with federal policies that impede development of the mineral economy in Wyoming. As an example he cited the Wyoming Range Legacy Act that withdrew National Forest land from oil and gas drilling.

Miller said he heard Ivory give a presentation about transferring public lands at an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference in Salt Lake City last summer. He liked the idea, and asked Wyoming’s Legislative Service Office to draft a bill on the issue.

Previously, the Wyoming Attorney General’s office wrote an opinion stating that Utah’s federal land transfer laws relied on “a repeatedly rejected reading of the United States Constitution and a strained interpretation of Utah’s statehood act.”

The Attorney General concluded that Wyoming would be unsuccessful with a bill patterned after Utah’s laws. In response to that opinion Miller’s bill stopped short of demanding transfer of federal lands, and simply asked for a study.

House Bill 228 tasks the Attorney General with finding alternative legal recourse to, “compel the federal government to transfer ownership and control of federally owned and managed lands to the state of Wyoming or to private individuals.”

The bill also creates a task force to look at the economic costs of federal management. In particular they would look at the impact of federal permitting delays, the inability to tax federal lands, and management under the Wilderness Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The task force, under Miller’s proposal, would consist of nine people with members representing oil and gas, mining, agriculture, travel, and counties, plus four legislators. The group would get $30,000 to conduct the study with assistance from the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming. They must file a report to the Joint Agriculture committee by November 1, 2013.

House Bill 228 passed through the House Agriculture Committee with a 7 to 2 vote at the end of January, and then got 6 to 1 approval from the House Appropriations Committee for the $30,000 fiscal note.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 44 to 13 after several back and forth amendments between Miller and other legislators. Last night the bill passed the Senate Agriculture Committee 4 to 1. It now goes to the Senate for three rounds of debate.

Miller says bills and resolutions on this issue are under consideration in Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, and Arkansas.

In Miller’s testimony to the Senate committee, he spoke to the history of federal land policy, saying Congress had discussed disposing of unclaimed federal lands in the early 1930s just before the 1934 passage of the Taylor Grazing Act, which regulated usage of public grazing lands.

Homesteaders east of the Rockies claimed much of the land, and the remaining federal lands got transferred to the states, particularly in the 19th century and early 20th century. As homesteading died out, the federal government didn’t take action to dispose unreserved federal lands in Wyoming and other sparsely settled western states.

Miller said the policy of disposition formally reversed with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which directed the government to hold on to federal lands. House Bill 228 attempts to take a step back to the previous policy of relinquishing federal lands.

“I got quite concerned reading this (bill),” said Paul Wood, a citizen who spoke against the bill before the Senate Agriculture Committee. “I am a public land user and when I read this ‘compel the federal government to relinquish ownership’ I thought that’s what a robber does when he wants something that he doesn’t own.”

Wood emphasized that it’s incorrect to speak of “taking back” lands from the federal government, because federal lands never belonged to the Wyoming in the first place.

Wood also had concerns that transferring federal lands would ultimately put those lands in private hands, ending public access. Rep. Miller responded by saying any future disposal of lands to the state or private citizens could include provisions to maintain public access in perpetuity.

Dan Neal of the Equality State Policy Center said he believes the federal government is unlikely to give away any lands given the current fiscal picture. “I think we would have a big fight from Congress to relinquish half of the mineral royalties coming off these lands,” he said.

Miller noted that the time required for processing a permit to drill on federal lands has increased from 154 days in 2005 to 307 days in 2013. Meanwhile, the state of North Dakota can process a drilling permit in 10 days — although that drilling activity is predominately on private lands. Transferring federal lands to Wyoming could make the permitting process more efficient, while ending a host of other federal regulations.

Wood said he believes that expediting permitting was a poor argument for transferring federal lands, which provide free recreational and hunting opportunities to the public. “Every person in this state is going to lose a place to go and things to do,” he said.

Numerous media outlets and advocacy groups have reported on Ken Ivory’s effort. Some have called his work a resurrection of the 1970s Sagebrush Rebellion, which began in Utah. High Country News reported on the issue. Western author Tim Egan took a stance against transferring federal lands in an opinion column called “The Geography of Nope” in the New York Times.

Ken Ivory runs a website promoting disposal of federal lands at http://www.americanlandscouncil.org.

— Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Senate Education Committee fails to move concealed carry in schools bill

This morning the Senate Education Committee took no action on House Bill 105 – Citizens’ and Students’ Self-Defense Act leaving the bill to die a procedural death without making it to the Senate floor.

Previously the bill made it out of the House. That version carried an amendment that permanent school employees with a concealed carry permit could carry in K-12 schools after notifying the superintendent and principal in charge.

Testimony in opposition of HB 105 came primarily from University of Wyoming employees, including President Tom Buchanan. Last week he sent a letter to Rep. Mark Semlek (R-Moorcroft) saying in part, “weapons on campus will pose increased risks for students and faculty, will not deter future attacks, and will lead to confusion in emergency situations.”

Buchanan also thought that the presence of concealed weapons in classrooms could stifle discourse, particularly from UW faculty delivering “unwelcome news” to students. “Firearms in the classroom will have a chilling effect and unacceptable impact on education,” Buchanan said.

(The entire letter from president Buchanan is at the bottom of this article.)

Joel Defebaugh, president of the Associated Students of UW, agreed with Buchanan’s position. “The academic freedom, and the pursuit of knowledge, the healthy discourse that we have on campuses and in classrooms bears no grounds for the fear of firearms from any of our peers,” Defebaugh said.

Defebaugh also thought student safety is best left in the hands of campus security officers, rather than in students who are “packing heat.”

“I know there are students on our campus that would support concealed carry on campus,” Defebaugh said. “We have to think about the future and the welfare of the students, and I think we can take care of them better, than with them carrying their own weapons.”

On the other side of the argument stood second-amendment proponents, including Anthony Bouchard of the Wyoming Gun Owners Association. He testified that gun-free zones don’t ensure safe campus environments.

“What we’re doing with these kind of laws is keeping the ones that will abide with laws out. Time and time again, it’s the one who’s the blood-thirsty killer that keeps going on these gun free zones, schools and campuses,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard based his support of the bill on the Second Amendment and the state constitution. “We all have a right to defend ourselves,” he said. “Article 1 section 24 (of the Wyoming Constitution) says, ‘you have a right to keep and bear arms and it shall not be denied.’ It doesn’t say, ‘but if the school board or if a college administrator thinks different.’”

Bouchard thought the the Senate Education Committee letting the bill die without a vote sent a clear message. “It’s not just a death, that was a vote. When people fail to move a bill forward, that’s a solid no vote out of that committee,” he said.

Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Point and Counterpoint: Closed UWYO Presidential Search Process

In the interest of robust debate, Capitol Beat presents two opinion pieces regarding the issue of a closed presidential search for the next University of Wyoming president.

The pieces come from Steve Klein at the Wyoming Liberty Group, a policy group in Cheyenne; and from Dave Bostrom, president of the UW Trustees.

The UW Board of Trustees followed the advice of executive search firms to use a closed search process to select the president who will replace Tom Buchanan next fall. In November, media outlets including the Casper Star-Tribune, the Associated Press, and Cheyenne Newspapers filed a lawsuit asking for the names of finalists to be released. The UW faculty senate last week sided with the board of trustees to maintain the closed process.

Albany County District Court Judge Jeffrey Donnell ruled that the names must be released. Upon that news, two of the eight remaining candidates withdrew themselves from the process. Another two candidates will withdraw unless confidentiality is maintained through legislative action.

Today the Senate passed House Bill 223 — ”Public records-institutions of higher education” with a vote of 23 to 7. The measure exempts institutions of higher education from releasing identifying information in presidential searches if doing so is contrary to the public interest. The House passed the same bill with a vote of 41 to 17.

As with any controversy, there are multiple sides from which to view the issue. Is the public interest better served by securing the best possible candidate through a closed search process, or through open discussion of the merits of each candidate, or finalist candidate? For the last few days, lobbyists from UW and the media have made their case to legislators in the Capitol.

During a press conference today, Gov. Matt Mead said he didn’t know whether he would sign HB 223 or not. He said he understood both the need for openness in selecting a leader for Wyoming’s four-year public university, but he also had concerns about changing course midway on a search that the university began with the promise of confidentiality to applicants.

“I need some more discussion on this. I’m torn on it,” Mead said.

The opinion pieces are presented below:

House Bill 223 and Secrecy’s Slippery Slope

By Steve Klein, Wyoming Liberty Group

House Bill 223 would modify Wyoming’s open records law to give the trustees of the University of Wyoming and trustees of our community colleges the discretion to keep applications, letters of recommendation, references and any other information “relating to the process of searching for and selecting the president” of the institution secret.  The bill is a response to a lawsuit filed by various Wyoming media outlets demanding disclosure of candidates in the search for the new president for the University of Wyoming.  On January 23, Albany County District Judge Jeffrey Donnell ordered that the trustees must “release the names, current employers and the dates when each finalist is scheduled to visit the university.”

Last week, when HB223 was introduced on the House floor after passing the House Minerals committee 9-0 (audio of the House floor discussion is at the end of this segment), Majority Leader Kermit Brown argued that the board of trustees of UW would have better applicants if searches were allowed to be held in secret.  Of the eight finalists for the UW presidency, “two sitting presidents withdrew, and two provosts withdrew” following the outcome of the lawsuit, according to Brown. HB223 passed final reading in the House with a 41-18 vote, and late last week passed the Senate Education Committee 5-0.

The media is, naturally, upset about bill. I believe their counter-arguments are solid, specifically against the proponents’ central assertion that qualified individuals will not apply for the job if they risk sowing ill will with their current employer and employees if they are revealed and the job does not work out. As the Wyoming Tribune Eagle put it: “[i]f UW hires a president in secret, won’t he or she leave Wyoming in secret too? It would seem the candidates’ commitments to their current schools is shaky at best. Surely the people of this state expect more from their new president.”

Indeed, the argument that the position is so important that it requires secrecy weighs just as favorably for disclosure as it does against it. Running UW is an enormous task, as is running a local community college, but all of these institutions are funded largely with taxpayer money. Even in the private sector, public oversight has caused numerous shake-ups after questionable hires. Last spring, Yahoo fired CEO Scott Thompson after it was revealed by a vigilant media that he embellished his résumé. It would be far better for public institutions if the public had a place in vetting their leaders.

To a limited extent, I am glad that the bill puts the responsibility in the hands of community college trustees, giving them the discretion over what to disclose. Community college trustees are elected, and if they choose to keep the presidential job search a secret under the law, they will be accountable at election time. If the legislature were to amend another part of the open records law instead, it would require trustees to keep the process secret, and give them some political cover. So this, at least, is a good part of HB223.

This bill, however, was brought in reaction to the actions of the UW Trustees, and they are not elected, but appointed by the Governor. The UW presidency is already three steps removed from the vote of the people: an elected governor, his appointed trustees, and their appointed president. Secrecy would take this removal even farther, allowing no immediate oversight of the Trustees’ most important duty. It is of course possible the Governor may be held accountable come election time, but he is so far removed from the selection process that this hardly seems like an issue that would change many votes.

What’s most disturbing to me is that nationally we’re facing increased disclosure and red tape around the activities of Joe and Jane Taxpayer, from their political speech to, more recently, gun ownership.  Meanwhile, our leaders here in Wyoming aim to shroud public servants’ official duties under the law. These are two sides of the same coin, one that’s not the currency of a free society.

Alas, one issue raised on the House floor during debate over HB223 was that it might not go far enough. Representative Keith Gingery pointed out that Wyoming counties and towns face the same problems in their searches for city planners and the like. “I’m just wondering if you want to look at this more expansively,” he said.  This was a thoughtful question meant to reveal the bill’s weaknesses (Rep. Gingery voted against the bill), but if HB223 becomes law it foreshadows an even more expansive gutting of Wyoming’s open records laws.

Secrecy is a slippery slope, and if HB223 becomes law based on the weak arguments of its proponents we can certainly expect more exceptions to transparency down the road.

(This piece is an updated version of a Wyoming Liberty Group weblog post originally dated Jan. 30, 2013.)

_______________________________________

Confidential Search Gives UW Best Chance for Success

By Dave Bostrom, UW Board of Trustees

When President Tom Buchanan announced last year that he would step down as the leader of the University of Wyoming, a significant burden was placed on the UW Board of Trustees. As the entity charged by law with employing the president of our state’s only four-year university, we recognized immediately our great responsibility to find a suitable successor to President Buchanan. Most of us believe the selection of UW’s 24th president will be the most important decision we make during our tenure as trustees.

From the start, we determined that obtaining as wide and deep a pool of candidates as possible would give us the best chance of finding the right person for the job. Our research showed that the best way to guarantee such a pool would be to use a confidential process, under which none of the candidates’ names would be revealed to the public. In fact, it became clear that many premier candidates simply wouldn’t apply without confidentiality, and we wanted to attract the strongest field we could.

At the same time, we recognized the importance of meaningful public input. We established a process whereby the field of applicants would be narrowed by two separate committees, consisting of members of the public, students, faculty, staff and trustees.

The search process has been a success. UW received 88 applicants for president. Many of those candidates applied after being recruited by our search consultant, Greenwood /Asher and Associates, one of a handful of top-flight search firms in the country. The applicants included a number of sitting presidents at other universities. By comparison, the University of Florida, using the very same search firm, at basically the same time but in a public process, received fewer than 20 applications — none of them sitting presidents of American institutions.

The first search committee narrowed the field of 88 to 15. That included four sitting presidents, nine provosts, one dean and one non-academic candidate. In January, the second screening committee interviewed the 15 candidates and agreed to move eight of them to the next step for reference checks. Included in that eight were two sitting presidents, five provosts and one non-academic candidate. The plan was for the second committee to meet again and produce a list of at least five finalists to present to the full board, which would then do another round of interviews and select the next president by the end of February.

Unfortunately, the process has been disrupted. A lawsuit by three media organizations who disagree with the confidential process resulted in a District Court ruling that, absent an explicit exemption in statute, we must publicly identify the finalists. As a result, from the list of eight candidates being considered by the second search committee, one sitting president and one provost have withdrawn. The other sitting president and one provost have said they will withdraw unless confidentiality can be guaranteed. We have four remaining candidates — not through the process of a screening committee narrowing the field based on Wyoming priorities, but as a result of the court ruling.

House Bill 223, which has passed the Wyoming House and the Senate, would provide the specific exemption in statute to allow the university to return to the confidential process that was working so well. It would allow us to possibly get some of those who’ve withdrawn to reconsider, and it would allow us to keep our word. We assured candidate confidentiality, and a promise is a promise. Without the bill, there would be nothing to prevent an individual or group from using the court ruling to make public all 88 of the applicants’ names.

Is it possible for us to find a superb president from the current pool of four? Yes, but it would be better to have the odds a little more in Wyoming’s favor and not have our options limited.

Some press reports have suggested it was an open process which allowed President Buchanan to become UW’s 23rd president in 2005, because his name was added to the list of finalists after public disclosure of the list showed he wasn’t on it. But the fact is, we were fortunate it turned out as well as it did. Once President Buchanan’s name was added to the list, every one of the other finalists dropped out. Fortunately, we got a terrific president even with a broken process. That’s not something we can expect every time.

The trustees understand the significant public interest in the selection of UW’s next president. But our responsibility is to get the best person for the job — not to satisfy public curiosity. The selection of the next president is not an election or a popularity contest, where the candidates are paraded in a public forum and the one with the most public support is chosen. As trustees, we were appointed by the governor to make this decision, and we’re intent upon finding a person with the demonstrated skills and a track record of success to hire for the job.

It’s also worth noting that our UW Faculty Senate, presented with a proposed resolution calling for the search process to identify finalists, rejected the proposal on a 33-21 vote. We appreciate that vote of confidence and trust in the board’s chosen approach.

We recognize the arguments in favor of openness. We don’t ascribe any nefarious motives to those who want us to identify the finalists. But the bottom line is that a confidential process offers the best opportunity for us to hire an outstanding president of UW, and House Bill 223 will give us that chance.

— Worland businessman Dave Bostrom is president of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees.

Gregory Nickerson is the government and policy reporter for WyoFile. He writes the Capitol Beat blog. Contact him at greg@wyofile.com.

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Bills aimed at LGBT equality fail, yet proponents see progress, urge civility

Becky Vandeberghe of WyWatch Family Action testifies against Senate File-131 Discrimination before the Senate Judiciary Committee. From left to right are Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie), Vandeberghe, Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie), and committee members Sen. Floyd Esquibel (D-Cheyenne) and Sen. Bruce Burns (R-Big Horn). (WyoFile photo — Gregory Nickerson)

The Wyoming legislature voted down two bills this week that would have advanced the cause of LGBT advocates.

House Bill 168 sought to legalize domestic partnerships, but failed by a vote of 25 in favor and 34 opposed.

Senate File 131 proposed to make discrimination based on sexuality or gender identity illegal. That measure failed when 17 out of 30 senators voted against it.

LGBT advocates made no secret of their disappointment. But those who have followed the issue for decades also consider this week as a new high water mark for their efforts. Jason Marsden, director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said no pro-LGBT bill has had a debate on the floor of the Wyoming Capitol since 1999, when lawmakers killed a hate crimes bill. This week marked that first time that two such bills made it out of committee with bipartisan support, and ultimately earned more than 40 percent of the floor vote.

But that silver lining didn’t lessen the sting of defeat for young proponents. Several college-age interns shed tears in the House gallery after watching the domestic partnerships bill die.

Matt Jolley, a Worland High School senior who testified on the non-discrimination bill, said he was surprised at some of the anti-gay arguments he heard at the Capitol. “It’s crazy to hear what people think,” he said.

Last week Jolley waged a successful social media campaign to get his senior photo featuring a gay pride flag included in his school’s yearbook. A petition he posted on Change.org received more than 4,000 signatures from as far away as Argentina.

That broad, global support did not seem so evident when Jolley testified before about three-dozen people at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

About 10 LGBT advocates and 10 opponents addressed a committee of four senators regarding SF 131-Discrimination. (Another senator did not to attend but left a “no” vote.) The small gathering belied the weight of an issue that has occupied a significant place in public discourse for decades.

“The world is noticing that this somewhat unexpected thing is happening in this somewhat unexpected place,” Marsden said. “We have an opportunity here to hold to our (Equality) state motto and provide protection for people who really need it.”

On the opposite side of the debate was Rep. Lynn Hutchings (R-Cheyenne). She and other opponents of the discrimination bill worried that the measure would intrude on the free speech of Christian organizations.

“This would be the only protected class that would clash against one of the other protected classes. It would hamper a religious freedom if we were to vote for this,” Hutchings said.

Others who testified said the law could lead to a shut down of Christian adoption agencies who refused service to same-sex couples.

Becky Vandeberghe of WyWatch Family Faction also argued that non-discrimination could impinge on free speech. “This bill would turn every Christian who stands on their religious principles into a criminal. Having biblical convictions should not be punished,” she said.

Miles Dahlby of the Wyoming Family Coalition worried that the bill would stifle discussion about the morality of sexuality. “Instead of squashing the ability to say, ‘I’m coming out’ or ‘Hey friend, I think there’s a better way,’ both of those ideas should be protected,” he said.

Responding to these criticisms, bill sponsors Sen. Chris Rothfuss and Rep. Cathy Connolly, both Democrats from Laramie, brought an amendment stating that nothing in the bill could be construed to limit speech of religious groups. The amendment also exempted religious organizations from parts of the bill relating to employment discrimination.

After the discrimination bill passed committee 4 to 1, it went to the Senate floor where several lawmakers argued it could enable gays to wage frivolous lawsuits against employers who fired them for reasons not relating to sexuality. The measure failed by 17 to 13.

Over the course of the week, opponents to the LGBT legislation used arguments distinguishing gay rights from other Civil Rights issues, on grounds that homosexuality is a choice, unlike race or gender. Others used arguments relating to the health and life expectancy of homosexuals.

Rep. Mark Baker (R-Rock Springs) cited the Cameron study, which says the life expectancy of gay men is between 39 and 43. Critics say that the decades-old study reached its conclusions using an inaccurate sample population at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Despite the use of controversial rhetoric in both committee and floor debates, Wyoming lawmakers and the public conducted themselves in a civil manner. Wyoming Family Coalition lobbyists Miles Dahlby said he felt debate of the discrimination bill exemplified one of the highest ideals of America:  “We are able to peacefully get together and talk over our differences and then live together with the results.”

But the civility Dahlby saw in the debate did not always carry over into citizens private email communications sent with legislators.

Rep. Lynn Hutchings (R-Cheyenne) said she received hate mail after testifying against domestic partnerships earlier this week. Hutchings is Black, and some of the mail contained racial slurs, misogynist terms, and references to slavery.

“When I testified the other day I didn’t mean to harm anybody. I meant to express my opinion,” Hutchings said of her opposition to the domestic partnerships bill. “I apologized to my colleagues that I might have offended because that wasn’t my intention.”

After the failure of the bills, the LGBT group Wyoming Equality sent out an email asking its members not to send hate-mail to legislators who opposed the measures, saying, “It will only make our job that much more difficult in two years.” Wyoming Equality urged members to write thank-you notes to lawmakers who supported the LGBT cause.

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Legislature kicks into high gear: Hill files lawsuit, gun bills pass, seismic dustup

The Wyoming legislature just had one of its most eventful days of the session thus far. Committees, both houses, and the Governor’s office all contributed to the action as lawmakers rushed to meet the Friday deadline for getting legislation on the floor in the house of origin. Any measures still in committee next Monday will be considered dead.

In the morning, the House Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly passed several Second Amendment bills.

The gun bills included House Bill 105, a measure to allow concealed carry of firearms in schools, and House Bill 104 that calls for the arrest of officials seeking to enforce new federal gun laws. The audience at the meeting stood almost unanimously in favor of the bills, and the committee passed them by a vote of 8-1.

In the afternoon the Senate began a long and involved debate on Senate File 136, which aims to stop seismic companies from trespassing on private land. After two hours of testimony with a break in the middle, at least one legislator appeared to fall asleep. The bill passed first reading.

In the midst of the Senate seismic debate, Gov. Mead called a press conference in which he signed Senate File 104. That controversial bill transferred many duties of Supt. of Public Instruction Cindy Hill to interim director Jim Rose, who currently heads up the Community College Commission. The bill is effective immediately.

Hill promptly responded by serving a lawsuit to Gov. Mead. In the aftermath Rep. Steve Watt (R-Rock Springs) distributed a flyer to the Capitol press corps calling for Cindy Hill to run for governor.

Also in the afternoon, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Keith Gingery (R-Jackson) called for his colleagues to vote down House Bill 200. The bill came out of Gingery’s committee yesterday with an amendment that would allow concealed carry of weapons in government meetings.

Debate on the floor the House stripped off the amendment. That brought back the original version of HB 200 to allow concealed carry in meetings only with the permission of the head of the entity conducting the meeting.

Unsatisfied with the permission to carry requirement, Gingery moved that the bill be voted down, and his colleagues complied.

Tomorrow morning the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear Senate File 131, which deals with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The House Education Committee will debate several measures on education accountability that hinged on the passage of Senate File 104.  The legislature may hear the budget bill by the end of the week.

For a committee schedules and floor schedules, click here.

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