Can Wyoming elect a Legislature that believes in good government?

What motivates people to run for the Wyoming Legislature? I think the vast majority do it because they want to make this a better state for all, now and in the future.

But the number with those positive goals seems to be shrinking. Some lawmakers appear to believe that compromise is dishonorable, even within their own political party, and that it’s their job to push their personal beliefs at all costs, common good be damned.

This “my way or the highway” attitude prevents many good ideas from being seriously considered, let alone adopted as solutions to problems that affect all Wyoming residents. In too many cases it keeps the Legislature from doing anything at all while simultaneously distracting people from real issues, and that’s indeed troubling.

But there’s another trend I find even more disturbing because it’s undermining the heart of why state government exists. Some lawmakers sponsor bills aimed at ensuring the government works as ineffectively as possible. The goal is to spend the least amount of money they can to supposedly show they’re fiscally responsible, even if the outcome is inefficiency, chaos and damage to the existing system.

Raise taxes to improve government efficiency and make sure the benefits reach everyone? That’s considered political suicide by far too many lawmakers who just want to retain their jobs and power. 

On the TV series “Parks and Recreation,” the character Ron Swanson exemplifies this philosophy. “I think that all government is a waste of taxpayer money,” he says. “My dream is to have the park system privatized and run entirely by for-profit corporations, like Chuck E. Cheese. They have an impeccable business model.”

It’s all played for laughs, but in our Legislature, that scary notion is real; it’s the motivation behind everything some lawmakers try to do.

Here are a few examples. The movement to privatize the educational system so public resources are spent to fund private and parochial schools is a priority for many this session. Proponents contend the K-12 public school model is failing our kids, even though Wyoming is one of the highest-ranked states on National Assessment of Education Progress tests.

But even if some Wyoming schools struggle to maintain high academic performance, the answer isn’t to take taxpayers’ money that could be used to improve the system and give it to private businesses and religious schools. 

The state’s founders had the wisdom to prohibit public funds from being spent on private education and enshrined the principle in the Wyoming Constitution. Supporters of privatization say the solution is to change the constitution, so the quality of public K-12 schools deteriorates, and “proves” ineffective. 

It’s no coincidence the attempt to defund the K-12 system — tantamount to waging war on public schools — comes at the same time the Wyoming Education Association is suing the state for failing to meet its constitutional mandate to adequately fund the current system. 

Many communities lack access to mental health treatment, a frequent focus of Gov. Mark Gordon’s statewide town halls on how to improve our mental healthcare system. 

One obvious way is to provide more mental healthcare services at an early age. House Bill 119 – School finance-mental health service grants would have allocated $37 million during the biennium to hire additional school counselors, school nurses, and community or private mental health providers to serve students.

Sponsored by House Speaker Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale), HB 119 failed its introductory vote.

The House also killed House Bill 5 – Behavioral health redesign amendments. Its sponsor, the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, worked on the bill for the past two years. The measure wasn’t even an expansion of mental health services. It would have maintained the eligibility of lower-income people with high-deductible health insurance for coverage at community health centers through July 2026.

Enough far-right Freedom Caucus members voted against HB 5 to keep it from reaching the two-thirds support needed for introduction. Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-Casper) told lawmakers the bill “sets the stage for future increased expenditures.” Rep. Ben Hornok (R-Cheyenne) called it “a Trojan horse for Medicaid expansion in Wyoming.”

In reality, HB 5 had absolutely nothing to do with Medicaid expansion, and no fiscal impact on the state budget. Fortunately, Senate File 115 is an identical bill sponsored by Sen. Fred Baldwin (R-Kemmerer), and it has been introduced in the upper chamber.

Medicaid expansion, rejected by the Legislature for more than a decade, is a classic example of state lawmakers using political ideology to keep the state from providing healthcare services to the poor. This heartless decision not only prevents an estimated 19,000 low-income residents from receiving health insurance, but it eschews federal funds to pay for 90% of the services and help keep cash-strapped hospitals open.

Of course, for all the griping about the feds that some lawmakers do, the state is entirely reliant on federal money. Wyoming ranks first among the 50 states in its financial dependency on the federal government.

However, not all federal overtures are accepted. Wyoming is one of 15 GOP-led states that rejected federal assistance to provide groceries to low-income students during the summer.

I hope Wyoming voters soon realize the Republican legislative caucus that touts its commitment to “freedom” is actually more concerned with regulating personal behavior it deems inappropriate or sacrilegious. 

Whether it’s a general or budget session, the Freedom Caucus introduces bills to restrict access to healthcare, including women’s reproductive rights. They want to be in control of what happens in people’s bedrooms and doctor’s offices.

Even after the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the caucus pretends to know more than healthcare experts about life-saving prevention measures like vaccines and masks. It falsely claims state and community health orders were reckless government overreach.

Members want to tell residents what books they can read, rewrite history to keep students from learning about racial injustice, and treat LGBTQ people like second-class citizens. They sponsor red-meat bills on national issues that have nothing to do with Wyoming, knowing they don’t have the votes to pass but confident they will rile up their supporters.

A state constitutional amendment that passed in 1971 led to handcuffing today’s Legislature. During a budget session, a bill is required to have two-thirds support in the house of origin just to be introduced. That means many committee-sponsored bills that received extensive work during the interim — including a record 13 measures on opening day — died because the Freedom Caucus has enough votes to wield a de facto veto over introduction during a budget session.

Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper) offered a joint resolution a few years ago to return the standard for introduction to a simple majority instead of a supermajority. He said the latter amounts to “the tyranny of the minority,” but his colleagues didn’t agree.

Any similar proposal doesn’t stand a chance of being successful with the Legislature’s current political divide, because a proposed constitutional amendment must receive two-thirds support in both chambers just to get on the ballot.

Nearly three weeks of the session remain, and perhaps the rancor between opposing factions will lessen and this won’t go down as one of the most unproductive periods in the state’s history. But I doubt it.

Things won’t change for the better until the Ron Swansons of Wyoming’s Legislature are replaced at the ballot box by people committed to improving the quality of life for all residents, not operating the state like a Chuck E. Cheese franchise.