No one could have predicted that the Legislature’s budget session would begin with lawmakers being handed checks on the House floor and end with the high-and-mighty House Freedom Caucus caving in to Senate budget negotiators.
Opinion
“Checkgate” and the lack of typically histrionic budget talks between chambers were unusual bookends to a strange session. But there are plenty of other headline-making issues that show who had the best and worst times at the Capitol.
I will highlight three things that I’m glad worked out the way they did, plus three examples of poor decisions. Then I’ll reveal the most appalling legislative scene I’ve witnessed in many years.
The good stuff:
- Some of Wyoming’s very important state employees will make more money. Legislators approved about $111 million to bring state employees’ salaries closer to market rates. The Legislature also added $157 million to public education, including funds for school districts to raise salaries for teachers and supporting staff.
That’s a big step forward from the Joint Appropriations Committee’s initial plan to limit state employee raises to snowplow drivers, some Highway Patrol troopers and state hospital nurses.
- The University of Wyoming, with much help from the Senate, got back nearly all of the $61 million that the same committee cut. I extend a shoutout to Wyoming Public Media, which will get the $1.7 million in state funds recommended by the governor.
As a listener, I’ve always admired the staff’s dedication to accurately inform, entertain and connect Wyomingites. For legislators to go after Wyoming Public Media simply to mimic Congress’ shameful defunding of National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was ignorant and irresponsible.
- Far-right lawmakers tried but fortunately failed to ban books in public and school libraries. They supported a bill that graphically detailed what constitutes “sexually explicit” content. That legislation shouldn’t be seen by anyone under 19. Heck, at 70, it’s probably too hot for my eyes as well.
People would be able to sue libraries for “damages” if any book — even if it contained a single passage unacceptable to politicians — fell into the hands of a minor.
I’ve noticed that the book police, especially Moms for Liberty, seem to enjoy reading what they consider obscene material out loud when they testify at legislative and school board meetings. But in addition to the LGBTQ+ related books they object to, do Puritans realize laws like this one could ban Bibles?
Honorable mention: The Legislature had the wisdom to kill most of the “election integrity” bills promoted by GOP Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who still doesn’t know it’s absurd to mandate hand counting of ballots, or ban ballot drop boxes and ballot harvesting, in a state that’s had precisely four people convicted of voter fraud since 2000? BTW, they were all members of Gray’s party.
Now, the bad stuff:
- Checkgate must top this list. A Republican fundraiser delivered checks to four Freedom Caucus-aligned members on the House floor. This prompted a Democratic lawmaker to mention what transpired during debate on a bill the check distributor lobbied for, but without using her name.
The check passing was photographed by another Democratic legislator who asked for a committee investigation. She got one, but instead of House members at least apologizing for the “bad optics,” they tried to blame the pair for speaking publicly about what they saw instead of following a House rule that would have hidden the incident.
There was no rule or law about not taking money in the People’s House, and a special legislative panel found no wrongdoing. But the Capitol is now off limits for political contributions during future sessions, so something good resulted from this time-wasting fiasco.
- The Freedom Caucus responded to the Wyoming Supreme Court declaring two abortion bans that members sponsored unconstitutional by approving another one that will likely meet the same fate.
The Human Heartbeat Act is effectively a ban on all abortions after six weeks, before a woman may even know she’s pregnant. While fetal cardiac activity can be detected by around six weeks, many medical and reproductive health experts say a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation, when the heart chambers are sufficiently developed.
The same plaintiffs who successfully got the abortion bans tossed vowed to sue again. Wyoming lawmakers who believe they have the moral high ground aren’t concerned about what judges think, but they should be.
- “What kind of people are we if we won’t feed our kids?” Gov. Mark Gordon asked a joint session of the Legislature on opening day. I’d say we must be a pretty lousy bunch. But what a minute: most of us don’t want kids to go hungry. We wouldn’t vote for that!
Unfortunately, many people did vote for the Freedom Caucus, and it’s why the state won’t pay $1.8 million to match what the feds would pay to launch the SUN Bucks summer nutrition program in Wyoming.
The governor wanted it, the Senate put it in its budget, but it’s one of the few things House Freedom Caucus negotiators wouldn’t compromise on. It’s the kind of heartless act that the group likes to take while members rant about how churches already do this, and others say they’re tired of socialism.
“We keep saying ‘feeding programs,’” said a disgusted Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, who is NOT in the Freedom Caucus. “It’s driving me crazy. These are kids. They’re not cattle. We’re just putting food in little bellies.”
We’re not, but we should be.
Dishonorable mention:
- Wyoming has a severe shortage of affordable housing. It’s one of the main reasons why so many communities are struggling. Who wants to move, find a job and have nowhere to live?
Sen. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne, sponsored an excellent bill to create a $30 million revolving loan fund to build affordable and workforce housing. It would promote the economic welfare of Wyomingites by making it possible to fulfill the American dream of owning a home.
The bill needed 21 votes in the Senate to be introduced. It received only 15 and died.
As promised, here’s the moment I can’t get out of my head. This is something most Freedom Caucus members couldn’t stomach, even though it was a budget amendment sponsored by their own chairman, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody. I call it Revengegate.
Rodriguez-Williams sponsored one of the abortion bans that the Wyoming Supreme Court rejected as unconstitutional. She decided to get even by sponsoring a budget amendment to delete $3.6 million that would pay for security improvements at courthouses across the state.
“If this [judicial] branch of government has a vested interest in protecting your life, why does it suddenly lose that interest when the life in question comes to the unborn?” she asked.
I suddenly pictured a film noir dame in a trenchcoat, hiding in the shadows until a Supreme Court justice walks by. She steps out and says, “Nice security system you have here, paid for by right-to-life taxpayers. Wouldn’t it be a shame if something happens to it?”
The voice of Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, slapped me back to reality. “I’m pro-life in every area of my life,” she told her colleagues. “I really am. So I can’t quite compute this as a reasonable and rational response.”
To which Rodriguez-Williams countered, “If life is sacred enough to guard with security details and improve security equipment, is it sacred enough to guard in the womb? I urge an aye.”
The ayes lost, 48-12. Sometimes, in a Wyoming Legislature that seems to have no sense of right or wrong or the ability to show simple kindness, justice prevails. Just not enough for my liking.