Lodging tax bill passes House, but Republicans squash other revenue-generating bills. 

An update on the second week of the 2o20 Wyoming legislative budget session.
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** Update on Week Two of the 2020 Legislative Budget Session
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You can read bills here: [link removed]

You can contact Wyoming legislators here: [link removed] ([link removed])

Your legislators:

HD 16, Representative Mike Yin (D) [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
HD 23, Representative Andy Schwartz (D) [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
HD 22, Representative Jim Roscoe (D) [email protected] (mailto:[email protected] )
Senate 17, Senator Mike Gierau (D) [email protected] (mailto:[email protected] ) (mailto:[email protected] )


** Legislation Due to Die from Inaction
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A whole lot of legislation before the Wyoming Legislature will die from inaction this week:

Today (Tuesday) – Last day for Committee of the Whole in House of Origin – bills not passed out of committee on this date will die.

Wednesday – Last day for 2nd Reading in House of Origin.

Thursday – Cross Over Day – Last day for 3rd Reading on bills in House of Origin.


** HB-134: Tourism Account Funding (Lodging Tax) Passes House
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The same as the 2019 version of this bill, it imposes a 5 percent fee on lodging across Wyoming, with 2 percent going to local governments and the rest creating an independent funding source for the state’s Office of Tourism. In Teton County, the state-mandated 2 percent would replace the 2 percent that local voters approved in the 2018 election.

Most importantly, this legislation gives elected officials the option to increase the local tax by another 2 percent, for a total of 7 percent. That’s in contrast to the current system, under which the tax can be renewed or increased only by a vote of the electorate.

The bill also provides for an expansion of the purposes for which lodging tax funding can be used at the local level. Under current law, lodging tax revenue can only be spent on promotion. This bill expands use to “staging of events, educational materials, and other specific tourism related objectives, including those identified as likely to facilitate tourism or enhance the visitor experience."


** Passed the House with a 39 - 19 vote last week.
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- Has support from Governor Gordon
- Has support from the tourism industry


** An Illogical Defeat of the Corporate Tax Bill:
National Corporate Profit Recapture Act (HB-64)
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Weirdly, when this bill ([link removed]) came before the House Revenue Committee, they killed it right off the bat, denying it introduction.

The bill would allow Wyoming to collect taxes on corporate profits that multinational companies send out of state. It would impose a tax of 7 percent on corporations with more than 100 shareholders, not affecting any Wyoming businesses, and generate about $45 million specifically for the Wyoming School Foundation in the next two years.

Corporations file their taxes in the states where their headquarters reside, and they write off taxes they pay in other states. So, if Walmart starts paying taxes in Wyoming, they’ll write that cost off on the taxes they file in Arkansas, where they’re headquartered, nullifying the loss.

Wyoming is one of only two states in the nation that does not collect this important revenue and here’s why: Republican lawmakers don’t want to go on record supporting a tax, because doing so would threaten their conservative “no-tax-ever” credentials.

As corporations have replaced main street businesses, their profit models have sucked millions of dollars out of communities. We’ve seen the effect in Wyoming. When Walmart and other corporate “big box” stores open up, mom-and-pop shops shut down. Local businesses keep money in local economies and communities while corporations send profits out of state. Wyoming is left with a few minimum-wage jobs, while corporate CEOs and shareholders mostly benefit.

Corporations demand public services and infrastructure, but in Wyoming they don’t help pay for them. They need water and sewer hookups. They need police to call on shoplifters, and they need ambulances to call when folks collapse in their stores. They need hospitals where their employees can go when they’re injured, and, importantly, they need schools to teach their workers to count, read, and write.

Right now, bringing new businesses, new workers, and new industries to Wyoming actually makes the state’s budget problem worse, since new industries require public services and infrastructure that they don’t help pay for. Go figure.


** HB-200: "Reliable" and Dispatchable "Low-Carbon" Energy Standards
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This bill ([link removed]) would require electric utilities to invest in unproven and uneconomical carbon sequestration technologies connected to the use of coal-fired power plants. No utility in the country is providing reliable and affordable energy at a plant with carbon capture. The bill creates a regulatory mandate that no utility can meet.

The bill also allows utilities to pass on the costs for these costly technologies to Wyoming ratepayers — up to $1 billion per utility. Also, the bill penalizes utilities for building new renewable energy infrastructure to replace coal-fired power. In summary, HB-200 is an unworkable effort to prop up traditional minerals and force utilities to invest in unproven, expensive carbon capture technology — using Wyoming customers to cover the costs.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council sums it up nicely:

"The legislature continues to pursue infeasible efforts to prop up coal and penalize renewables and the public of Wyoming in the process. Please help us get the state on a viable path towards the future."
View a Fact Sheet on the Bill ([link removed])


** HB-197: Abortion 48-Hour Waiting Period
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The House Judiciary Committee voted last Tuesday to advance legislation instituting a 48-hour waiting period for all abortions performed in Wyoming, a first victory for anti-abortion advocates in a particularly active year for abortion legislation.

Now headed to the floor after a number of unsuccessful attempts over the years, Rep. Richard Tass’ House Bill 197 ([link removed]) is a near-clone to a similar piece of legislation ([link removed]) carried by the Sheridan Republican in the 2019 legislative session. If passed, the bill would mandate all prospective abortion patients to wait 48 hours from the time they arrive at a physician’s office for the procedure, creating what Tass described as an opportunity to consider the ramifications of that decision.

The bill also outlines a maximum 10-year felony prison sentence for doctors who perform a procedure before that time period is up, an extreme provision that is heavily opposed by the Wyoming Medical Society, which has not taken a position on the bill itself.


** HB-179: Electricity Generation Tax Failed Introduction
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In some good news, this bill failed introduction. It would have imposed a $1-per-megawatt-hour excise tax on electricity produced from solar energy sources.


** Stay Tuned....
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The Teton County Democratic Party will be providing you with legislative updates through the remainder of the budget session.
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