Wyoming lawmakers have plans this year.o Re-evaluate whether the Wyoming Business Council has a future. Research will include the impact of artificial intelligence on education, legislation regarding cow pregnancy testing, and prospects for taxing wind energy facilities.
These are just some items List of tentative topics The Wyoming Legislature made the announcement Friday.
The legislative interim period consists of several months during the winter legislative session, set aside for research, hearing from stakeholders, and holding public meetings.
The eight-week parliament, designed to enact and pass legislation, will convene in mid-January 2027.
The total work budget for the 19 committees scheduled to consider tentative topics is estimated at $872,500, according to the topic list.
expenditure
The state’s budget and planning committee, the Consolidated Appropriations Committee, has made reevaluating the Wyoming Business Council a top priority.
The Wyoming Business Council is an agency that provides grants and loans to businesses and communities.
The Appropriations Committee majority sparked an effort in January to defund and dismantle the Appropriations Committee. The plan died across Congress as other lawmakers proposed reevaluating the agency instead.
The Joint Committee on Minerals, Business and Economic Development, in conjunction with the Appropriations Committee, is also seeking to reassess the WBC.
The former considers the laws that define government agencies, and the latter considers agency programs and their costs.
Other research topics for the Appropriations Committee include Wyoming’s retirement system, the State Commission on the Deaf, health and education funding mechanisms, and whether to adjust or change certain statutorily fixed salaries.
According to state law, Wyoming Supreme Court justices earn an annual salary of $175,000. District court and Chancery Court judges will be paid $160,000. Circuit court judges receive $145,000. The law states that a district attorney’s salary is the same as that of a circuit court judge.
The county attorney’s salary is capped at the circuit court judge’s salary.
judiciary
The Joint Judiciary Committee’s top priority this year is to examine the law governing public access to court records in Wyoming.
The committee will then consider the Strategic Litigation for Public Participation Act, which includes two bills that attempted to address this topic but failed to pass in the past two years, both sponsored by Rep. Pepper Ottman (R-Riverton).
The commission will consider implementing a classification or tiering system of criminal offenses and penalties to consider issues related to people fleeing adult communities or correctional facilities, traffic laws such as vehicular homicide and DUI, Wyoming probate law, and other agency reports and court opinions.
revenue
After years of seeing reforms to Wyoming’s property tax system, the Joint Board of Revenue has announced a 50% reduction in residential property taxes as a ballot question in this year’s general election. scheduled Consider “property tax cleanup options, including stronger long-term property tax reform enhancements.”
Lawmakers will also discuss other changes, such as a proposed 50% property tax cut, alternative revenue options to replace residential property taxes, and pegging property tax assessments at fair market value when a property is sold.
The commission will also consider taxing electricity production, including a severance tax on wind energy facilities, a sales tax on large electric loads, implementing a choice election program, reviewing the taxation of wind turbines, and reviewing whether wind farms are agricultural or industrial property based on property tax classification.
Government property tax exemptions and “other tax issues” are on this year’s committee minutes.
education
The Joint Education Committee plans to: study arrays The state’s public K-12 education services are required to be provided to students.
The Wyoming Constitution requires the state to provide a “complete and uniform” public education system.
The state has weathered lawsuits over the years over whether it adequately funds education, and one such case is on appeal before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
The High Court has blocked a court order requiring parliament to provide one computer per student, but lawmakers have said they remain under constant pressure to consider the court’s request.
The commission will also consider whether statewide student assessments accurately measure its offerings and how to ensure that Wyoming’s scores on national tests do not drop between fourth and eighth grades.
The committee will also consider requirements for school districts to provide instruction to gifted students. whether school funding should be adjusted; How schools work with universities for dual enrollment. Mechanisms to promote virtual education. How Wyoming’s educational institutions work together. How will artificial intelligence impact education? and laws regarding school discipline.
agriculture committee
The State Public Lands and Water Resources Commission would like to consider:
• Current requirements for pregnancy testing cows and whether some people are exempt from pregnancy testing certification.
• Recreation regulations on state and public lands.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements to use electronic identification for cattle, how they align with national secret requirements, and “how the Commission can support agricultural producers who do not wish to use electronic identification.”
• Prevention of stranded water rights.
• Wyoming’s cattle fencing law. This is within common law tradition.
• State Treasury land lease prices.
mineral
In addition to considering the Wyoming Business Council, the Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee aims to explore expanding Wyoming’s role and advantage in the energy industry.
Furthermore, the Committee: intention We study bonding requirements for industrial sites, the reuse of produced water in oil and gas operations, what would happen if water use was reduced in the Colorado River Basin, where people source curing stone in Wyoming, and reports from various government agencies.
occupational health
The Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee will consider issues such as workers’ compensation laws, federal health subsidies under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and maternity care shortages.
Access to health care, behavioral health issues, and potential legislation prohibiting step therapy or “fail-first” insurance policies for advanced metastatic cancer.
The Management Oversight Committee will consider failed 2026 bills, including one that would strengthen legislative oversight of executive agency rulemaking and one that would increase criminal penalties for those who fail to appear in response to a congressional subpoena.
The committee also aims to review the special district audit process and the Livestock Commission’s anti-theft resources.
engineer
The Special Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technologies has detailed plans for this year.
We are planning the following:
• Explore ways to integrate digital asset technology into state agencies and government agencies.
• Consider integrating Frontier Stable Tokens into Wyoming’s commercial, tax, and state government processes. This goes so far as to consider legislation to clarify the coin’s status as a “cash equivalent for state purposes.”
• Learn about artificial intelligence and its role in governance, as well as “the legal status of AI-generated documents.”
• Learn about personal data privacy and ownership.
• Check previous laws.
capital raising
The Special Committee on Capital Financing and Investment aims to examine and monitor the implementation of state investment policies, consider ways to improve policies that support state and local government investment, pursue other investment checks and improvements, and review the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.
federal natural resources
The Select Natural Resources Management Committee will study issues related to the ownership structure of federal lands in the state, the management of wild horses on the Wind River Indian Reservation, as well as federal regulations governing the timber industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s authority to enforce “good neighbor” principles on Wyoming’s public lands.
Other committees
The Special Committee on Legislative Facilities, Technology and Process aims to consider various legislative efficiency reforms as well as hear input on what Wyoming’s public television tower system is and what it is doing for the state.
The committee will also consider whether and in what form it should continue.
The Select Natural Resources Funding Committee plans to review grant applications for several large projects, review ongoing projects and hear updates on the Wyoming Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund account.
The Task Force on School Facilities considers school facility needs across the state and how to prioritize them. Like the Board of Education, the committee is considering how to respond to a judge’s order regarding the state’s regulations for the K-12 education system.
The Tribal Relations Task Force left much of the plan vague, saying it would discuss a policy framework that could guide relations between the Eastern Shoshone Nation, the Northern Arapaho Nation and the state of Wyoming.
The commission also wants to hear testimony about minors accessing alcohol “from off-reservation locations” and related crimes.
The Select Water Commission aims to examine stormwater infrastructure across the state, including the cost to local governments to implement stormwater infrastructure and management.
The commission is also studying water utility costs and the impact of the Colorado River Compact on Wyoming.
The group is trying to study “how to transfer the land around the reservoir to the state of Wyoming” and how to transfer the land with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
claire mcfarland It can be accessed at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
