TribTown

Over in Cheyenne

The session ended on Friday afternoon. As is tradition, Governor Freudenthal came with the First Lady and gave us the parting speech. It was a gracious and sometimes funny talk which was well received by the Senators, staff, and the few members of the public that were still there. The Governor’s face looked relieved, now that the big non-announcement had been made and the session successfully navigated. I know that all of us, of both parties, wish the Governor and First Lady Freudenthal all the best in their future endeavors. Leaving the Senate Chamber, the Governor took a little extra time to shake hands, reaching long across the desks to meet the outstretched arms of those Senators whose desks were not on the aisle.

It was a good session, fairly pleasant and perhaps more successful than most. In the end the budget was a big nothing as very little was changed between when the Governor presented his budget and the signing of the finished product three months later. Cities and towns got a little more money, as did Developmental Disabilities Programs and two more schools will be built than the Governor proposed. As long as mineral production and prices holds reasonably steady, it is a budget that will get us by for two years without dipping into our reserves.

Time was found for a few other matters. A sea change occurred in our official policy towards wind energy and bills were passed to tax and regulate wind towers. Juvenile justice saw some considerable attention. Guns and sovereignty played a huge role, as people around Wyoming used Cheyenne as the stage to take out their frustration on the Federal Government’s growing influence in our business and personal affairs.

I think in the end the Legislature provided the distraction that got us all through the winter. Now the days are a little longer and it is time to turn our backs on Cheyenne and get on with our lives. While a lot of legislators are retired, many still have real jobs. I asked Senate President John Hines when he started calving and he told me how he carefully times the turning in of the bulls so that calves would start being born just after he got home from the session.

I cannot say that I have been able to work things out so well at my business in Lander. I am proud of my business and very proud of all the good folks who work for me. However, sometimes when I am away things start to drift a little and a few squabbles can break out about who should do what and some of them say that I need to be there more to referee. Occasionally the whole thing makes me wish I could stay in Cheyenne, but I will catch up there and it will smooth out soon.

I used to always be hang-dog and tired at the end of the session, in part because I took it all too seriously and was not very good at finding middle ground with folks. Right after the bang of the gavel and the words “the Senate is adjourned,” I would slip out the doors, get in my car and drive straight home to Lander. It would take me at least a couple of weeks to get myself back to normal.

The last few years have been better and a little less overwhelming. Now I think I work smarter and have learned to get along better. I still enjoy being the contrarian, but I have tried not to be as preachy when folks drift away from the constitution and my more libertarian thinking. This is sort of a “catch more flies with honey than vinegar” approach. As a consequence, I am not burned out and have felt like hanging around the Capitol a little bit to say good-by to friends. I was amazed at the number of folks who do not plan to run again and some of the goodbyes were pretty poignant. The departure of one friend bothered me more than anyone.

This year I was flying out of Denver to Phoenix Sunday for a memorial service for my brother Steve’s who died during the session a couple of weeks ago. Leaving Sunday left me in Cheyenne on Saturday and I planned to drive to Laramie and see my son, George, run in an indoor track meet. We were still in session on Friday and I missed his mile run, but I hoped to get over for his 800 Saturday morning. I got up early and stopped at the Capitol to check the roads at my desk computer. Unfortunately snow and closed roads thwarted that plan to go to Laramie.

The Capitol was empty and I had been there a while cleaning out my desk. Then to my great pleasure an old and deer friend showed up and I went over to help him move out of the House. We stood together reflecting in the empty House Chamber where we both got our start. Just before we left, we turned out the lights and took a moment to look at the beautiful Tiffney skylights, changing colors as the clouds rolled by. The skylights are one of my favorite things about the Capitol and a favorite memory of my first day there. When times were tough we fixed some leaks by covering them up. A few years back they were restored and the sun makes them dazzle.

My good friend and I said our “so longs” and gave each other a hug. There may have even been a tear or two… Godspeed old buddy.

Budget 2010

Tomorrow we will finish the last reading on the budget. The budget bill is handled different than any other bill in the Legislature. It used to be handled the same, but we changed the process to speed things up. Now the House and Senate work “mirror” budget bills at the same time. In the Senate the bill is called Senate File 1 and in the House it is House Bill 1 – different bills, but they start out with identical language as they came from the changes the Appropriations Committee made to the Governor’s Budget.

It has been argued that the mirror budget makes things easier. However, I do not believe that the mirror process meets the spirit of the Wyoming Constitution because, rather than go through the legislative process in one house then through the other, the budget is shot-gunned through both the House and the Senate at the same time. This is directly opposite the thoughtful process envisioned by our founders whereby a bill slowly and with full review makes its way through one house and then the second.

Following the mirror procedure, the budget started in the House and the Senate on Monday and the last reading of the budget will be tomorrow. We took today off, ostensibly so that the members could prepare amendments for tomorrow. Again in a process unlike that for any other bill, Members have to get their amendments in by 5:00 PM the previous day. This gives the Appropriations Committee the chance to pre-review the amendments so they can be prepared to discuss them. Only the Appropriations Committee can offer amendments after the 5:00 PM deadline – this gives this committee more advantages than any other committee has for any other bill.

Each house restricts amendments to the second and third readings only. This is one less opportunity for amendment than any other bill gets. If an identical amendment is adopted in both houses, then barring an extraordinary need to balance the budget on the part of the conference committee, it is adopted. The Capitol is a busy place as lobbyists and legislators scurry between the two chambers to try to get the same amendment on in both.

The public does not have the opportunities to participate in the budget process that they have for other bills. Budget hearings typically focus on agency and other government folks without hearing much if anything from citizens. In addition, the Legislature, and especially the Appropriations Committee has a bad habit of bringing substantial legislation that should be the subject of stand-alone bills as an appendix to the budget bill, called a “Section 300”. This is our dirty little secret, our own little mini Washington, DC-type amalgamated bill. The worst part of this is that, unlike a regular bill which has at least two public committee meetings and three readings in each house over the course of several days, a Section 300 on the budget may have zero public comment and be shot through both houses at the same time. Even worse, budget amendments creating new Section 300s can be offered on the floor and new programs created in an instance.

It is a longstanding practice in the Senate to record the vote of each member – what we call the “ayes and nays”-- for budget amendments that affect expenditures. Until a few years ago, the House did not even require recorded votes on the budget. This reform ended the practice of spending millions of dollars have been authorized in unrecorded voice votes that gave the Representatives the ability to say that they were fiscal conservatives when in reality they voted differently.

Here is where you can see the budget which is the same in both houses:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/Introduced/HB0001.pdf

And you can follow the House amendments and how your favorite Representative is voting at:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/Digest/HB0001.htm

The Senate amendments and the votes of yours truly and my Senatorial friends can be seen at:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/Digest/SF0001.htm

The digest sites are updated at the end of the day. You can also follow the process via live and archived audio at:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/audio/AudioMenu1.htm

By next week the budget will be assigned to a ten member conference committee to work at the differences between the House and the Senate. The conference committee process adds a new dimension and increased importance for the mirror budget as the respective bills coming out of each house do not have to go to the other house for approval. This is another reason I question the process on State Constitutional grounds.

The Conference Committee on the Budget has an interesting history. If past years are a guide, the committee has a high likelihood of recommending a compromise budget which is higher than the budget passed by either house. Go figure. The budget process isn’t pretty.

Stephen D. Case, Sr. (1947-2010)

Stephen D. Case, Sr. died February 22, 2010 in Mesa, Arizona after a short illness with long term roots. Stephen was born December 24, 1947 in Lander, WY. He grew up in Lander and attended Fremont County Vocational High School.

Stephen enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was 17 years old volunteering for airborne service. Shortly after his 18^th birthday he was sent to Vietnam where he served until he was medically evacuated in November 1966. Stephen was shot in the face and leg during operation Attleboro in November 1966 with the 173^rd Airborne Brigade. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze service stars, as well as other citations.

He spent nearly a year recovering from his wounds at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. During this period, he endured numerous bone and skin grafts as doctors rebuilt his face and jaw. While in the hospital he obtained his GED and took classes in architectural drafting.

After his honorable discharge, Stephen became a uranium miner, working underground in the mines near Jeffrey City, WY. He continued to work in the uranium and other mining industries in Wyoming, New Mexico and overseas in Indonesia. His was an expert in explosives. He also worked for a period as a police officer in Grants NM and later, because cold weather aggravated his wounds, moved to Apache Junction, AZ and was involved in the construction industry. He was active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and, when he was younger, in the Jaycees.

Stephen endured long-term effects from serving his country in the Vietnam War. He suffered recurrent bouts with malaria and increasingly was unable to put the horror of the war behind him.

Stephen was a kind person with rough edges. He loved animals and any veteran who was down on his luck. For more than a decade, Stephen sponsored Mapaso Sikinan of Kenya through the Christian Childrens’ Fund. Mapaso is now 12 years old. Stephen was a very good writer who occasionally composed remarkable poetry.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Mayre Elizabeth and George H. Case. He is survived by his son Stephen D. Case, Jr. and his wife Yong, grandsons Joshua, all of Portland, OR, and two other grandsons Cody and Peter Case and great granddaughter Leeyha Ann Case, all of Lander, WY. His sisters Linda Louise Case Bonner of Seattle, WA and Cynthia Suzanne Case of Lander, and brothers George H. (Spike) Case, Jr of Bluffdale, TX and Cale Case of Lander also surviving.

Cremation will take place and memorial services will be conducted first in Apache Junction, AZ and later this year in Lander, WY. Memorials may be made in Stephen’s name to any Animal Shelter.

The session is taking shape. It is now nearing the end the second week of our four-week odyssey. Major issues are either moving forward or nearing their end for this year. Friday will be the last day for a bill to be heard for the first time in the first house. So after Friday you will have a better idea of what bills are still alive and what bills are dead in Cheyenne. Tuesday will be the last day for a bill to be able to pass the first house. After Tuesday House bills will move to the Senate and Senate files will be in the House where the process of hearing the bills is repeated.

The problem of I-80 is a hot topic this year. All who know the Snow Chi Mein Trail can tell you that the highway requires a bunch of maintenance as it takes a beating from the heavy traffic. Interstate trucks are purported to cause most of the wear and tear on road. Lots of folks in Wyoming would like to see the road improved. The biggest thing on the wish list is to make I-80 three lanes and keep trucks out of the left lane. The huge question in the mix is how to pay for maintenance and upgrades, especially given the reality of declining federal funding.

One idea to get money for I-80 is to convert it to a toll road with tolls that reflect the damages that a vehicle does to the road. A bill to look into this just passed the Senate. SF 35 Tolling authority for I-80 passed the Senate on third reading today by an 18 to 12 vote. The whole idea of tolls on I-80 is dead in the water unless we get approval from the Federal Department of Transportation. And the Federal DOT will not answer whether or not we can do this unless we have a plan approved by the Legislature. This bill provides the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) with the authority to develop a plan to implement tolling on I-80 and then directs WYDOT to ask the Federal DOT if Federal authorities would allow it.

The bill does not permit WYDOT to implement tolling. That would take another action by the Legislature sometime after the Federal DOT says yes.

When I was consulting on telecommunications issues a few years back, I had several clients that were transportation and toll authorities in various states. These clients were very interested in applying modern telecommunications and data collection technology to improve and streamline toll collection from manual systems. Recently I had the opportunity to travel the E-470 toll road in Denver that connects I-25 with DIA and saw how far the technology has come. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the toll booths and gates had all been removed. The highway looks and drives no different than a normal interstate. A sign said that there was no need to stop and pay tolls and further said “we will mail you a bill”. Somehow the system photographs your license plate, finds your address and mails you a bill.

I haven’t got my bill yet so I am not sure how much I owe, and I am not sure how it all that works. There is one thing I do know though: if the system can determine where I got on the highway and where I got off so it can figure out how much I owe, then the same technology can figure out how fast I was going between the two points…

I think I had better slow down.

It is Windy Here

We made it through the first week and the session is pretty well scoped out. The last day to introduce new bills has come and gone. It looks like all the major issues are still in play. I-80 Tolling Authority, DUI, Texting While Driving, and numerous wind generation related bills are moving along.

The Wind generation tax is high on the Governor’s list. Frankly, it ranks up there on my list too. Now, I am not a tax guy – you will not find a more fiscally conservative person in the Capitol -- but wind developers and operators are just not paying their fair share. Wind projects have a big impact on roads and bridges, mostly from hauling in the hundreds of yards of concrete for the foundations of the tall towers. The construction activity and then the operation phase impacts wildlife and the public may lose access for such activities as hunting.

An amazing thought about wind turbines and the associated power lines is how long they could be there. Even coal mines are reclaimed and disappear after a period of time, say 30 years or so. And coal companies pay lots of taxes and have big labor forces who live Wyoming. With wind it is different; after the initial construction, the wind labor force is very small, the taxes paid are miniscule, and the life span is huge for wind. While the equipment will need to be replaced as it wears out, the towers could be a visible part of the Wyoming landscape for the next 100 or more years. How many more towers will we get than we have now? Five times more? Ten times? Twenty? That is a lot of Wyoming where the view shed, public access and privileges like hunting, will be changed for more than a lifetime.

The past few years wind projects have enjoyed a tax break that the legislature gave them on sales taxes. I did not vote for the sales tax break, which was done to “encourage” a struggling new industry. I was happy when the Legislature decided enough was enough and that the industry did not need the “encouragement.” Wind projects do pay property taxes, but the amount of the property tax declines as the facilities are depreciated.

Typically I get emails from wind folks telling me that a tax would kill their industry. Last week I got another one. This particular letter was unusual because they called themselves “Power Company of Wyoming, LLC.” That sounds great doesn’t it? It sounds like a homegrown wind farm by a bunch of Wyoming folks. The trouble is that the address for this company is in downtown Denver. I dropped them a line to mention that I thought their name was a little false advertising and that the company and the industry had some image and relationship work to do in Wyoming. They must of agreed because they hired a good friend of mine, Scott Meier, to be their lobbyist. Scott is a great guy and a very straight shooter. He will do them a good job.

In some ways Wyoming gets all the impact of wind, but very little benefit. Roughly 90% of wind power will be exported. A lot of that will go to Rocky Mountain Power customers in other states. I have intervened in the Rocky Mountain Power Rate Case that is now in front of the Public Service Commission. In part, I got involved because I do not think that the allocation of wind costs through rates to Wyoming customers is fair.

Based on the activity of RMP and a host of other private developers, Wind is going to play a huge part in Wyoming’s future – mostly, because we got the best wind and arguably more places to build wind facilities. The idea that any type of modest tax on wind would derail the industry or send them to other states is poppycock. Wind developers know this, but they won’t say it. From their point of view, it is much better to talk about how the sky is falling in Cheyenne.

So far the wind folks’ tax-free future is looking a little cloudy as the House approved the introduction of a wind tax by a huge margin. Now that sounds great, but any tax would have get through the House Revenue Committee -- a tough bunch (just about as tough as the Revenue Committee in the Senate of which I am a member). Committees are where lobbying is most effective and you can expect a lot of company attention to be focused on the House committee folks. And when it comes to the hearing, it is likely to get pretty windy in there.

It is Budget time at the Legislature. Let the fun begin!

Budget sessions always happen in an election year and that offers an opportunity for all 60 house members and 15 of the 30 senators and more significantly the state-wide wannabes to all be on parade. Yesterday a little of the election-year effects were visible at the pre-session held Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, the start of the Super Bowl kept the speeches shorter.

The Legislature kicked off at 10:00 AM this morning with a Joint Session the House Chambers to listen to the Governor and the Chief Justice gave their respective speeches. We were honored to have present members of the Wyoming Guard and Air Guard returned from deployment. It is always heartwarming to meet these brave men and women and we gave them a big cheer.

As expected, the Governor’s addressed our reduced financial situation in his State of the State address. However, most of his address was about other stuff. He spent a lot of time on wind, offering four proposals for taxation, siting, and a moratorium on eminent domain. Some of the other things on the Governor’s list included juvenile justice, several items with regard to property taxes, a tax break for “data centers,” big money for carbon sequestration research, and toughening laws on people that do not use seat belts.

Back on the budget, the amount of money projected to be available to run the state of Wyoming has declined by a remarkable one billion dollars since last biennium. Now admittedly in an era of hundreds of billions in federal bailout money, our billion dollar loss may not seem like much. However, in Wyoming a billion dollars is still big money, about 25% of our budget. And for the first time in many years, the proposed budget does not contain a carry-over of funds we can use in the next session.

Not much will happen in the first day or two. The first couple of days of the session are slow as bills begin to move through the pipeline. Fortunately, a budget session is just the second part of the biennial session so there is not as much pomp and legal ceremonials are completed and we can get to work a little faster

There is still lot of room for catching up with old friends and makes for an enjoyable time. Since the Senate membership does not seem to change very much, most of us have served together for a number of years and at least for the first few days, we are glad to see each other.

As far as real work goes, nothing happened until after lunch. Then we focused on introducing bills and getting them assigned to committees. During the budget session, everything except the budget needs a 2/3rds vote for introduction. Today we voted to introduce a couple of dozen bills including a ban on texting while driving and granting authority to the Department of Transportation to consider I-80 tolls. Everything passed the introductory vote, but the I-80 toll bill passed by only 3 votes.

This is only the start. Each bill must be reviewed by one of 10 standing committees before it can be taken up by the full Senate. If a bill has an appropriation, it must also go the Appropriations committee for a recommendation before it hits the Senate floor. Committees have already started working this evening. The House has the same rules and after each body passes a bill it starts over in the second house, but this time it does not need a 2/3rds introduction vote. My Corporations committee meets for the first time in the morning and we have three bills.

If you are interested in following the legislature closely, one of the best ways is through the legislative website: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/. Here you can see what is happening with a bill, how a Senator or Representative voted, what amendments have passed, and more. You can even listen to live and archived audio recordings of the debates and find an email address to contact a legislator. We are very proud of the way that we have been able to increase citizen access to their information. With Representative Rosie Berger and I serve as the respective House and Senate Chairmen of the Select Committee on Legislative Technology and Process.

Enjoy the silly season, but watch your wallets!