Budget work begins; updates on some bills
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Feb 6, 2007 Posted by Bill Luckett
The major legislative news this week will be the supplemental budget bill. Last year, lawmakers crafted the state's budget for fiscal years 2007 and 2008. This year, they will work on a supplement to that spending measure. Some of the main topics of discussion will be money for infrastructure, especially state highways, and funding for local governments.
Meanwhile, a few bill updates are in order. The quality child care bill, House Bill 95, made it through the House on third reading Friday, so it will head to the Senate for more work. The bill to make the sales tax exemption on groceries permanent has cleared the Senate Revenue Committee, and its next stop will be the floor of the full Senate. The proposal, HB 93, still does not include any method of reimbursing local governments for the sales tax revenue they will lose beginning in July 2008. A bill that would have opened the door to a lottery, HB 128, in Wyoming died Monday on the House floor by a slim 31-27 margin. The House has also killed HB 144, "women's right to know," a bill that would have dictated the kinds of conversations a doctor would have with a female patient who wants to have an abortion. The Senate has passed Senate File 13, the bill that would give Wyoming authority to void other states' gay marriages, so that bill now heads to the Senate.
Keep an eye here for updates on this week's budget work.