Tagged: wyoming legislature

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Five years ago the state embarked on an innovative preventive medicine approach called Healthy Frontiers.  It offered a version of health insurance to low income people who cannot afford it.  The idea was to try and keep people off of Medicaid and out of the emergency room.  But as Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports the legislature stripped money from the program essentially killing it.

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A major concern in the state budget is the growing cost of Medicaid.  Medicaid is  matching federal and state funded health coverage for lower income people, children, those with disabilities and elderly nursing home residents.  State officials say that Medicaid costs take up a large chunk of the state budget and recently have been growing between 30 and 40 percent a year.  Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports that has pushed legislators to undertake a major study to find ways to reduce costs.

A majority of Senators have voted to keep a provision in an Open Records bill that would allow communication between one elected official and one private citizen from being made public. But Senator Bill Landen argued that such communication should be made public, because it could provide insight into why board members voted a particular way.  Landen argued that the bill allows for mischief.

“It opened a loophole for organizations if they want to hide from the press to simply contact each other individually.  And I all I got to do is change the information a little bit and you know what, the vote is greased. “

    The Wyoming House and Senate have begun discussing the 3-point-2 billion dollar state budget.  It will cover a biennium, or the next two fiscal years.  House Appropriations Chairman Rosie Berger says they are trying to pass a flat budget this year and limit future spending.  Senate Appropriations Chairman Phil Nicholas says agencies will be asked to reduce their budgets by four percent in the second year of the biennium and another four percent in the following year.

Salaries for judges could go up substantially under a bill being debated by the state Senate. 

Senator Phil Nicholas says judicial salaries have lagged behind those in state government and higher education… and is proposing a nearly 34-thousand dollar increase for those on the Supreme Court, a 25 thousand dollar increase for District Court Judges, and Circuit court judges would see a pay hike of roughly 7-thousand dollars. 

However,Senator Charles Scott of Casper fears such increases could take away much needed dollars from important programs like Medicaid.

“I have difficulty voting for this bill without knowing whether it’s taking money, Mr. Chairman that ought to be spent on those people who have very real needs.”

    Governor Matt Mead says low natural gas prices and a declining revenue forecast was behind his thinking in denying pay hikes for state, University of Wyoming and Community College employees this year.  Mead was concerned about committing to a long term spending item and thought that it was wiser for the state to focus on one time spending. 

“What we don’t want to do is we don’t want to raise salaries and then ultimately have to start laying people off.  That is a worst case scenario.  I’m not saying we are there yet, but I think that is the concern is that if we can’t afford it, if we go down to two dollar gas or below 2 dollar gas as some are predicting, that if we give raises what we are ultimately going to do is begin laying people off.”

The legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee is sponsoring a bill that would allow hunters to bait big game animals. The bill is meant to help lure deer herds away from towns where they could be killed safely.
Republican Senator Bruce Burns of Sheridan is co-chair of the committee. He says having too many big game animals near towns and along the highway is dangerous for drivers and animals.
 
"This legislation will give authority to Game And Fish commission to go ahead and manage game, which is their purpose is in the first place, in the future for those times that we have an overabundance of any particular type of big game in an area," says Burns.
 

A Wyoming program that helps the disabled has a long waiting list, but a state bill to be introduced next
year could help. 

Jackson representative Keith Gingery is the sponsor of the bill to be introduced during the
upcoming legislative session would provide $28 million in state and federal funding for Wyoming's Home and Community Based Waiver Program.

The waiver program provides services for people with disabilities. More than 450 people in Wyoming are waiting for adult, child or brain-injury waivers. Wyoming expects to spend about $214 million on the waivers over
the next two fiscal years, with about half the cost paid with federal dollars.  But Gingery said that the funding isn't enough to meet existing demand for the waivers.

Lawmakers charged with redrawing Wyoming's
legislative districts say they expect to hash out competing
proposals at a two-day meeting early next week.

     Republican Sen. Cale Case, of Lander, and Republican Rep. Pete
Illoway, of Cheyenne, are co-chairmen of the Joint Corporations,
Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee that meets
Monday and Tuesday in Cheyenne. The Legislature will consider the
committee's final plan in the session starting in February.