Wyoming lawmakers closed out this year's general session without passing a single affordable housing bill. That's despite housing being listed as one of the Legislature's top goals heading into last year's interim committee work.
Wyoming will need between 20,000 to 38,000 new homes by the end of the decade, according to a recent report from the Wyoming Community Development Authority.
Six bills lawmakers proposed this year aimed to make building easier by removing barriers or providing funds. But five died without discussion.
Rep. Christopher Knapp (R-Gillette) closed out a Feb. 7 Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee hearing by apologizing.
"This is our last day for getting bills through committee," Knapp said. "And to the two bills that didn’t get heard — which was House Bill 332 and House Bill 68 — I offer my apologies."
House Bill 68 would have expanded tax increment financing, or TIF, a tool that local communities can use to incentivize the construction of affordable housing. Expanding TIF has broad appeal among housing advocates, from the development authority to builders, to cities and towns.
The only affordable housing bill to be discussed this year, Senate File 40, would have made it harder for neighbors to stop a housing project from going in next door. But the House added a late-stage amendment that restricted a city's ability to charge affordable housing fees.
Several senators, including Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie), said the amendment was so removed from the bill's original purpose that it violated the Senate's rules.
"I think it is important for us to set an example and to send a clear message down the hall that when you are in violation of Senate rules by disobeying the Wyoming Constitution, that the Senate is not going to stand for it," Rothfuss said. "And we're going to not even consider the underlying policy considerations. We're going to recognize it as out of order, and we're going to act accordingly."
Senators said they were still willing to work the bill if the House agreed to drop the amendment, but it never did and the bill never advanced out of the Legislature.
While the bills meant to make construction easier stalled out, other housing-adjacent bills, such as those addressing property tax relief and squatter removal, did make it across the finish line.
