State lawmakers passed a bill out of the House on Feb. 23 that would stop the Town of Jackson and Teton County from requiring impact offsets of certain new houses, hotels and businesses. The bill at the center of “checkgate” in this year’s legislative session now heads to the Senate with strong support from the House, passing 31-17 with 10 representatives excused.
Rep. Andrew Byron, (R-Hoback) voted for the bill while Teton County Democratic Reps. Mike Yin and Liz Storer voted against it.
Many officials in Jackson Hole consider the effort to kill “mitigation” as an end-run around local control.
That includes Bob McLaurin, former Jackson town manager now with the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. He said places like Teton County have gone to great lengths to ensure the fees they charge are legally justified.
He says the bill is “yet another attempt to preempt local control” and stop local governments from dealing with the “problems facing their community.”
New development brings new workers which create increased demand for already scarce housing. Mitigation has paid for or created about 30% of Teton County’s affordable and workforce housing between 2018 and 2022, according to the Jackson/ Teton County Affordable Housing requirement.
But the sponsor of HB 141, Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette), labels this affordable housing tool as an unjust burden on developers, including those trying to build their own homes.
“This bill is to protect our citizens from having to protect [rights] that they find in both of those constitutions,” he said on the floor in reference to the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions.
Rep. Liz Storer (D-Jackson) framed the bill on the House floor as outlawing “the legal ability to build community.” The House voted down three amendments on Monday that Storer proposed to soften the blow to Teton County.
Mitigation has survived legislative challenges before, but margins have grown narrower in recent years.
Cutting or killing impact fees has been the subject of local debate since the mitigation program was created in 1995. In 2020, the advocacy group Jackson Hole Working testified in favor of a similar bill during meetings leading up to the session. Large landowners and businesspeople from Teton County — including representatives for the landowning families of a pending large buildout in northern South Park — told lawmakers in 2023 that housing development takes too long and is too cumbersome. The committee later sponsored legislation to cut commercial mitigation in half. In 2025, the Scharp family sued Teton County for economic damages they say they incurred after paying mitigation fees while building a home in Hoback. That litigation is ongoing.
Bear nearly accomplished his goal last year with a last-minute amendment to kill mitigation in a seemingly unrelated bill after working with Rebecca Bextel, a conservative fundraiser from Jackson. He brought the idea back this year after that amendment died in a conference committee in 2025.
This year, however, a louder controversy may get in the way.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office has launched a criminal investigation into Rebecca Bextel. During the first week of the session, Bextel handed out checks on the House floor before an introductory vote on HB 141.
The results of the investigation are pending as to whether Bextel’s actions constitute bribery, but Teton County politicians are already branding it as such.
Storer told KHOL she’s referring to HB 141 as the “Bexel bribery bill.” Her husband, Teton County Commissioner Luther Propst said in an email the bill was “tainted with the stink of misrepresentation and the stench of a Freedom Caucus bribery scandal.”
Bextel and check recipients who have spoken out have maintained that they did nothing illegal and the checks were lawful campaign contributions.
Bear told a reporter he received a check from Bextel. So did the Speaker of the House Chip Neiman. That was before he appointed the members of the House committee that are separately investigating the incident.
The House Special Investigative Committee starts its work on ‘checkgate’ at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26. The public proceedings will be streamed on YouTube.
This story has been updated to reflect that Neiman appointed the House’s investigation committee. — Ed.
