Several bills aiming to tackle affordable housing were filed in Wyoming this year. Only one made it across the finish line.
That was House Bill 002, which puts local planning departments under a 30-day time limit to approve or deny residential building permits.
Sponsored by Rep. Lee Filer (R-Cheyenne), the new law aims to reduce uncertainty in the development process and mandate consistency across the state for developers who work in multiple places.
It passed with overwhelming support in the House and in the Senate. Gov. Mark Gordon signed it into law earlier this month alongside a batch of other legislation.
As in much of the nation, affordable housing is an issue in Wyoming. According to a 2024 statewide assessment, Wyoming would need to build 20,700 to 38,600 homes by the end of the decade to address its current shortage and keep up with population growth.
During the general session in 2025, lawmakers filed at least six affordable housing bills, most of which died without discussion and all of which failed.
This year, housing advocates tried again with a range of legislation aimed at reducing regulations and improving financing for housing projects, while another bill sought to prohibit cities, towns, and counties from supporting affordable housing by charging developer impact fees.
Jackson mitigation fees and the Checkgate connection
Currently, only Teton County and its town of Jackson have enacted mitigation fees. According to a recent Teton County housing plan, new construction “that generates new employees needing affordable housing” is required “to offset some of the resulting community impact by providing housing or a commensurate fee in lieu.”
As Rep. Liz Storer (D-Jackson) explained on the House floor this session, the rule is meant to keep the ultrawealthy from displacing everyone else.
“Rich people are pretty good at demanding services,” she said. “So when someone builds another 6,000 square foot house, it means that we need more housing just to keep up with the demand that that creates on the community.”
Storer said the fee “doesn’t even come close to covering the real cost to the community … but it does help.”
The mitigation fees have helped to build more than 400 homes in the last 30 years. But opponents say the fees represent unjustified government control. They have argued the housing affordability crisis in Jackson should be solved solely by free market means.
The proposed crackdown on these fees is not new. The idea was also raised during last year’s general session, when a mitigation fee-killing amendment was added to an unrelated housing bill. That amendment was criticized at the time as poisoning affordable housing efforts, and for appearing to target one community at the behest of local political donors opposed to Jackson’s fee.
Those allegations resurfaced this year amid the checkgate affair, during which Jackson resident Rebecca Bextel, a political fundraiser and Freedom Caucus donor, handed out checks from another donor to representatives on the House floor.
The incident sparked media coverage, a legislative investigation that found Bextel’s actions were inappropriate but not bribery, and a separate, ongoing criminal investigation. It also sank House Bill 141, this year’s follow-up attempt at outlawing the development fees.
Bextel has been a vocal proponent for killing Jackson’s fee.
HB 141 initially passed in the House, where it originated, but then faced stricter scrutiny in the Senate, even from those who supported its goals. Senators worried about giving the appearance that their votes had been purchased.
“In 2021, I ran a bill that looked very much like this, as I felt the need to get legislation passed to undo what Teton County had done,” Senate President Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) told his fellow Senators. “Even though I support this policy and always have, I’ll be voting no, because the people of Wyoming deserve legislation that is free from a dark cloud of suspicion.”
He urged a vote against the bill in order to protect “the institution of the Senate,” adding the topic could be brought back next year when the smoke of checkgate had cleared.
“Our senators are now put in a position to either have their integrity questioned by voting for a bill currently under investigation for potential bribery, or to vote against a bill they believe in because of the actions of political agitators who can’t get out of their own way,” Biteman said. “This bill has been tainted, and this policy should be handled by the next legislature.”
But Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle) said the bill was necessary and the vote should go ahead.
“The real wrongdoing would be for us to refuse to vote on legislation designed to protect private property from being taken without just compensation,” she said. “When this body is pressured to look the other way, to stand down, or to delay and stay silent, that is not prudence. It is abdicating our constitutional duty. So I am not intimidated by the prospect of political blowback.”
Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) disagreed.
“The institution itself is more important than any single piece of legislation, or the entirety of the legislation that’s brought before us this session,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter what this bill is. Doesn’t matter what this bill says when we’re at a point in time when the integrity of the institution is at question.”
The bill died on a 24 to 7 vote.
Housing loan program, other bills, don’t make it far
The largest piece of affordable housing legislation proposed this session died on its very first vote.
Senate File 64 would have created a revolving loan program to support cities and towns as they plan for affordable housing, buy land to make it happen or refurbish existing homes.
The bill sought to appropriate $30 million for the low-interest loan program, which local governments, nonprofits and housing authorities would be able to apply for. As local communities paid back their loans, the money and the interest that came with it would be reinvested in loans for other affordable housing projects.
When it came up for a vote, Sen. Evie Brennan (R-Cheyenne) urged her colleagues to support the measure.
“We know that housing, and affordable housing, in Wyoming is an issue, and there are several things that can be done that we as a body can do to help that issue,” she said. “As our kids grow up and as they graduate and they start their own lives, they’re going to be able to need housing that they can afford so they can stay in the state.”
Wyoming and Mississippi are the only two states in the nation without a housing fund. But it has now failed twice in Wyoming. SF 64 was a scaled back version of another bill attempted last year. The 2025 bill never got a discussion.
SF 64 barely got further, dying on its introduction vote with a 15 to 15 vote. During a budget session like 2026, bills need a two-thirds majority vote to clear that first hurdle.
Two other bills filed this session aimed to alter the rules around zoning protest petitions. Both would have made it more difficult for nearby landowners to kill housing developments planned for a neighboring property. Both died in the lower chamber.
The House killed its own protest petition bill, which would have repealed the entire protest process, with an immediate 35 to 26 vote. The House also killed a gentler version of the bill passed by the Senate. The Senate’s version aimed to amend rather than repeal the protest process by raising the threshold of support needed for a successful protest. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate with a 28 to 3 vote, but was then rejected by a House committee, ending its journey through the Legislature.
