|
Today’s Action
Third reading of the budget did present some drama
for the WEA as there were several amendments that affected our members.
Please refer to the chart below for more info on the amendments and the
actions from each body:
Senate
Senate Amendment 15 – Education – School
Finance
Support
Directs the WDE to study
use of a growth model for student assessment. This has long been a goal
of WEA.
Outcome - Failed
Senate Amendment 17 – Capitol Construction –
School Facilities Commission
Support
Directs an additional $50
million to the Hathaway trust fund. WEA strongly supports the Hathaway
Scholarship and this funding could allow for expansion to more students.
Outcome - Passed
Senate Amendment 18 – Capitol Construction –
School Facilities Commission
OPPOSE
One of WEA’s first
priorities is to make sure there is long-term sustainable funding for
education. This amendment takes funding from education and puts it toward
rebuilding of the Capitol. WEA recognizes the structural needs of the
Capitol, but we believe those needs should be addressed from revenue
sources separate from education.
Outcome - Failed
Senate Amendment 19 – Capitol Construction –
School Facilities Commission
OPPOSE
One of WEA’s first
priorities is to make sure there is long-term sustainable funding for
education. This amendment takes funding from education and puts it toward
rebuilding of the Capitol. WEA recognizes the structural needs of the
Capitol, but we believe those needs should be addressed from revenue
sources separate from education.
Outcome - Withdrawn
House Amendments
House Amendment 1 – Education – School Finance
Support
Directs the WDE to study
use of a growth model for student assessment. This has long been a goal
of WEA.
Outcome - Passed
House Amendment 16 – Capital Construction –
School Facilities Commission
Oppose
One of WEA’s first
priorities is to make sure there is long-term sustainable funding for
education. This amendment takes funding from education and puts it toward
rebuilding of the Capitol. WEA recognizes the structural needs of the
Capitol, but we believe those needs should be addressed from revenue
sources separate from education.
Outcome - Failed
There will be a conference committee that will meet
to address the changes between the budgets passed by the House and
Senate. At least two education items will be discussed
- The Senate passed Amendment 17, which puts more
funding in to the Hathaway trust fund. The House did not pass this, so
a compromise will have to be made.
- The House passed Amendment 1, which directs the
WDE to explore a growth model. The Senate voted this down, so, again, a
compromise will have to be made.
Individual votes on all of these amendments are
available at
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2008/SessionVotes/SessionVotes.aspx
Click on House Bill 01, or Senate Bill 01
Monday’s Committee
Action of interest
House
Upon adjournment.
4-Education
H10
SF0021ENG
Hathaway scholarship program.
SF0022ENG
School facilities-amendments.
Senate
8 a.m.
4-Education
S11
HB0017ENG
Community college
commission-duties.
Bills WEA will be
working this year
Daily Bill Status Report
Please
watch for positions that change throughout the session. Most of these
changes are due to amendments to bills.
|
Bill Number
Link to Introduced
version |
Bill Title |
Link to Amendments |
Explanation of the Bill |
WEA' Position |
Bill Status |
|
HB0003 |
Campaign finance reporting-electronic filing. |
Yes |
Changes campaign finance reports to an electronic form that would be
posted online and would be searchable. Allows for only electronic
filing |
Support |
S Introduced and
Referred to S07
|
|
HB0009 |
Campaign finance reporting. |
Yes |
Limits Political Action Committee contributions to $3,500 per
individual for legislative races and $7000 for statewide candidates
per election. A very blatant abuse of the current law lead to this
change |
OPPOSE |
S Introduced and Referred to S07 |
|
HB0017 |
Community college commission-duties. |
Yes |
Implements some of the recommendations from the Governor's Blue Ribbon
Panel on Community Colleges. Our only concern is that it allows the
Community College Commission the ability to cancel programs at
community colleges due to low enrollment. |
Support |
S Introduced and
Referred to S04 |
|
HB0025 |
School building plan review exception. |
|
It just cleans up the language and allows districts to contract for
building plan reviews. In practice, I believe that districts already
do this, so I do not think it changes practice. |
Watch |
S
Introduced and Referred to S04 |
|
HB0054 |
Natural gas valuation. |
|
Provides a fairer tax system for sour gas of which funding goes to the
school foundation account. |
Support |
S Introduced and Referred to S03 |
|
HB0077 |
Tuition-dependents of disabled firefighters and EMTs-2. |
|
Allows children of disabled firefighters to go to college tuition free |
Support |
H Passed CoW |
|
HB0081 |
Community colleges-capital construction. |
|
loosens regulations on legislative approval of construction projects
from everything over $50,000, to everything over $100,000 |
Watch |
S
Introduced and Referred to S04 |
|
HB0113 |
School finance-minimum teacher resources. |
|
Clarifies funding for extremely small schools granting them additional
funding for the last two years and then clarifying the language so
that it does not continue in the future. |
Watch |
H Passed CoW |
|
HB0134 |
School district immunity and liability insurance. |
|
WEA Continues to research this bill |
|
H Passed CoW |
|
SF0009 |
State retirement-board immunity. |
Yes |
This bill protects the members of the retirement board from legal
action. |
Support |
H Placed on General
File |
|
SF0017 |
School facilities-infrastructure costs. |
Yes |
I see red flags that would require the SFC to choose cheapest option
available in every situation. The recent Supreme Court Decision speaks
to this specifically |
Oppose |
H Introduced and Referred to H04 |
|
SF0021 |
Hathaway scholarship program. |
Yes |
Provides student who lose their scholarship due to low GPW with an
opportunity to earn it back if they bring up their GPA while they pay
their own tuition. |
Support |
H Introduced and
Referred to H04 |
|
SF0022 |
School facilities-amendments. |
Yes |
Basically it is clean up language. It does stipulate that a school
building cannot be demolished without a public meeting. |
Support |
H
Introduced and Referred to H04 |
|
SF0029 |
Public library endowment challenge program. |
Yes |
Provides public libraries an opportunity to raise funds through a
matching endowment program. This bill would allow donations of $10,000
to be matched by another $10,000 from the state. |
Support |
S Passed CoW |
|
SF0053 |
Common school reserve account funding. |
Yes |
This is a great bill - After Hathaway is full, this bill take the
funding that was previously going to Hathaway and puts it in the
common school trust land account. |
Support |
H
Introduced and Referred to H02 |
|
SF0058 |
State trust land management account. |
Yes |
One percent of the School Trust funding can be used by the state lands
office to better state lands |
Support |
S Passed CoW |
|
SF0060 |
Community college certificates. |
|
Allows more flexibility for community colleges. Any program for a
certificate that was under 30 hours would no longer have to go through
the Community College Commission for approval. |
Watch |
S Introduced and Referred to S04 23-7-0-0-0 |
|
SF0070 |
School finance-amendments. |
Yes |
The WEA supports all portions of this omnibus bill |
Support |
S Passed CoW |
|
SF0071 |
Hathaway scholarship program-success curriculum. |
|
Expands the foreign language of the Success Curriculum to include Sign
Language |
Support |
S Passed CoW |
|
SF0083 |
Retirement-rehired retirees. |
|
Provides clarifying language to the current rehired retiree law. |
Support |
S Passed CoW |
|
SF0097 |
Government royalty revenue-distribution-2. |
|
Takes funding from School foundation account and puts it toward cities
towns and counties. |
Oppose |
S Introduced and Referred to Senate Appropriations 02 21-9-0-0-0 |
|
