The seventh day of the Legislative Session started with a big victory for the WEA, Senate File 45 – School districts - payment of employee association dues failed third reading on the Senate floor. Had this bill passed, it would have kept school districts from paying dues to professional associations on behalf of their employees. The WEA believes that this is a local control issue and that school boards should retain this control.

Senator Ken Decaria, who is also a WEA member, and Senator John Hastert were pivotal in convincing their colleagues to vote the our way. Thanks to both of you!

Please thank the following Senators for supporting the WEA on this issue:

Anderson, J., Burns, Case, Decaria, Hastert, Job, Johnson, Landen, Massie, Mockler, Nicholas, Ross, Schiffer, Scott, Sessions, Vasey. Click here for their email addresses.

The second reading of the Budget Bill was heard in both the House and Senate today and several amendments were heard. There were not any amendments passed that greatly affected education. Please watch for action alerts on Friday morning. Should any third reading budget amendments come forward that would affect education, we will let you know.

Tomorrow’s (Thursday) Committee Action of interest

HOUSE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Committee Room

8:00 a.m. 1-Judiciary H8

SF0009ENG State retirement-board immunity.

SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

8 a.m. 7-Corporations S19

HB0016 Special districts-elections.

HB0008ENG Election code revisions.

HB0009ENG Campaign finance reporting.

Bills WEA will be working this year

Please watch for positions that change throughout the session. Most of these changes are due to amendments to bills. House Bill 09 is a prime example as the thresholds have changed.

Daily Bill Status Report

Bill Number Link to Introduced version	Bill Title	Link to Amendments	Explanation of the Bill	WEA' Position	Bill Status
xHB0003	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	H Passed 2nd Reading
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	H Passed 2nd Reading
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	H Passed 2nd Reading
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 Placed on General File
HB0081	Community colleges-capital construction.		loosens regulations on legislative approval of construction projects from everything over $50,000, to everything over $100,000	Watch	H Passed 2nd Reading
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 Placed on General File
HB0134	School district immunity and liability insurance.		WEA Continues to research this bill		H Introduced and Referred to H04 52-7-1-0-0
SF0009	State retirement-board immunity.	Yes	This bill protects the members of the retirement board from legal action.	Support	H Introduced and Referred to H01
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 Received for Introduction
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	S Passed 3rd Reading 29-0-1-0-0
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 Received for Introduction
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 Placed on General File
SF0045	School districts-payment of employee association dues.	Yes	Does not allow school districts to pay dues to professional organizations including WEA	Oppose	DEFEATED in 3^rd Reading
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 Received for Introduction
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 Placed on General File
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 Placed on General File
SF0071	Hathaway scholarship program-success curriculum.		Expands the foreign language of the Success Curriculum to include Sign Language	Support	S Placed on General File
SF0082	Community colleges-capital construction-2.		Provides funding for construction projects at North West College, Casper College and Central Wyoming College		S Received for Introduction
SF0083	Retirement-rehired retirees.		Provides clarifying language to the current rehired retiree law.	Support	S Placed on General File
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

The WEA will be taking positions on several more bills as the week progresses. Please keep an eye on the Legislative Update for new bills each night.

In addition to the bills in the chart above, WEA is opposed to a multitude of bills that put education funding in danger including those that put caps on or reduce property taxes.