Wyoming Constitution: Article 1, Section 11...No person shall be compelled to testify against himself in any criminal case, nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. If a jury disagree, or if the judgment be arrested after a verdict, or if the judgment be reversed for error in law, the accused shall not be deemed to have been in jeopardy.

 

 

 

 

January 25, 2005

 

            Good morning Wyoming! And a warm and sunny one it is, at least it is here in Cheyenne. On today’s menu we have a variety of bills of interest, hopefully something for everyone.

 

            On the education front, we have HB #185, which is an effort to go outside the normal K-12 funding system and feed an additional 45.2 million dollars into the revenue stream for all school district employees. The House Education Committee listened to the arguments that the mediocre pay schedule that currently exists across the State is limiting the ability to attract applicants for teaching positions. They voted 8 to 1 to pass along the proposal to the floor of the House.

 

            One key statistic to keep in mind with regard to the issue of teacher’s salary is that approximately 1/3 of the current teachers will be eligible to retire within 5 years. We have an aging teaching population, and the replacements for those retirees are going to have to come from somewhere. Without competitive salaries we will have difficulty attracting a large number of job applicants.

 

            The Senate Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee heard the first discussion of SF #41, Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act, which creates a new program designed to obtain wildlife habitat. A trust fund would be created and funded, a citizen board appointed with the responsibility of hearing proposals for habitat acquisition from willing sellers.

 

            While this program will no doubt help in the habitat department, no one should be fooled into thinking that this will get to the root of the problem, which is the increased disappearance of critical winter habitat and rural sprawl.

 

            And as a final note, all of you should keep track of SF #61, Annexation. This proposal would dramatically increase the ability of a municipality to gobble up county land, and expand its boundaries. Current law, as reinforced by 3 recent court rulings, limits the ability of a municipality to annex additional land unless the desired land is adjacent and contiguous to the city.

 

            If the proposed changes succeed, all municipalities would have a much easier time of both adding to their existing boundaries, as well as ‘leapfrogging’ away from current boundaries for limited reasons. Although this does not sound especially dangerous, I have some suspicions that I will explain in the near future.

 

            And with that…carry on fellow citizens!!!

 

Keith