Legislative Round-up for 2025

Michael Smith for AARP Wyoming

A 2025 Legislative Session that saw 556 pieces of legislation came to an end on March 6 in Cheyenne. While Property Tax Relief had the spotlight for AARP Wyoming members, there were a number of other issues worthy of members’ attention. Here are a few highlights:

Budget? What Budget?
In odd-numbered years the state legislature passes a Supplemental Budget proposed by the Governor. Until this year. In-fighting between the House and Senate led to the Senate walking away from budget negotiations and not passing a Supplemental Budget for the first time since Supplemental Budgets were instituted in the 1970’s. The tactic probably spared some big cuts, but also impacted AARP Wyoming’s work on getting $500,000 into the budget for vulnerable adult emergency services. It was originally thought the lack of a budget would also impact a $10 million appropriation for the Property Tax Refund Program as well, however that funding was added to a later bill and will be available for the Wyoming Department of Revenue to distribute in 2025-26.

Extending the time between elections for Senior Citizen’s Service Districts
Freshman Representative Marilyn Connolly (R-Johnson) passed her first bill when House Bill122 was signed by her lifelong buddy Governor Mark Gordon in March. The bill changes how often a Senior Citizens Service District needs to go back to the voters to be renewed from two years after its inception to four years. This is a big deal for districts trying to develop services at the request of their constituents as some of these efforts can take longer than two years to be put into place - think service districts collecting the tax, buying a bus, and adding transportation in their communities. That is longer than a two-year process.

Election-related bills
Election bills were thicker than mosquitos in June this session. Nearly 45 bills filed for the 2025 session had an election focus. A number of election bills didn’t survive a deadline for bills to be heard on the Senate floor on Friday, Feb. 28. Among them were bills that would require a hand count for close elections, random hand counts, pen and paper ballots, ballot box prohibitions, and run-off elections for Wyoming’s five statewide election officials and our congressional delegation when the winner didn’t collect 50% plus one vote of the ballots cast. Another bill would have prohibited using electronic voting machines altogether.

AARP Wyoming’s election focus was on finding middle ground with the Secretary of State on Voter ID requirements. House Bill 206 would have removed Medicare cards as acceptable forms of voter ID and require valid ID’s in Wyoming to have a photo on them at the Secretary’s request. A search through the National Council on State Legislature’s (NCSL) website shows most every state has some sort of exemption specifically for nursing home or homebound residents. Against the protest of the Secretary, AARP Wyoming made the pitch to use the Texas model for getting dispensation for those who struggle to get a photo ID and the Senate Corporations Committee agreed, however the bill died for a lack of hearing in the full Senate.

AARP Wyoming applauded amendments to a bill which would outlaw anyone but blood relatives from bringing an absentee ballot back to the clerk. The Secretary of State and county clerks agreed to allow nursing home staff to bring absentee ballots, gaining AARP Wyoming’s support. However, that bill was also an administrative casualty when it wasn’t heard in the Senate before Feb. 28.

What is ESG?
Prior to the 2025 legislative session, many state retirees were unfamiliar with the term "ESG." However, during the session, ESG - standing for environmental, social, and governance - became a prominent topic. It's a way of evaluating a company's sustainability and performance. Some investors use it if they have a focus on putting money into companies who are considered more sustainable and responsible, especially where environmental issues are concerned. It is also a dog whistle for some on the Far Right of the political continuum who believe an ESG focus means the end of fossil fuel investment. House Bill 80 would have made it difficult for the State Retirement System to invest in companies with any of a variety of ESG ideals. The Retirement System believed this would result in reductions in investment income of $193M in 2026, $387M in 2027 and $580M in 2028. The bill was heavily amended, but never came out for debate in the Senate and died.

Certificate of Need is Removed
If you are around me very long you will get tired of hearing me say, “governing is nuance.” There was perhaps no better example than two bills which would prohibit nursing home Certificate of Need (CON). Wyoming has long had a law that says if the nursing home in your area doesn’t have an 80% or higher occupancy rate you can’t build a new facility within 30 miles. On one hand, CON can lead to complacency among facilities in some areas. With no competition, there is no need to step up your game. On the other hand, 65% of all nursing home beds are paid for by the state Medicaid program on behalf of those who cannot afford nursing home care at a rate that doesn’t cover the full cost of care. If a new bright shiny facility is built in the same community, does it take the private pay clients who pay more and make the facilities financially viable? Does that make it a struggle for both facilities to survive? We may find out as House Bill 289 passed, outlawing CON.

Wildfire Mitigation? What Will It Mean?
With utility rate increases being the norm rather than the exception, and liability insurance playing heavily into that cost, House Bill 192 would help utilities to avoid potential lawsuits. The new law would limit the liability for utility companies who are in compliance with an approved mitigation plan at the Public Service Commission. The law also lets utilities charge the cost of developing those plans to their clients. We asked the question of whether this will help slow the number of rate increases and thus far, no one is sure.

What’s coming this interim?
The interim topic list is still being hammered out by committees who will go before the Legislature’s Management Council to ask permission to study specific topics on April 8 in Cheyenne. This will be the first Management Council meeting for about half of the committee, which will make things interesting. While topics haven’t been selected by the committees or approved by the council yet, there are some topics that are good bets to be studied this summer.

Voting Bills
If you liked watching voting bills work through the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committees of the House and Senate this winter, do I have a treat for you. During the Joint Corps Committee meeting to discuss interim topics in March, the group walked through a list of proposed topics thicker than most children’s books, with the bulk of the proposals dealing with voting bills. Many of the election bills that didn’t make it through the 2025 session will likely be back before the Corps Committee. Expect to hear more on hand counting of election ballots, as well as prohibiting electronic counting and voting machines.

Emergency Medical Services
AARP Wyoming submitted a topic request to the Joint Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee asking to discuss Emergency Medical Services (EMS). As you are aware, last summer we surveyed over 1,000 adults in the Cowboy State and better than 80% saying they believed EMS should be a required service. In addition, there are some interesting ideas about helping small services who will be impacted by property tax relief efforts and some insurance reimbursement money. More as that develops.