Job quality standards needed in Wyo

Let’s make good deals, not just give away millions

Economic Development Association pushes back on criticism of state business subsidy programs

Earlier this month, the Equality State Policy Center joined with Good Jobs First to jointly release a report that points out how Wyoming fails to ask for reasonable returns on its business incentives and subsidies aimed at bringing new business to the state. The report ranks Wyoming 49th among the states on job-creation and job-quality standards.

The state’s efforts to diversify the Wyoming economy are well-intentioned and the goal is laudable. But the Good Jobs First (GJF) report shows clearly that the four state programs analyzed can be improved by incorporating specific job creation and job quality standards. Job quality standards include requiring companies to pay middle class wages and to provide health care and other benefits.

Whenever we raise questions about state programs, we expect to get push-back and we did in this case, too. The Wyoming Economic Development Association complained recently but did not address the specific criticism. It claimed that “… all of these programs have job criteria.”

We disagree.

The Good Jobs First report analyzed four state programs:

1. Data Processing Center – sales/use tax exemption on computing equipment;
2. Film Industry Financial Incentive;
3. Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Purchases of Manufacturing Equipment;
4. Workforce Development Training Fund.

One, the Workforce training program, has a good incentive. It makes more money available to companies that pay the mean county hourly wage. But companies still can qualify for training subsidies even if they’re providing training for low-wage work. The program scored poorly in the GJF report because it is not structured to require training of a certain number of workers.

Still, the ESPC supports worker training so long as the program establishes benchmarks to evaluate its effectiveness and aims it at raising the economic lives of workers by requiring employers who take public funds – subsidies that help their business – to pay living wages and provide good benefits.

The programs that deserve greater scrutiny and that should be modified to include job creation and job quality standards are the tax expenditure programs. Granting certain businesses exemptions to certain taxes gives them a competitive advantage over other enterprises. When the state does this, it should not hesitate to impose job creation and job quality standards. We don’t find any job creation or quality standards in these programs.

Wyoming’s Manufacturing Sales Tax Exemption program is expensive and in at least some cases, has operated directly counter to the goal of the program – creating jobs. In the last three years, nearly $610 million in equipment purchases have been exempted from the tax – both the state sales tax and local option taxes – costing state and local government about $32.3 million.

Most of those purchases were made by the refining industry in Wyoming, which bought equipment to upgrade technology at existing refineries. What did we get for it?

Some will argue that we’ve protected jobs at those refineries. Maybe so, but you have to wonder about the HollyFrontier Refinery in Cheyenne. It has eliminated 40 positions in the last two years, according to news stories based on company-supplied information.

Companies in the manufacturing sector typically offer some of the best pay and benefits found in the economy. Good operators that want to tap public funds to invest in their factories certainly will not balk at job quality and creation standards.

Gov. Mead has asked the Legislature to appropriate another $15 million to attract data processing centers and other high-tech businesses. Now’s the time for legislators to figure out how to help ensure that we reach the goals of bringing more and better jobs to Wyoming. The governor apparently intends to grant these funds to communities to invest in infrastructure preparing local sites for these businesses. Legislators should take the simple step of requiring communities to make job creation and job quality standards part of their incentive packages.

It’s reasonable to demand a fair return on public investment in the private sector.

(Good Jobs First is a national resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families. You can read the GJF press release here.)

Will all state senators have to stand for election following redistricting?

Rep. John Patton of Sheridan talks during the Joint Corporations
Committee meeting in Room 302 of the Capitol Dec. 6.

Redistricting Wyoming’s Legislature this month again revolved around defining communities of interest, ranging from fairly specific definitions to the open ended claim that “there’s a community of interest wherever you go in Wyoming.”

That generous idea was presented by state Sen. Curt Meier who found himself drawn out of his district by the committee’s proposed redistricting plan. He mounted a spirited argument for his ideas to amend the proposed boundaries to save his seat. Meier’s predicament forced a discussion of how the new boundaries affect sitting legislators, an issue the committee previously had avoided publicly.

It also served to focus attention on the effect of redistricting on sitting senators. Will the boundaries change enough to justify requiring senators who won four-year terms in 2010 to campaign again in 2012?

The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee met Dec. 5 and 6 to put together a basic plan. It produced one that gives Campbell County five seats in the House. It also adopted new boundaries for House District 22, completely separating it from Teton and Lincoln counties. And it reversed a decision made in October to split Rawlins.

The process of reconfiguring the boundaries of legislative districts is known as “redistricting.” It is constitutionally mandated. The Legislature must redraw legislative district lines in the first budget session following completion of the decennial U.S. Census. Under the principle of “one person, one vote,” those districts must be nearly equal in population to ensure that each voter wields roughly equal power in legislative elections.

Population grew in some areas of the state and declined in others since the 2000 Census. Now legislative district boundaries must change to reflect those shifts. Campbell County saw the largest growth in population in the state in sheer numbers. Sublette County experienced the greatest percentage increase. Goshen and other northeastern counties and counties in the Big Horn Basin either suffered declines in population  or saw such low growth that they now hold a lower share of the state’s total number of residents.

Once the committee adopted its plan for 60 House districts, it realigned four Senate districts in eastern Wyoming to accommodate the new boundaries of the House districts. (The Wyoming Legislature “nests” two House districts inside each of the 30 Senate districts.)

The committee still must determine whether it will require all 30 senators to run for election when the new districting plan takes effect in 2012. One of the committee’s co-chairmen, Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, vigorously argued to require only those senators whose terms are up in 2012 to run.

Redistricting aside, all senators serving even-numbered districts must stand for election in 2012. The question is whether the changes that have moved other communities into new Senate districts are significant enough to require all the senators to run. Most of those communities are small. Along with Sen. Meier’s LaGrange, among them are Atlantic City, Dubois, Big Piney and Marbleton, Farson, and Meeteetse.

The committee’s redistricting House and Senate plans are now up on the Legislature’s website. The joint committee will meet again Jan. 19 to consider the written version of the bill that will implement the boundaries agreed to in Cheyenne Dec. 6. Amendments to the plans can be offered at that time.

Final action will take place during the 2012 Legislature.

Wyoming Legislature

Redistricting options proliferate
County clerks offer second statewide plan; other new options surface for Southwest Wyoming and Laramie County

       Wyoming’s legislative redistricting effort will take the stage again Monday with new plans added to the mix.
       Three more plans have been posted on the Legislature's website, including a new plan drawn up by the County Clerks and a new alternative plan for Southwest Wyoming drafted by two senators from the region. Both these new plans would eliminate the gerrymandered district created in 2002 that combined most of Sublette County, northern Lincoln County, and Wilson  and in Teton County. Officials from both Sublette and Teton counties dislike that combination and have pleaded with legislators that it be changed.
        A third new plan for Laramie County also has been posted on the Legislative Service Office's website.
        The Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee will work tomorrow and Tuesday (Dec. 5 and 6) in Room 302 at the Capitol to finalize its proposal to the Legislature. The redistricting discussion is begins at 11 a.m., according to the committee's agenda.
       Redistricting – the process of periodically redrawing district lines to equalize district populations – takes place every 10 years following the federal census. The 2010 Census revealed considerable growth in the energy boom counties, particularly Campbell and Sublette counties, and in Teton County. Those numbers also found that population had declined in other counties, mostly in northeastern Wyoming and the Big Horn Basin.
       Districts must shift accordingly, though legislators have considerable discretion in doing so.
   
       House District 22 in western Wyoming
       The committee has seen considerable tension around plans to redraw lines for what is now designated House District 22. Growth in Sublette County gives it more than enough residents to form a single House district within its boundaries. But Sublette County was involved in a “gerrymandering” imposed in 2002 when northern and eastern areas of the county, including Pinedale, were combined in a district extending from south Wilson in Teton County through northern Lincoln County, up the Hoback River to Bondurant and down the east side of the county.
       Wilson and Pinedale residents have been clear that they don’t share a significant community of interest and want to be separated.
       The latest proposal for the region posted on the LSO website again was developed by southwestern Wyoming Sens. Marty Martin, a Democrat, and Stan Cooper, a Republican. It severs Sublette County from Teton County to create the new House District 22. The plan combines Wilson with Afton in a new configuration of House District 21.
     
       Eastern Wyoming
       The new plan offered by the county clerks appears to carve a seat out of the eastern border counties and to give Campbell County five representatives (compared to four under the present system).  One of those districts is combined with northern Converse County. (Analyst's caveat: The plan appears to do this but this is a cursory comparison with other plans.)

       Co-Chairman Pete Illoway, a Cheyenne Republican, told the Associated Press that the committee could meet again in late December or January if does not finalize its work this week.

Redistricting plans enter last phase

Corporations Committee readies two state plans

       Wyoming’s legislative redistricting effort will take the stage again next week in what could be the last meeting of the committee given the task of  drawing new boundaries before the February session.
       Or it might not be the last meeting.  But the Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee will work next Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 5 and 6) in Room302 at the Capitol to finalize its proposal to the Legislature.
       Redistricting – the process of periodically redrawing district lines to equalize district populations – takes place every 10 years following the federal census. The 2010 Census revealed considerable growth in the energy boom counties, particularly Campbell and Sublette counties, and in Teton County. Those numbers also found that population had declined in other counties, mostly in northeastern Wyoming and the Big Horn Basin.
       Districts must shift accordingly, though legislators have considerable discretion in doing so.
       As it did in 2001, the Legislature’s Management Council handed the job to the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee. In its first big decision, the committee voted in April to maintain the current structure of the Legislature with 60 House seats and 30 Senate seats. It also adopted guiding principles that include respecting county lines as much as possible, keeping districts contiguous and as compact as possible, and recognizing “communities of interest” – though the committee has not specifically defined that term.
       Over the summer, the committee held more than a dozen community meetings around the state. Those meetings largely were attended by sitting legislators, county clerks, and county commissioners. Using a web-based tool made available on the Legislature’s website, various regional plans have been developed redrawing the lines. Most of the state’s county clerks got together and drew up a full plan for the state that had been the only complete plan available. But at its last meeting the committee itself put together those regional proposals, then made a few adjustments of its own. Two working proposals resulted and can be seen on the LSO website.
       The ESPC attended many of the meetings intent on making sure the committee sticks to the principle of one person, one vote, and that it maintains a legislative district in Fremont County created in 2002 which holds a majority of Native Americans. The federal Voting Rights Act protects significant minority populations, in this case Native Americans, by prohibiting dilution of their vote by splitting them up among several districts. The committee has adhered to both principles.

       Gerrymander in western Wyoming
       But there still has been considerable tension. Growth in Sublette County gives it more than enough residents to form a single House district within its boundaries. But Sublette County was involved in a “gerrymandering” imposed in 2002 when northern and eastern areas of the county, including Pinedale, were combined in a district extending from south Wilson in Teton County through northern Lincoln County.
       The Wilson and Pinedale residents have been clear that they don’t share a significant community of interest and want to be separated. One proposal to do just that would have redrawn district lines in a way that left the House District 20 representative outside the district.
       A counter proposal was developed by southwestern Wyoming Sens. Marty Martin, a Democrat, and Stan Cooper, a Republican. It maintains the district combining Pinedale with Wilson. The Corporations committee favored the Martin-Cooper plan when it met in October.
       It appears to be impossible, or nearly so, to divide the population of northwestern Wyoming without splitting counties. The Teton plan that ended the Wilson-Pinedale gerrymander requires maintaining an existing district the combines Dubois and parts of northern Fremont County with Teton County. There’s a relatively strong community of interest argument, however, since both those local economies rely heavily on tourism and recreation.
       The committee heard at a Lander meeting that Dubois wants to be connected to the rest of Fremont County. Subsequently, other legislators say there’s a substantial number of Dubois residents who favor the link to Teton County.
        There’s also a struggle over redrawing lines in northeastern and eastern Wyoming. Campbell County grew enough to add another House seat. Population declined in relation to the rest of the state elsewhere in the region, meaning a seat will likely shift. The question is how this will be done. Will the Legislature allow Campbell County to be relatively self-contained like Albany, Laramie and Natrona counties? Or will the Campbell population be carved away to maintain something closer to the status quo?
       The two committee proposals on the LSO site show distinctly different approaches to resolving these shifts in eastern Wyoming.
       Each of the various plans will make some happy and others angry. Part of the problem is that roughly 70 percent of the Census blocks in Wyoming have no one living in them in them at all. (Redistricting rules allow dividing counties, cities, towns, and precincts but prohibit splitting a Census block.) As a result, a few districts, just as they are now, will be bigger than some eastern states. One district that encompasses a large part of Carbon County will be stretched across Sweetwater County to Farson to bring the district up to the necessary population level. There’s a lot of empty Red Desert between Rawlins and Eden.

       Plenty of action ahead
       The committee could finalize its redistricting bill at the coming meeting or schedule a final meeting prior to the session.
        And the session may bring other proposals. In a budget session, non-budget bills require a two-thirds vote of approval for introduction in either the House or the Senate. But that’s not true of redistricting bills. Any member can bring a proposal to apportion the Legislature and introduce it without a vote. Such bills likely will be referred to the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.

School Trust Lands and Gas Flaring

Trust responsibilities spur state action on industry's gas burning

State Lands Office may impose royalty without sale of natural gas extracted from Trust lands

Flaring of natural gas extracted from new wells on state School Trust lands means the value of that gas and the royalty revenues it would generate to the Common School Fund are lost.

Worries about the losses prompted the Office of State Lands and Investments to propose limiting flaring from wells on its lands to 30 days beyond completion of a well before the company would have to begin paying royalties on gas it burned. Ryan Lance, the director of the Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI), proposed the changes to the state Board of Land Commissioners last month. But the board postponed a decision and directed Lance to coordinate his regulatory planning with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

The Equality State Policy Center has been tracking the handling of mineral extraction from School Trust lands and advocating for a higher royalty rate, one more in line with the market value of the minerals. The minerals are public property and the royalty revenues support Wyoming’s public schools. Decisions that affect those revenues, such as allowing flaring, should be made openly to enable the public to understand and evaluate the rationale used to justify them.

A quick primer on School Trust Lands

Marguerite Herman of Cheyenne is the president-elect of the Children’s Land Alliance Supporting Schools (CLASS), an organization that tracks how states manage their trust lands. Wyoming’s trust lands, Herman says, encompass 3.5 million surface acres and 4 million acres of subsurface mineral rights.

“As trustee, not owners, the Land Board is bound by its fiduciary responsibility to make money from the land and to have undivided loyalty to the beneficiaries,” she has written. The trust beneficiaries are the children of the state who attend its public schools.

This graphic from the CLASS website shows income generated for public schools from state land trusts.

Meeting at the OGCC in Casper

Acting as directed, Lance and his assistant director Harold Kemp met with Tom Doll, director of the OGCC. They set up a meeting of members of the commission, and representatives of the oil and gas industry Monday (Nov. 7) to discuss the issues around flaring and figure out some initial steps. (Lance also serves as a member of the OGCC.)

The meeting got the attention of the industry and media. The Wyoming Petroleum Association sent its top staff. Companies represented included Anadarko, BP, Chesapeake, Devon Energy, Double Eagle, Fidelity Exploration and Production Co., Marathon, Noble Oil, and Yates Petroleum. Both WyoFile and the Casper Star-Tribune reported the meeting.

Doll asked attendees to gather around a pair of long tables in the OGCC conference room to lay out their issues. He passed out a sheet that noted the state now allows companies to flare a total of 6.96 million cubic feet of gas per day. Of that total, Doll noted, 1.77 million cubic per day comes from state lands. He pointed out that North Dakota, where production is booming in the Williston basin, presently allows flaring of 207 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Many issues were raised at the table, including a fundamental question about how to define a well completion, especially in the active play in southeastern Wyoming where horizontal wells may be “fracked” several times to stimulate production. Bruce Hinchey of PAW said there are other variables, particularly testing, that add to the completion time. Some company representatives said that wells producing oil may generate enough value to justify flaring the gas.

That prompted Lance to point out that the Board of Land Commissioners has a fiduciary responsibility to the School Trust. The Trust does not “get another shot at this gas stream. I don’t want completion to go on forever,” he said.

The Trust can’t have high quality gas going to the flare “whether you can sell it or not,” Lance said. If the state continues to allow burning without assessing its royalties, Lance argued, producers may not see a shared interest to work together to finance the pipelines necessary to get gas to market.

OGCC obligated to prevent waste

The OGCC’s interest in the flaring is its statutory obligation to prevent waste of the state’s valuable natural resources. One of its high profile actions to prevent waste was taken years ago when it ordered the Exxon plant at LaBarge to end venting of CO2. The company, which had argued it had no place to sell the gas, subsequently developed a market and now supplies carbon dioxide that is used to force more oil out of a number of old Wyoming oil fields, including the famous Salt Creek Field at Midwest.

The commission regulates uncompensated disposition of resources. Commissioner Bruce Williams said that while there may be some question about when a well is completed, “after 15 days of flaring, you’d better have a permit.”

The OGCC wants to put an end to past practices of allowing multiple extensions of flaring permits. Doll said some companies file requests for permission to continue flaring well before the end of the initial period of 15 days the state allows following completion. It has allowed requests for subsequent periods of flaring, but requires companies to report the volumes of gas burned.

“We’re worried about continuing on and continuing on,” Doll said Monday. The OGCC now is “telling people we’re not going to go (and allow additional periods of flaring) that third and fourth time.”

To industry worries that an operator might have to wait weeks for a hearing before the full Board of Land Commissioners, Lance noted his office could seek permission to grant exceptions to allow continued flaring after 15 days until the matter came before the board. If the board ultimately determined that charging a royalty was in order, however, the company might be required to pay royalty retroactively, back to the day it got the OSLI exception, he said.

Lance promises a proposal

Before the group adjourned, Lance said he would put together a proposal for review that would include:

• Working with OGCC to determine when completion has occurred;
• After completion, requiring a company to request permission for royalty-free flaring;
• Allowing administrative approval of continued flaring, a decision that would depend on “the functional parameters’ of each individual well;
• Retaining a full range of options for OSLI including requiring payment of a full royalty, requiring the state statutory minimum royalty of 5 percent, or allowing royalty-free flaring of gas so long as the operator traps valuable liquids;
• Recognizing the Board of Land Commissioners’ full control of its duty to the School Trust.

When the proposal goes to industry, Lance said he wants “an iterative process” that protects the trust asset both short- and long-term.

“We’ll go back, craft something up and we’ll circulate it,” he told the group.

Redistricting tensions build

Committee ready to begin drawing lines

Redistricting will again have the full attention of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee today (Oct. 20) and tomorrow as it meets in Casper.

The implications of the re-drawing of legislative district lines have become clearer as more legislators, some in conjunction with their local officials, some not, put together plans for the committee to consider and eventually meld into a statewide plan.

The committee will take care of some other business Thursday morning then is scheduled to take up redistricting by 3 p.m. Co-chairman Sen. Cale Case said the committee’s anxious to get moving so may take it up earlier in the afternoon.

The committee is meeting at the UW Outreach Building, 951 N. Poplar Street, across from the Casper Planetarium.

The ESPC has tracked the committee as it has held community meetings across the state. As we noted in July following meetings in Rock Springs and Pinedale and later in the Big Horn Basin, the committee hears again and again that people identify strongly with their counties and want to keep the county “as intact as possible.”

That means they want to avoid seeing their county lumped in with people from other counties. It’s also request that the committee cannot deliver on. Wyoming’s population grew over the past decade and not in a consistent manner. Gillette saw a huge increase residents and the gas boom in the Green River Basin led to a near doubling of Sublette County’s population.

Other areas saw population declines.

There are now a dozen plans posted on the Legislature’s website. Most are regional or county plans. They do not mesh, so the committee will have to figure out who makes the best argument for “community of interest” – a term the committee has declined to define.

The County Clerks put up a plan for the entire state. It has been roundly criticized. The most recent was put up in the past few days by Rep. Jeb Steward of Carbon County. Steward has seen proposals that would run his district from the eastern boundary of Carbon County far to the west, taking in a subdivision north of Rock Springs and brining in Farson.

Geographically, it would be the largest House district in the state. Steward’s own plan still might be. It would take in Rock River in Albany County, Alcova in Natrona County, Jeffrey City in Fremont County and still pick up Farson.

The discussions today and Friday should prove quite interesting. The committee will begin deciding which plans and lines to adopt. Although this is the last scheduled meeting of the committee, the chairmen have said previously that it may be necessary to meet again prior to the February budget session.

Revenue Committee eyes tax exemptions

Better reporting needed on sales tax incentives

The Wyoming Legislature's Joint Revenue Interim Committee met last week in Buffalo. The agenda included wind taxation, taxation of ag lands, and possible adjustments to the formula used to calculate severance taxes owed by coal producers.

But a discussion at the end of the meeting went to the heart of an issue close to the heart of the ESPC: the use of tax exemptions (or tax expenditures) to provide incentives to spur economic development. We’ve argued for years the no one knows if they work and the Legislature tends to ignore evidence that they don’t work.

It’s also worth noting that with no corporate or personal income tax and low property taxes, Wyoming already presents a favorable tax environment for businesses looking for new sites. Businesses should pay their way when they move here and rely upon basic local services such as water, sewer, streets, and public safety.

At the end of Friday’s meeting of the Revenue Committee, Senate Chairman John Hines reminded the committee that its Priority #1 for the interim is "consideration of overall tax policies and tax initiatives which impact state economic development."

Put another way, the committee was directed to analyze tax breaks intended to spur the economy and create jobs. In Wyoming, this generally means giving an industry a sales tax exemption. For example, the sales tax exemption on purchases of manufacturing equipment is intended to encourage more manufacturing in Wyoming. No one knows if it works, but the exemption was extended again last session. The legislature already receives three reports on different exemptions each year, but according to Sen. Cale Case, the reports requested don't give the information needed.

"They're not useful to answer the question," he told the committee.

The reports, he said, don't demonstrate whether the tax exemption influences behavior to a degree that would not occur without the exemption.

Erin Taylor of the Wyoming Taxpayers Association told the committee that her organization has been part of a group, including Dan Noble, director of the Excise Tax Division in the Department of Revenue, and Buck McVeigh, the administrator of the Economic Analysis Division of the Department of Administration and Information, that has met to discuss the needed analysis of the data that has been collected. "Are we getting the bang for our buck?" she asked.

She noted the Wyoming Business Council (WBC) has $125,000 to conduct an analysis. But Case warned about "the fox in the henhouse thing," indicating the WBC has a conflict of interest.

The WBC long has advocated for various exemptions because they consider them necessary tools or “incentives” to attract companies to Wyoming.

Sen. Drew Perkins suggested the state should hire a respected national consultant to do the evaluation.

Dan Noble, head of the Department of Revenue’s Excise Tax Division, said he will contact other states to see what they have done to evaluate similar policies. He said that a recent report he has read notes that "sales tax holidays" (offered by some states prior to the opening of public schools or other reasons) are popular, but no one knows if they work.

He said that in internal consultations the department decided to answer two basic questions about tax exemptions:

1. What does the exemption cost the state (and local governments, which share in revenues)?
2. What do we get for it?
   

Chairman Hines asked Noble and Taylor to present a report at the committee's October meeting or as soon as possible otherwise.

Case jumped in to say, "This is a really important area. The Legislature has not done a good job of providing leadership on this."

The Joint Revenue Interim Committee has a budget of $35,000 for its work prior to February's budget session. Noble said the working group will determine the next steps and tell the committee if it needs more resources to do the work.

Casper forum will analyze Affordable Care Act

Just the Facts Please

By Barb Rea,
ESPC Health Issues Volunteer

As a member of the Wyoming Health Care Commission and now as a Consumer Representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, I’ve had the opportunity to hear high level presentations and discussions about healthcare reform from people who have devoted their careers to improving the healthcare system for the rest of us. These folks are mighty happy to that we finally have a law in place that addresses the healthcare system as a whole.

Nearly all agree it is not perfect, but gives us a place to start that did not exist before March 23, 2010, the date Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. We'll take an in-depth look at the ACA

While policy makers have known for decades that health reform was essential to the economic stability of the country it has been a long and difficult battle to get healthcare reform to the front burner. It’s hard to keep it there.

Admittedly, there is a lot of information for busy people and citizen legislators to learn, but it’s not impossible and there is a lot at stake. Sometimes I think Wyoming people and especially their policy-makers assume that we are so different from the rest of the country that what happens in Washington, D.C. won’t really change anything we do here. But in this case, we would be missing an opportunity to fix some Wyoming problems.

I have a friend who was told by the State Employees’ health insurance carrier, Great West, that the back surgery her doctor told her she needs is medically unnecessary. I also remember in the paper last year a couple was protesting in front of Blue Cross Blue Shield because the cancer drug that their doctor said the husband needed to keep him alive wasn’t in their formulary.

In both cases, there is no amount of consumer research that could have changed these stories. I’m sure they were never even given a chance to make a choice about what their insurance covered or didn’t cover. No one knows what kind of illness they may get and no one really knows the details of what their policy covers until they need it.

On the other hand, if providers are getting away with performing unnecessary surgeries or prescribing expensive new medicine that works no better than the previous version, we want to know that.

Our system should be more transparent, we should know that our providers are practicing evidence based medicine that works and that insurance will pay for the care we need. But in these cases, the patients and their families are suffering not only from their disease process but unnecessarily from a broken healthcare system.

Will health reform solve these problems and many others? Not without constant attention.

An educated public can:

• help move the discussion from one that polarizes and paralyses to one that solves real problems;
• help policy makers remain focused on the ultimate goal of health reform—security for our friends and neighbors in the form of guaranteed access to high quality affordable healthcare.
  

People shouldn’t have to worry that they will lose their healthcare if they get sick or change jobs. Insurance should work, there shouldn’t be any surprises. It should pay for the right care at the right time and it should protect us from bankruptcy.

September conference offers facts on ACA
Several agencies and organizations have come together as One Health Voice to provide a forum where people can hear directly from policy experts about why we need health reform and learn about what the Affordable Care Act can do to begin to transform our healthcare system.

Please join us on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 in Casper for a one day symposium about healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act, the new healthcare law.

T.R Reid, best- selling author of “The Healing of America, A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care, will keynote the event.

Policy experts from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Consumers Union, the Colorado Center on Law and Policy and from Governor Mead’s office will provide overviews of the law, what role states will play in achieving the results they want and what consumers should expect in a reformed health care system.

The conference is open to everyone.

You can register on line at www.OneHealthVoice.com or contact LRosedahl@pubaffairsco.com.

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One Health Voice includes the Equality State Policy Center and these allies: AARP, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Children’s Action Alliance, Consumer Advocates:Project Healthcare, Department of Family Services-Adult Protection Services, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, CO-WY Chapter, Wyoming Center for Nursing and Healthcare Partnerships, Wyoming Epilepsy Association, Wyoming Health Care Access Network/PhRMA, Wyoming Hospital Association, Wyoming Primary Care Association.

Redistricting effort stirs local worries

'One person, one vote' standard must drive redistricting of Wyo Legislature

Local plans reflect different definitions of 'community of interest' concept

If "Not in My Back Yard” is the battle-cry of people who occasionally venture into the realm of public land planning, then “Leave Us Alone” or “Keep Our County Whole” are the battle cries heard most often when people consider redistricting the Wyoming Legislature.

Elected officials in Natrona and Albany counties already have submitted plans that would enable them to place all or nearly all their residents in state Senate and House districts lying wholly within their county lines.

Legislators and other public officials in the Big Horn Basin took the idea a step further July 12, when they told the Legislature’s Joint Interim Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee that they can keep their “unique” basin whole – so long as the committee follows their draft plan that would pick off nearly 800 Fremont County residents, who live in the Shoshoni and Lysite voting districts (also known as precincts).

The process of reconfiguring the boundaries of legislative districts is known as “reapportionment” or “redistricting.” The Legislature must redraw legislative district lines in the first budget session following completion of the decennial U.S. Census. Under the constitutional principle of “one person, one vote,” those districts must be nearly equal in population to ensure that each voter wields roughly equal power in legislative elections.

Population growth in some areas of the state and decline in others since the 2000 Census mean legislative district boundaries must change to reflect those shifts. Determining exactly how to change the lines is a political process that in the U.S. traditionally has been used by the party in control of the legislature to solidify the ability of its members to get elected both to Congress and the state Legislature.

But in Wyoming, there is only one Congressional district for the entire state, so there’s no opportunity to gerrymander districts. And in the Legislature, the Republican Party’s huge majorities in both the state House and Senate mean shifting district lines largely will affect GOP members.

The Interim Corporations committee adopted seven principles to guide its redistricting efforts. The key principle, known as the “range of deviation,” aims to abide by the principle of “one person, one vote” by keeping the difference in population of the highest population district in the state and the lowest population district within 10 percent. Other principles include following county boundaries as much as possible, keeping the majority of a county’s population in one district, recognition of significant geographic features, compactness, and combining “communities of interest.”

Many people have seized on the term “community of interest” to justify placing lines here rather than there. Since it started its series of 10 public meetings around the state to hear local concerns and plans for redistricting, the committee has been presented numerous interpretations of the concept.

Some who testified to the committee see “communities of interest” in economic terms. Others see it as rural versus urban, or as achieving balance between intra- and inter-party political interests. Although some local residents may feel strongly about these criteria, none of them are likely to stand up in a court case.

County clerks will draft a plan

When the committee met in Lander on July 13, Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese told the committee that the state’s county clerks will meet in August to draft their own proposal. The clerks hope to minimize the splitting of voting precincts. Freese said those splits can lead to confusion at the polls. A voter could be given a ballot that lists elections the voter cannot legally vote in.

With more splitting of precincts, she said, it becomes more likely a voter will get the wrong ballot “and that is called fraud.”

Challenge the deviation standard?

Big Horn Basin legislators also argued that the committee should consider exempting the Basin from the 10 percent deviation standard because they know more people will move there soon. They said an expected boom in tertiary oil production based upon CO2 injection and development of a new irrigation project will swell the Basin’s population, and that will take care of any problems with districts with too-few residents.

With its endorsement of a 90-member Legislature with 30 seats in the Senate, the committee forced some basic arithmetic: divide the 2010 Census population of Wyoming by 30 to find the ideal population for a Senate district: 18,788 people. With 60 seats in the House, the ideal population for a House district is 9,394. No district can exceed those numbers or fall below them by more than 5 percent. The most populous Senate district cannot have more than 19,727 people residing in it. The least populous House district cannot include fewer than 8,924 people.

The ESPC supports the deviation standard and opposes any exceptions. We will work to ensure that all Wyoming citizens have equal representation.

Members of the committee warned that a lawsuit will assuredly be filed if the standard, established through substantial court precedent, is ignored. The committee voted in April to support the deviation standard. Sen. Cale Case, one of the co-chairmen of the joint committee, warned against exceptions when the committee met in Powell. If the committee granted an exception to the deviation standard in the Big Horn Basin, people in other areas of Wyoming will expect similar treatment, he said.

The ESPC will stand strongly for the “one person, one vote” principle during the redistricting process. We want to make sure that your vote counts as much as your neighbor’s.

Plans posted on LSO website

The Legislative Service Office is making an excellent effort to provide information about redistricting. Proposed plans will be made available on the site if they are sponsored by a legislator. Four plans had been posted by Saturday afternoon (July 16) for Albany, Laramie, Natrona and Teton counties. State Rep. Hans Hunt has roughed out a statewide plan that also is available.

Wyoming needs right return on its oil & gas

State deserves higher royalty rate option
Public hearing June 10 in Cheyenne

Will state get Wyoming residents get what may be their last shot at pursuing a better deal on state oil and gas leases when the State Land Board considers a proposal to revise the state's standard lease form.

The office announced the meeting a week ago:

"A meeting by and between the Office of State Lands & Investments and the Petroleum
Association of Wyoming and other interested parties will be held Friday, June 10, 2011,
2:00-5:00 p.m. The meeting will convene in the Herschler Building, Room 1699 and is
open to the public. The purpose of the meeting is to review and finalize proposed revisions
to the State of Wyoming’s Oil & Gas Lease Form."

*****
Friday June 10 update
This meeting enables the public to hear and comment during the discussion between PAW and the State Lands Office. Even though the royalty rate adjustment has been dropped from the proposed revisions to the lease form, it makes other changes, including in what can be deducted from the costs of production before the royalty is assessed. Deductions mean the producer pays less to royalty holders - in this case, us, the people who live in Wyoming. This is why the industry is fighting this so hard here, even though other producing states are making changes to assure themselves a fair share of value of the oil and gas extracted. And remember:
Once it's gone, it's gone.
*****

The proposed revisions were offered last year, but were postponed after oil and gas industry leaders opposed a proposed increase in the potential state royalty rate, hiking it from 16.667 percent to 18.75 percent. It's important to note that would be the allowable rate, not a mandated rate.

Then Gov. Dave Freudenthal suggested in November that the proposed increase be postponed until Gov.-elect Matt Mead took office. He also said the four other members of the Board of Land Commissioners opposed proceeding with a vote scheduled last Dec. 9.

Secretary of State Max Maxfield opposed the increase. The Associated Press quoted him saying, "We're competitive within the region and I'm satisfied that we are both being fair to our fiduciary responsibilities and to the minerals industry."

Apparently taking the comments from industry and some of the state's top leaders seriously, the staff of the State Lands Office removed the proposed increase from the proposal. In its analysis prepared for the Board of Land Commissioners' June 2 meeting, the staff wrote:
"Notable in their absence in the lease form revision are the previously offered Pugh Clause and royalty rate increase. After considerable discussion with industry and others, those two (2) items were tabled, despite their potential to enhance returns to the state trust land beneficiaries, in the interest of securing timely Board consideration and support for the other necessary terms that are being moved forward in the current lease revision."

The Equality State Policy Center agrees with the slogan that 1966 gubernatorial candidate Ernest Wilkerson espoused: "Wyoming's Wealth for Wyoming People." Wilkerson's campaign argued for imposing a severance tax and is widely credited for creating the political climate that led to passage of the first Wyoming mineral severance tax in 1970, under the administration of Gov. Stan Hathaway.

State royalties largely go to support the public school system.

When the staff said it responded to concerns expressed by industry, it apparently meant the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. Other private royalty holders, who likewise may be considered part of the oil and gas industry, may have a different point of view. If the state sticks to a royalty rate of 16.667 percent, oil and gas producers can tell private mineral rights holders that there's no reason they should get a higher royalty rate, even if the mineral deposit in question is estimated to be of high value.

Oil and gas is a nonrenewable asset. Wyoming is not saving enough for the future when these resources will be depleted. Big Oil is reporting enormous profits and oil and gas is not becoming less valuable in the long run., The Office of State Lands and Investments should have the authority to negotiate a higher royalty rate when appropriate.

'One person, one vote' means change

Tensions arise with first proposals for new district lines

Teton County proposal will ripple across southwest Wyo legislative districts

By Dan Neal

A proposal laying out new boundaries for Wyoming House District 22 would include all Teton County residents living west of the Snake River but no one living in Pinedale.
Teton County’s commissioners got together with a consultant using geographic information system maps and drew up the new district as part of a proposal offered to the Legislature’s Joint Interim Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee when the committee met Wednesday in Rock Springs and Pinedale. Those meetings were the first of 10 the committee plans to hold around the state to hear local concerns and proposals about redistricting the Wyoming Legislature.
The process of reconfiguring the boundaries of legislative districts is known as “redistricting.” It is constitutionally mandated. The Legislature must redraw legislative district lines in the first budget session following completion of the decennial U.S. Census. Under the principle of “one person, one vote,” those districts must be nearly equal in population to ensure that each voter wields roughly equal power in legislative elections.
Since population grew in some areas of the state and declined in others since the 2000 Census, legislative district boundaries must change to reflect those shifts. Determining exactly how is a political process traditionally used by the party in control of the legislature to solidify the ability of its members to get elected.
In Wyoming, the Republican Party’s huge majorities in both the state House and Senate mean shifting district lines will affect its own members. There are some places, like Cheyenne, where the party can redraw the lines to include voters more likely to vote Republican in specific Senate or House districts. But in most areas, moving district lines will affect seats held by Republicans.
Those new lines proposed for House District 22 are the first example. They would ripple through the rest of southwestern Wyoming, requiring significant changes in districts in Lincoln, Sweetwater, and Uinta counties.
The Teton County proposal knocks out a sitting legislator, HD20 Rep. Kathy Davison of Kemmerer, whose community would be absorbed into House District 19. Davison’s GOP colleague Rep. Owen Petersen of Mountain View holds the HD19 seat.
Tension over the Jackson-based proposal could be heard in side-conversations in the Pinedale meeting, which was in the Sublette County Library. The HD 22 seat is held by one of the nine Democrats in the 60-seat House, Jim Roscoe of Wilson.
The Teton County officials made the argument that both Sublette and Teton counties witnessed significant growth over the past decade and those changes require dividing the district.
Some Teton County residents believe House District 22, established in the 2001 redistricting process, was created to split the Wilson vote to dilute the power of voters seen as more liberal, particularly on conservation issues. As a result, House District 22 presently includes part of the Wilson area, goes south to cover Alpine and Etna, then extends east and south into Sublette County, taking in Bondurant, Cora Pinedale and Big Piney. Most of the residents in the southern end of the present district, an area booming with natural gas development, are believed to view conservation matters differently than the majority of residents of Teton Valley, the home of two national parks and an economy that thrives on nature-based tourism.
Teton County Commissioner Hank Phibbs said the proposal worked out in Teton County roughly “squared off” the south boundary of HD22 at Star Valley Ranches, extending it east to Daniel and Cora in Sublette County.
Sublette County’s population grew 73% over the decade to 10,247. Under the 2010 Census, the ideal population for a House district is 9,394. To meet “one person one vote” tolerances, Sen. Charles Scott, a Natrona County-based senator on the committee, said no House district can have more than 9,863 residents, or fewer than 8,925.
That means Sublette County cannot be wholly contained within a single district. Two Sublette County officials, County Clerk Mary Lankford, and Commissioner O.G. Wilson, said they want to keep Sublette County “as whole as we can.”
And Bondurant resident Mary Winney, whose husband Bill Winney ran for the HD22 seat in 2010 and lost to Roscoe, said she did not want to be included in a district oriented to Jackson. “I don’t belong in Jackson,” she said. “Bondurant needs to stay with Pinedale.”
Phibbs argued for the proposed new lines by noting that many residents of Alpine, Etna, and Star Valley ranches commute to work in Jackson. That connection means the residents of the HD 22 proposed by the Teton County group share a community of interest. And that means the proposal meets one of the redistricting principles guiding the joint committee’s redistricting work. (You can see the Principles of Interest on the Legislative Service Office website.)
Rep. Keith Gingery, HD23, R-Jackson, offered a fig leaf to those concerned about the Teton County proposal’s ripple effects in districts further south in Lincoln, Uinta, and Sweetwater counties. Gingery (seen at top during the 2011 session) noted it was necessary to “add numbers to HD22” after taking the west bank of the Snake River, so the lines were extended south to pick up Etna and Star Valley ranchers.
“We took House District 16 (represented by GOP Rep. Ruth Ann Petrov) … and shrank it to the town corporate limits of Jackson. We pulled 22 up (from Pinedale),” Gingery said.
“The rest of it south, I hope other people will come up with a better way,” he said, noting he does not like the boundary changes proposed for HD 20. But “the numbers drive it,” he said, noting some Sublette County have to be included in a district that crosses county lines.
Joint Corporations Committee member Rep. Alan Jaggi, HD18, R-Lyman, said people across the state want to see legislative district boundaries follow county lines as much as possible. But that is impossible to do and still meet the district population requirements of the “one person, one vote” principle.
“Rather than say, ‘Keep us whole,’ come up with a plan,” Jaggi said. “Everyone in the state says, ‘leave us alone.’”

For another report on this meeting, see the Jackson Hole Daily.

Medicaid is helpful and should be protected

Put the bat away

By Barb Rea
ESPC health policy volunteer

Advocates and providers who work with low income seniors and families and individuals with disabilities should be aware of what went on at the Wyoming Legislature’s Join t Labor, Health and Social Services Committee meeting May 9-10in Evanston.
I am concerned about the ongoing attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and the misguided belief that we can reform health care without the aid of a strong federal partner.
On the bright side, new committee members are getting intensive education from experts on health care and health reform.
Other aspects of the committee’s work were not so bright. Committee Co-Chairman Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, felt the need to add his personal interpretation to almost every piece of information presented. He painted Medicaid as a perennial problem in the state, and assured the committee that the new federal health care law, which he dismissively terms “Obamacare,” will be repealed or at least defunded. He also continues to portray his pet project, Healthy Frontiers, as a viable program which could be used to replace both Medicaid and the benefits offered in the new legislation.
The truth is that Medicaid is an efficient way to provide health care to many low income, elderly, blind and disabled individuals in Wyoming. Like the promise we made to the elderly with Medicare, Medicaid is the promise we made as a nation to provide healthcare to the poor, disabled, blind and elderly. Individuals who qualify for this program are guaranteed the right to comprehensive healthcare.
We learned from the experts testifying at the meeting that the federal taxes we pay in Wyoming are essentially subsidizing low-income care in other states. Wyoming’s Medicaid program has always provided bare minimum services to the fewest people possible under federal law. Other states use the program to leverage more federal dollars into their healthcare systems and provide more health care for people who would otherwise depend on emergency rooms when they are ill or injured.
Our state leadership seems intent on making sure we provide fewer services and use more state money to do it, just to send a message to Washington that we can do this ourselves.
Senator Scott used every opportunity to imply, incorrectly, that Medicaid enrollees tend to overuse the system and are always trying to game the system to get more than their fair share—making Medicaid more expensive than private coverage. At one point he digressed at some length about rules which would hypothetically allow mothers to quit their jobs so their children can qualify for Medicaid. Then, Scott said, the mothers are able to go get their jobs back and their children go right on receiving health care, “and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Scott’s attitude was bolstered by the state’s new Director of the Department of Family Services, Steve Corsi, who made a stunning assertion that 30% to 40% of people who enroll in Medicaid in Wyoming, come dressed like he was (black suit and new haircut) and driving an Escalade, “and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Senator Scott let the committee’s disgust percolate until Wyoming’s Medicaid Director, Teri Green, was able to question the validity of Mr. Corsi’s numbers. Mr. Corsi later apologized for using an inflammatory example and a “guesstimate.”
Later we learned from another presenter, that nationally less than 10% of Medicaid payments are claimed fraudulently, and in Wyoming the figure is less than 6%. Moreover, research tells us most of the fraud by far (80%) is committed by providers (primarily medical-device and pharmaceutical companies). Less than 10% of the fraud is committed by patients. Click here to read Health Insurance Fraud: An Overview
National research verifies that Medicaid is far less expensive than private coverage, but Sen. Scott continues to cite numbers to the contrary, numbers that have never been publicly vetted and do not seem logical to the people who manage Medicaid. (See below for links to this research)
Rather than persistently portraying Medicaid as a problem, the committee should be looking at Medicaid as a key component to stabilizing the entire health care system. It will help ensure that everyone has insurance coverage. Complete coverage, in turn, is part of the solution to stabilizing the market by eliminating the cost shifting that occurs when the uninsured seek and receive emergency care.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid eligibility will be simplified and expanded so that it covers all low-income people who earn up to 133% of federal poverty level ($1207/month). The state will be responsible for part of the cost of care for about 6,000 Wyoming individuals who are currently eligible for Medicaid but have not applied. These people are probably not enrolled because they are healthy, so they are not expected to add a huge burden to the state budget. The expansion of the program to finally include all low-income adults will be almost entirely paid for by the federal government (100% till 2017 and dropping to 90% in 2020).
Does it really make sense to opt out so our tax dollars can go to other states?
Don’t we want our poor citizens and blind neighbors to have access to the healthcare they need when they need it?
If Medicaid were privatized, as Senator Scott seems to be advocating, those federal matching dollars would disappear, and the costs would be shifted to state and county budgets or to those who pay premiums for private insurance. We would be paying both federal taxes that don’t come back to Wyoming and higher premiums.
If we want to accept the federal match available under the Affordable Care Act, we will have to guarantee that we will provide a program in Wyoming that will be at least as strong as the Affordable Care Act. We will have to pass a law that provides comprehensive coverage to all our citizens. Would we be able to achieve this with a private insurance industry that has been pushing poor and sick people off their roles systematically for decades? This practice is the reason we had to develop Medicaid and Medicare in the first place. We need those public programs to make our system work, and we need them now more than ever.
If we want our Medicaid program to run more efficiently, we should just ask Tom Forslund, our new, capable Director of the Health Department, to make it so, not try to reinvent the wheel. Medicaid will be a big part of our state budget because it serves an important function for our friends and neighbors who need healthcare and for those who provide healthcare services. We should prepare for the larger numbers it will cover instead of pretending poor people’s healthcare needs can be legislated away.

Links to Medicaid vs. private insurance research
“Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Market Place: Medicaid Payment per Enrollee by Acute and Long-Term Care, 2003 http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-15.cfm

“Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace: National Prescription Drug Expenditures, Percent by Type of Payer, 1994-2004” Kaiser Family Foundation http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-16.cfm

“Comparison of Expenditures in Nongroup and Employer-Sponsored Insurance” Kaiser Family Foundation http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm111006oth.cfm

“MEPS Topics: Health Care Costs/Expenditures” Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPS_topics.jsp?topicid=5Z-1

“Comparing Public and Private Health Insurance for Children” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities http://www.cbpp.org/files/5-11-07health.pdf

“Medicaid, Private Health Insurance and the Uninsured” John Holahan, The Urban Institute http://aspe.hhs.gov/medicaid/jan/Holahan.pdf

“Expanding Medicaid a Less Costly Way to cover More Low-Income Uninsured Than Expanding Private Insurance” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=429

“Administrative costs on Health Plans: A systematic review of current studies” Deloitte Center for Health Solutions http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/health-plans/1fdbe665e4e06210VgnVCM200000bb42f00aRCRD.htm


Editor's note: Barb Rea is an ESPC volunteer and represents the organization in the coalition Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare.

Wyo’s “Healthy Frontiers” pilot program will never replace Medicaid

By Sarah Gorin
ESPC health policy volunteer

Many Wyoming legislators derisively refer to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the federal health reforms) as “Obamacare.” This would be a humorous addition to the political debate if these same legislators had an alternative proposal, but at the moment the alternative appears to be “No Care.”

Much has been made of Wyoming’s pilot health care reform program, “Healthy Frontiers.” The program was initially funded by the 2010 Legislature, enrolled its first participants at the end of 2010, and received additional funding from the 2011 Legislature to expand to 200 participants.

Currently, Healthy Frontiers has enrolled just under 20 participants from the targeted pool – individuals participating in state job training programs, whose incomes are under 250% of the federal poverty level, and who live in Cheyenne or Casper (where selected medical providers have agreed to begin implementing the program).

Healthy Frontiers is a health care plan. It is important to understand that it is not health insurance. Healthy Frontiers emphasizes primary care and chronic disease management, with the goal of reducing medical costs over time by taking care of conditions before they develop into expensive crises. This logical approach is being implemented in many model programs across the country, and the ESPC has no quarrel with it.

But Healthy Frontiers also requires participants to pay into to a “personal health account” (not a health savings account for tax purposes), based on income. The ESPC has maintained from the beginning that the required contribution is unrealistically high, based on Wyoming’s Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard, which shows the incomes needed to support basic household expenses on a county-by-county basis.

The state also contributes to the personal health account as the client meets certain milestones in the program, such as establishing a relationship with a primary care provider and maintaining compliance with treatment regimens.

Further, the ESPC’s analysis shows that although program proponents hold out Healthy Frontiers as a cheaper alternative to Medicaid, it easily could cost the state more if fully implemented.

The rhetoric from some legislators and Governor Matt Mead about Healthy Frontiers is seriously overblown given the current status of the program. With only a handful of participants to date, and zero data on the workability of the financial requirements or on clinical outcomes, it is wildly premature to talk about this extraordinarily modest program as a substitute for anything.

The problem with the program is a microcosm of the larger health care issue. Americans have made a commitment to providing care to everyone, to not let their neighbors die in the street. But we haven’t yet figured out how to pay for that commitment.

The Affordable Care Act is the first step in that direction, trying to get everyone covered with public or private health insurance so they can pay for their care.

Healthy Frontiers clients earn a painfully low income. Since Healthy Frontiers is not health insurance, if its clients need care above and beyond what is provided by the program, the cost of that care will fall – unpaid – on Wyoming’s hospitals and private providers.

By contrast, Medicaid actually is insurance and pays providers for clients’ care. If you were a health care provider in Wyoming, which program would you like to see behind the consumers coming through the door?

Wyoming’s lawmakers need to lay aside political agendas and focus on solutions that will help our residents access quality health care when they need it and keep our state’s hospitals and providers solvent.

Microsoft carries the day with technology committee

The Legislature's Select Committee on Legislative Technology and Process voted Wednesday morning to adopt Microsoft's Exchange to handle its email system.

The executive branch recently chose Google but Legislative Service Office staffers believe the Microsoft platform provides more security and better integration with other technology plans, including the use of SharePoint.

In a memo to the committee, the LSO staffer Jamie Schaub made this assessment:

"After the 2011 General Session, we analyzed the extent to which Google could be integrated with SharePoint, because seamless integration with email is critical to provide automated workflows for many legislative processes as part of the new system. We determined that there are many features within SharePoint that we will not be able to fully utilize if we choose Google. We also believe we would add risk and uncertainty to our SharePoint project by trying to integrate a non-Microsoft solution for our email environment. Finally, there are several executive branch policies in place that could limit the use of legislators’ mobile devices if we use the executive branch’s system.

"Based on this analysis, we recommend selecting Microsoft Exchange as the legislative branch’s new email platform. Please let me know if you have any questions. We are very excited about the potential to create more efficient and effective technology support for the legislative branch through these initiatives. "

Sen. Leland Christensen, R-SD17, Alta, questioned the security of Microsoft's Hotmail versus Google. But LSO staffers said several states, including California, decided against using Google because of security problems.

The select committee set its next meeting June 29 to discuss its interim topics, which include
reviewing and recommending rule and process changes to improve the "open and transparent operations of the Legislature."

Thinking about drilling in the Hoback drainage

It shouldn't always boil down to the buck

Despite the industrialization of the Atlantic Rim, the Green River basin, and the Powder River Basin, I still find it hard to believe that this society will allow any company to go into a place like the Noble Basin and tear it up to produce natural gas.

But it does and we have to fight back. Think of Jim Bridger, Osborne Russell, the Muries, Tom Stroock and other lovers of wild lands spinning in their graves.

Citizens for the Wyoming Range continue to fight to protect this great part of Wyoming. Here's a note they're pushing. I hope others will join them.

Dan Smitherman of Citizens said this in a recent email:

Dear Citizens for the Wyoming Range Supporter,

As part of our campaign in the Upper Hoback, we have consistently highlighted the extraordinary wildlife values in this area and the recreational opportunities that exist for the public. Recently, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced a values mapping proposal that is intended to take input from hunters and create a GIS based database that agencies can use in wildlife management decisions.

Representatives from TRCP will be travelling throughout Wyoming during the summer months speaking to hunters and anglers, sporting groups, rod and gun clubs and conservation associations and asking for their input to help identify important hunting and fishing areas statewide. This is an opportunity for you to speak up for the wildlife values in the Upper Hoback.

Even if you do not hunt or fish in the Hoback, please attend one of the TRCP events and provide your input about conserving Wyoming’s important wildlife habitat.

The schedule for the first series of meetings is listed below. Additionally, TRCP contact information and more specifics are posted on the wyomingrange.org website. Here is the direct link:

http://www.wyomingrange.org/assets/files/TRCP%20hunting%20values%20project%201.pdf

TRCP is a wildlife focused conservation group that has supported our efforts to highlight the wildlife issues not adequately addressed by the current DEIS. I feel this is a worthwhile project by itself and will help further our campaign to protect the Upper Hoback.

Hunting values mapping project schedule

Rock Springs – Monday, April 18th at the Holiday Inn (1675 Sunset Drive), 7 pm – 9 pm.

Rawlins – Tuesday, April 19th at the Best Western Cottontree Inn (2221 West Spruce), 7 pm – 9 pm.

Laramie – Wednesday, April 20th at the Hilton Garden Inn (2229 Grand Avenue), 7 pm – 9 pm.

Cheyenne – Thursday, April 21st at the Holiday Inn (204 West Foxfarm Road), 7 pm – 9 pm.