tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54375541402618932462024-03-14T10:45:12.526-07:00Equality State WatchDan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-80051948996532433622012-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:002012-01-31T16:45:02.356-08:00Royalties on school trust land minerals<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Land Board eyes new policy on flared gas royalties</span></b><br />
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This week we’ll again talk to the Board of Land Commissioners about getting the royalties the state should on minerals produced from school trust lands.<br />
Once again, the board will rule on several lease extensions that again show the willingness of industry to pay higher royalties on these state-owned minerals. The Board of Land Commissioners <a href="http://slf-web.state.wy.us/osli/BoardMatters/2012/0212/SBLC0212.htm" target="_blank">meeting</a> starts at 8 a.m. Feb. 2 in Room B63 in the Herschler Building.<br />
The board also will consider a new policy regarding flaring of gas produced from wells on state lands. The Office of State Lands and Investments wants to reduce the amount of time that extractors and flare gas without paying royalties on that production. That proposed policy is the subject of a joint op-ed that the Equality State Policy Center, Wyoming PTA, and Wyoming Education Association have sent to Wyoming’s newspapers.<br />
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Here’s the op-ed:<br />
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<b><u>Wyo should take its royalties on natural gas extracted from school trust lands</u></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>By Marguerite Herman, Dan Neal, and Ken Decaria</b></span><br />
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This week the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners can decide to close a large loophole in the collection of royalties on natural gas produced on school trust lands that is simply burned off as a nuisance. Under current policy, millions of cubic feet of gas go up in smoke free of the royalties that are due to the trust and Wyoming school children, who are the beneficiaries.<br />
The <a href="http://slf-web.state.wy.us/osli/BoardMatters/2012/0212/e-12.pdf" target="_blank">proposed policy</a> will be considered for a board vote on Feb. 2. The proposal declares that the state will collect royalties on gas produced from school trust leases beginning 15 days after completion of a well. If producers get permission from the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission or any other body to vent or flare natural gas for a longer period, they must pay royalties unless the Land Board determines that circumstances justify extending the royalty-free flaring, according to the proposed policy.<br />
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In addition, the policy provides for extensions of this royalty-free disposition for up to 180 extra days, so producers have time to determine how commercially productive the well is and to make long-term plans for capturing and selling the gas.<br />
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The Office of State Lands and Investment would make the final determination of when a well is “completed” and production begins. Producers must maintain records of the volume and composition of flared or vented gas. Royalties will be calculated based on a weighted average sales price received for like gas. Producers won’t get a free pass on royalties just because they have permission from the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to flare. <br />
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At stake are millions of royalty dollars the state should be collecting on production from school trust lands, the land that the State of Wyoming is managing for the support of public schools. This is the land that was transferred to Wyoming at statehood in 1890 to be held in trust for schools. Currently, there are 3.2 million of surface acres and 3.9 million acres of subsurface minerals in the trust. They generated revenues of about $300 million to the Common School Income Fund, Permanent Land Fund and Capital Construction Account in fiscal 2011. Most of that is from mineral royalties.<br />
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The state has a fiduciary duty to ensure school trust lands make money for the beneficiaries, and that means making sure it captures royalty revenue from gas production, whether that gas is vented or flared or put in a pipeline. As OSLI Director Ryan Lance noted, the state gets one shot at that gas stream and royalty revenue. Once it goes up the flare stack, it’s gone. To let it go without collecting royalties is a clear violation of the fiduciary duty.<br />
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Certainly the 180-day extension is a too-generous concession to the industry, especially since the greatest volumes of gas often flow in the first days and weeks of production.<br />
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The Equality State Policy Center thinks even the 15-day grace period is inappropriate and contends the Office of State Lands and Investments should be collecting royalties on all production, as the State of Texas does.<br />
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As Mike May, senior auditor of Financial Compliance in the Texas General Land Office told the ESPC: “Our leases have language to the effect of ‘anything produced.’ … Disposition of the gas does not matter, whether it goes into a pipe or is flared.”<br />
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The Wyoming policy change was first proposed last October. The current form represents a fair amount of discussion and negotiation among Lance’s staff and producers with school trust leases. Meanwhile, flaring has continued. We are particularly concerned about the amount of flaring being done on school trust leases in the development of oil shale wells in the Niobrara formation in southeastern Wyoming.<br />
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How much is there? The volume reported to the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission over the past two years from state land wells is about 412 million cubic feet. That reported flaring and venting conservatively is worth about $250,000 in royalties. Production is on the increase, and it’s time to approve a policy that will make sure the royalties that are due are paid.<br />
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<i>Marguerite Herman is legislative chair for the Wyoming PTA. Ken Decaria serves the Wyoming Education Association as its governmental affairs director. Dan Neal is executive director of the Equality State Policy Center. </i>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-13905710524229151372012-01-23T11:11:00.000-08:002012-01-23T11:11:21.178-08:00What consumers want in an insurance exchange<span style="font-size: x-large;">Consumers want purchasing power</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A Reality Check from Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare </span><br />
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<i>Our friends at Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare offer the following guidelines and resources for consumers tracking the state's development of the insurance exchange required under the Affordable Care Act. The Governor's Office has scheduled a series of townhall meetings across the state to take comment on the exchange concept and on healthcare issues generally.</i><br />
<i> Meetings are set in three towns this week, including Gillette, Evansville, and Cheyenne. All meetings start at 6 p.m. and end at 8 p.m.</i><br />
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<ul><li><i> Jan. 23 in Gillette at the Gillette College Presidential Hall.</i></li>
<li><i>Jan. 24 in Evansville at the Community Center.</i></li>
<li><i>Jan. 25 in Cheyenne at Laramie County Community College's Centennial Room 130</i></li>
</ul><i>CAPH's assessment on insurance exchanges:</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimapBxUV75QzEJq0WbuCs27hj9dzdUoZysuhIPS2-z8cpt-lFzXLp8aOgZ6f-Iwg2WlQ32mQEGIXF5jYGBOK0E0ZqrtzpZNBY9Q4X5fIQ64e8zsD7usErBN5MJxha_DaCwbxq-bbmqUvAL/s1600/CAPH+logo+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimapBxUV75QzEJq0WbuCs27hj9dzdUoZysuhIPS2-z8cpt-lFzXLp8aOgZ6f-Iwg2WlQ32mQEGIXF5jYGBOK0E0ZqrtzpZNBY9Q4X5fIQ64e8zsD7usErBN5MJxha_DaCwbxq-bbmqUvAL/s200/CAPH+logo+low+res.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Every dollar in the healthcare system comes from consumers’ pockets whether through premiums, direct payments to providers or income taxes that fund Medicare and Medicaid. But we consumers rarely have enough information to actively influence this sector of the economy.<br />
The new federal healthcare law begins to change that. While some insurance reforms have already been implemented a major change will begin on Jan. 1, 2014, when every state must have a new health insurance marketplace where individuals and small businesses can buy insurance. A well-designed insurance exchange will give us access to the information we need to make discerning choices and that should motivate insurance companies to begin to actively compete for our business and loyalty. <br />
Wyoming must decide whether to build its own exchange, partner with other states or partner with the federal government to operate our exchange, CAPH urges decision-makers to focus on consumers and maximize this opportunity to strengthen benefits and provide important protections for all Wyoming citizens.<br />
Should the state establish its own exchange? CAPH believes the state should avoid putting into place a system designed by insurance companies. Let’s explore a federal /state partnership designed to deliver benefits of the exchange to citizens in a timely way with the ultimate goal of moving operations from the federal to the state level over time.<br />
We support the ‘no wrong door’ approach. This allows people (individuals, families and small businesses) to find insurance no matter their income or where they start their search. A single application will determine eligibility for public programs, calculate subsidies for those making less than 400% of federal poverty level or determine if an individual is exempt from the mandate to buy coverage. Exchanges should create a seamless interface with Medicaid and plan for continuity of care for those individuals moving between private and public insurance as income fluctuates.<br />
Essential benefits should be as robust as possible to protect individuals from being under-insured. Consumers just want insurance to work—to pay for the care we need when we need it and it should protect our assets, so we don’t lose our homes or savings if we get sick or injured. No tricks. No surprises. No gotchas. All insurance products sold in the exchange will provide a standard benefit package that provides comprehensive coverage. Deductibles and co-pays will vary but will be clearly labeled so consumers know exactly what part of healthcare costs are their responsibility. This standardization will make plans easier to compare and provide the security insurance was meant to provide.<br />
Insurance rules must ensure transparency and accountability. Consumers should have access to all information that enables them to weigh the value of their plans such as how much of premiums are actually spent on medical claims vs. overhead, how often rate increases are requested, timeliness of claims payments and how often claims are denied and why. Consumer reviews and experiences should be easily accessible to all purchasers at the point of sale much like consumer reviews at internet travel sites.<br />
Create and enforce strong private insurance rules and guard against adverse selection. The state can make sure the same quality standards apply to all insurance plans, whether in the exchange or not. This guards against the possibility that cheap, low- value plans will draw healthy people outside the exchange. An exchange with only sick people will cause prices to soar and undermine the success of the exchange.<br />
Reserve the right for the exchange to serve as an active purchaser and not just accept all products offered for sale in the exchange. Exchange administrators in Wyoming should be able – if they choose – to negotiate prices on plans that meet quality and value standards. This may be challenging in such a small state, but we should make sure it’s an option. This will help maximize market clout for consumers. <br />
Provide strong consumer advocates and ensure pro-consumer leadership. Many customers will need help navigating the exchange and understanding all the decisions to be made in buying insurance. People designing and operating the Wyoming exchange should continually evaluate consumer satisfaction and use consumer concerns to guide ongoing improvement of the system. Consumers want expert, pro-consumer leadership that can go toe-to-toe with insurers and industry representatives. <br />
Exchanges should help to make healthcare in Wyoming more effective and efficient. Consumers expect to share in the overall goals of health reform: cost savings and improved quality of care. <br />
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For more information on health reform and exchanges, check out these websites and articles: <a href="http://wyoprojecthealthcare.com/">Wyoprojecthealthcare.com</a> - Consumers can share their own healthcare stories here<br />
Community Catalyst - Exchanges: Top Ten Priorities for Consumer Advocates<br />
<a href="http://www.communitycatalyst.org/doc_store/publications/Exchanges_Top_Ten.pdf">http://www.communitycatalyst.org/doc_store/publications/Exchanges_Top_Ten.pdf</a><br />
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Kaiser Family Foundation --Explaining Healthcare Reform: what are insurance exchanges?<br />
<a href="http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7908.pdf">http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7908.pdf</a><br />
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Families USA—Benefits of Exchanges<br />
<a href="http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/health-reform/Benefits-of-Exchanges.pdf">http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/health-reform/Benefits-of-Exchanges.pdf</a><br />
National Academy for State Health Policy—Health Insurance Exchange Basics<br />
<a href="http://www.nashp.org/sites/default/files/health.insurance.exchange.basics.pdf">http://www.nashp.org/sites/default/files/health.insurance.exchange.basics.pdf</a><br />
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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities—An analysis of state exchange <a href="legislationhttp://www.cbpp.org/files/CBPP-Analysis-of-Exchange-Legislation-Establishment-and-Governance.pdf">legislationhttp://www.cbpp.org/files/CBPP-Analysis-of-Exchange-Legislation-Establishment-and-Governance.pdf</a><br />
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</div>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-51740243342512312192012-01-13T15:45:00.000-08:002012-01-13T15:45:20.980-08:00Wyoming celebrates MLK/Equality Day<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rez Action sets march, speeches in Riverton</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">Other events planned in Casper, Cheyenne, and Laramie</span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ-JFzj8VjxdpSMoE0GlArD_KBmd57gGgssfcucKMzshx00u410w7RNrTrrg2twSMsey4cDXVtjH9592MCHe_XIv0AE0vsYMTO7ckXI-fnA1CA2DAxJp4kBc7VOXPNNJpVcCxw6R85sVbD/s1600/draft_poster_MLK-W200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ-JFzj8VjxdpSMoE0GlArD_KBmd57gGgssfcucKMzshx00u410w7RNrTrrg2twSMsey4cDXVtjH9592MCHe_XIv0AE0vsYMTO7ckXI-fnA1CA2DAxJp4kBc7VOXPNNJpVcCxw6R85sVbD/s1600/draft_poster_MLK-W200.jpg" /></a></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">State residents will celebrate Martin Luther King Day with in communities across Wyoming including in Riverton where Rez Action, a group working with the Equality State Policy Center, plans a march and speeches by three leaders of the Wind River tribes.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">“We invite all those who want to celebrate equality to march with us to honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” a news release from the organizers says. “We march in celebration of equality and Dr. King’s vision of ‘that all of us will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.’”</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Other events are planned in Laramie and Casper.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Tribal members Micah Lott and Molly Holt are two of the Rez Action members staging Monday’s “<a href="http://county10.com/wrir-groups-to-participate-in-several-mlkequality-day-events-in-riverton-casper/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150510020248279_21054056_10150514799623279#f18611f5c" target="_blank">Embrace Equality Celebrate Diversity</a>” event in Riverton. Participants will rendezvous at 1 p.m. at City Park for the march to City Hall.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">State Rep. Patrick Goggles, the House minority leader who represents HD33, will speak as well as former state representative Scott Ratliff, now an special assistant on Native American issues to U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, Northern Arapaho tribal liaison Gary Collins, and Riverton activist Cody Green.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">For information, please contact Micah Lott at 307-851-1344 or micah.lott93@gmail.com. Rez Action members describe the group as an organization of “dedicated activists who fight social injustice, discrimination, and advocate for a healthy environment.”</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">The Casper NAACP will host the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day March and Rally starting at 11 a.m. at Casper’s City Park at Center and 7th streets. Marchers will walk to the United Methodist Church downtown. Eastern Shoshone Tribal elder Ivan Posey will speak. Members of the Wind River Unity Youth Council will participate as dancers with the Scout River Drum Group. Following a soup lunch at the church, the Unity group will conduct a workshop at 1 p.m.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">In Casper, contact Nurieh Glasgow at 234-3428 or Janet de Vries at 268-2446 for more information.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">A third march is planned on Jan. 16 in Laramie. Marchers will walk from the Albany County Courthouse to the University of Wyoming Student Union starting at 4 p.m. followed by a supper in the union ballroom. As part of its Martin Luther King Jr./Days of Dialogue, actor Hill Harper will speak at 1 pm. Jan 18 at the Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences auditorium. A full schedule of events is available <a href="http://mlkdod.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">In Cheyenne, a march is planned at Noon from the old Union Pacific Railroad Depot up Capitol Avenue to the state Capitol. Gov. Matt Mead and Mayor Rick Kaysen will speak along with State Auditor Cynthia Cloud, and State Supt. of Public Instruction Cindy Hill. The march is being organized by the Love and Charity Club. Contact moderator Rita Watson at 307-632-2338 for more information.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5aFA45diqHxUKQSUy9yUwlAiKKmpJkdXGTvg66iWpAXIrzfKXchpITXktdhkjdlNm67wvR5AtRe_5TeAI-F30f3dDNFH3BrG3Btbr9y5Dhyh6mizA6qOnI_ki1At-GB1tOtaOfVpxGWT3/s1600/Left+to+right+facing+-+Adrienne+Vetter%252C+Molly+Holt%252C+L%2527Dawn+Olsen-W260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5aFA45diqHxUKQSUy9yUwlAiKKmpJkdXGTvg66iWpAXIrzfKXchpITXktdhkjdlNm67wvR5AtRe_5TeAI-F30f3dDNFH3BrG3Btbr9y5Dhyh6mizA6qOnI_ki1At-GB1tOtaOfVpxGWT3/s1600/Left+to+right+facing+-+Adrienne+Vetter%252C+Molly+Holt%252C+L%2527Dawn+Olsen-W260.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adrenne Vetter, Molly Holt, and L'Dawn Olsen prepare <br />
banners for the "Embrace Equality" march in Riverton</td></tr>
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</span></div>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-45157045160249779482011-12-23T14:14:00.000-08:002011-12-23T14:14:06.661-08:00Job quality standards needed in Wyo<span style="font-size: x-large;">Let’s make good deals, not just give away millions </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Economic Development Association pushes back on criticism of state business subsidy programs</i></span><br />
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Earlier this month, the Equality State Policy Center joined with <a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/" target="_blank">Good Jobs First </a>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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <a href="http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/cheyenne-leads-critical-recent-report" target="_blank">complained recently</a> but did not address the specific criticism. It claimed that “… all of these programs have job criteria.”<br />
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We disagree.<br />
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The Good Jobs First report analyzed four state programs:<br />
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<ol><li>Data Processing Center – sales/use tax exemption on computing equipment;</li>
<li>Film Industry Financial Incentive;</li>
<li>Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Purchases of Manufacturing Equipment;</li>
<li>Workforce Development Training Fund.</li>
</ol><br />
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 <a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/moneyforsomethingwy.pdf" target="_blank">scored poorly</a> in the GJF report because it is not structured to require training of a certain number of workers.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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 <a href="http://article.wn.com/view/2010/05/04/Frontier_Oil_lays_off_12_more_at_Cheyenne_refinery_as_benefi/" target="_blank">news stories</a> based on company-supplied information.<br />
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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.<br />
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Gov. Mead has asked the Legislature to appropriate another <a href="http://governor.wy.gov/media/pressReleases/Pages/GovernorMeadProposesReductioninOngoingSpendingWhileMakingImportantInvestments.aspx" target="_blank">$15 million to attract data processing centers</a> 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.<br />
<br />
It’s reasonable to demand a fair return on public investment in the private sector.<br />
<br />
(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 <a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/moneyforsomethingprrel.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.)Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-39346213859557959892011-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:002011-12-12T09:26:52.220-08:00Will all state senators have to stand for election following redistricting?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYShV_Zk0wdz9i9tZeKnxXfyMoC68y7kCf1HmU4QjHc0m4qMo8niTMgedjEiQ4rK0iY5MA0xahEch61nvcMocFq-ypRqO-HS5NJx1hGeFRLhZRkrLL1CH2RFyBrm-OCn_qVpAgNt4OaPFF/s1600/Jobsite+Oct+21+064_Patton-W260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYShV_Zk0wdz9i9tZeKnxXfyMoC68y7kCf1HmU4QjHc0m4qMo8niTMgedjEiQ4rK0iY5MA0xahEch61nvcMocFq-ypRqO-HS5NJx1hGeFRLhZRkrLL1CH2RFyBrm-OCn_qVpAgNt4OaPFF/s320/Jobsite+Oct+21+064_Patton-W260.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rep. John Patton of Sheridan talks during the Joint Corporations <br />
Committee meeting in Room 302 of the Capitol Dec. 6.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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.”<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.)<br />
<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
<br />
The committee’s redistricting <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Committee%20House%20Plan%2012711" target="_blank">House</a> and <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Committee%20Senate%20Plan%2012711" target="_blank">Senate </a>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.<br />
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Final action will take place during the 2012 Legislature.<br />
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</div>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-8350281400902025592011-12-04T21:19:00.000-08:002011-12-04T21:19:27.556-08:00Wyoming Legislature<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Redistricting options proliferate</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>County clerks offer second statewide plan; other new options surface for Southwest Wyoming and Laramie County</i></span><br />
<br />
Wyoming’s legislative redistricting effort will take the stage again Monday with new plans added to the mix.<br />
Three more plans have been posted on the Legislature's website, including a new plan drawn up by the <a href="http://edistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=County%20Clerks%202" target="_blank">County Clerks</a> and a new <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Southwest%20Alternative" target="_blank">alternative plan</a> 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.<br />
A third new plan for Laramie County also has been posted on the Legislative Service Office's website.<br />
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 <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/InterimCommittee/2011/07AGD1205.htm" target="_blank">agenda</a>.<br />
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.<br />
Districts must shift accordingly, though legislators have considerable discretion in doing so.<br />
<br />
<b>House District 22 in western Wyoming</b><br />
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.<br />
Wilson and Pinedale residents have been clear that they don’t share a significant community of interest and want to be separated.<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b>Eastern Wyoming</b><br />
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. <i>(Analyst's caveat: The plan appears to do this but this is a cursory comparison with other plans.)</i><br />
<br />
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.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-26085430272470645412011-12-01T20:33:00.000-08:002011-12-04T19:10:46.121-08:00Redistricting plans enter last phase<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Corporations Committee readies two state plans</span></b><br />
<br />
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. <br />
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. <br />
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.<br />
Districts must shift accordingly, though legislators have considerable discretion in doing so.<br />
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.<br />
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 <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/Redistricting/LegilativeRedistricting.aspx" target="_blank">website</a>. <br />
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.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gerrymander in western Wyoming</b></span><br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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?<br />
The two committee proposals on the LSO site show distinctly different approaches to resolving these shifts in eastern Wyoming.<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Plenty of action ahead</span></b><br />
The committee could finalize its redistricting bill at the coming meeting or schedule a final meeting prior to the session.<br />
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.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-86079209680277270902011-11-10T23:19:00.000-08:002011-11-10T23:19:12.375-08:00School Trust Lands and Gas Flaring<div><br />
<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Trust responsibilities spur state action on industry's gas burning</span></b></div><div><br />
</div><div><i>State Lands Office may impose royalty without sale of natural gas extracted from Trust lands</i></div><br />
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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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><i>A quick primer on School Trust Lands</i></b></div><div>Marguerite Herman of Cheyenne is the president-elect of the Children’s Land Alliance Supporting Schools <a href="http://www.childrenslandalliance.com/class.php">(CLASS)</a>, 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.</div><div>“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.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJISsKqJVdoi8kEV7QTiRNfmH-ipp2g7cCVPcIurccjvNHTgeF83lPpZub-RgD6atHHxG_nMhUqwPFVa8tB_YR6V2dNy4fybOr5t_bwTvp4CBhVGHl_q6g9cMqZpZgh1SQZWApho1jcbVb/s1600/CLASS+graphic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJISsKqJVdoi8kEV7QTiRNfmH-ipp2g7cCVPcIurccjvNHTgeF83lPpZub-RgD6atHHxG_nMhUqwPFVa8tB_YR6V2dNy4fybOr5t_bwTvp4CBhVGHl_q6g9cMqZpZgh1SQZWApho1jcbVb/s400/CLASS+graphic.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This graphic from the CLASS website shows income generated for public schools from state land trusts.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>Meeting at the OGCC in Casper</b></div><div>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.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>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 <a href="http://wyofile.com/2011/11/up-in-smoke-how-much-state-gas-will-be-flared-without-taxation/" target="_blank">WyoFile</a> and the Casper <a href="http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/regulators-industry-seek-common-ground-on-gas-flaring/article_4964246c-7688-5f87-8514-aed209fe7239.html" target="_blank">Star-Tribune </a>reported the meeting.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>OGCC obligated to prevent waste</b></div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.”</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div>“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.”</div><div><br />
</div><div>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.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>Lance promises a proposal</b></div><div>Before the group adjourned, Lance said he would put together a proposal for review that would include:</div><div><ul><li>Working with OGCC to determine when completion has occurred;</li>
<li>After completion, requiring a company to request permission for royalty-free flaring;</li>
<li>Allowing administrative approval of continued flaring, a decision that would depend on “the functional parameters’ of each individual well;</li>
<li>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;</li>
<li>Recognizing the Board of Land Commissioners’ full control of its duty to the School Trust.</li>
</ul></div><div><br />
</div><div>When the proposal goes to industry, Lance said he wants “an iterative process” that protects the trust asset both short- and long-term.</div><div><br />
</div><div>“We’ll go back, craft something up and we’ll circulate it,” he told the group.</div><div><br />
</div><div></div><div></div>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-47671262322987274072011-10-20T10:33:00.000-07:002011-10-20T10:48:33.309-07:00Redistricting tensions build<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Committee ready to begin drawing lines</span><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The committee will take care of <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/InterimCommittee/2011/07AGD1020.htm">some other business</a> 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.<br /><br />The committee is meeting at the UW Outreach Building, 951 N. Poplar Street, across from the Casper Planetarium.<br /><br />The ESPC has tracked the committee as it has held community meetings across the state. As we noted <a href="http://equalitystatewatch.blogspot.com/2011/07/redistricting-effort-stirs-local.html">in July</a> 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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Other areas saw population declines.<br /><br />There are now a dozen plans posted on the <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/Redistricting/LegilativeRedistricting.aspx">Legislature’s website</a>. 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Geographically, it would be the largest House district in the state. Steward’s <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Steward%201">own plan</a> 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.<br /><br />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.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-69371691767923040572011-08-29T15:52:00.000-07:002011-08-29T15:57:08.873-07:00Revenue Committee eyes tax exemptions<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Better reporting needed on sales tax incentives
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />At the end of Friday’s meeting of the Revenue Committee, Senate Chairman John Hines reminded the committee that its <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2011/Interim%20Studies/2011Studies.pdf">Priority #1</a> for the interim is "consideration of overall tax policies and tax initiatives which impact state economic development."
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<br />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.
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<br />"They're not useful to answer the question," he told the committee.
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<br />The reports, he said, don't demonstrate whether the tax exemption influences behavior to a degree that would not occur without the exemption.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />The WBC long has advocated for various exemptions because they consider them necessary tools or “incentives” to attract companies to Wyoming.
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<br />Sen. Drew Perkins suggested the state should hire a respected national consultant to do the evaluation.
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<br />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.
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<br />He said that in internal consultations the department decided to answer two basic questions about tax exemptions:
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<br /><ol><li>What does the exemption cost the state (and local governments, which share in revenues)?</li><li>What do we get for it?
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<br />Chairman Hines asked Noble and Taylor to present a report at the committee's October meeting or as soon as possible otherwise.
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<br />Case jumped in to say, "This is a really important area. The Legislature has not done a good job of providing leadership on this."
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<br />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.
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<br />Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-4432463353367194192011-08-24T09:10:00.000-07:002011-08-24T09:30:55.676-07:00Casper forum will analyze Affordable Care Act<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Just the Facts Please</span>
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">By Barb Rea, </span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">ESPC Health Issues Volunteer</span></span>
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<br />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.
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<br />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
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />Will health reform solve these problems and many others? Not without constant attention.
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<br />An educated public can:
<br /><ul><li>help move the discussion from one that polarizes and paralyses to one that solves real problems;</li><li>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.
<br /></li></ul>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.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">September conference offers facts on ACA</span></span>
<br />Several agencies and organizations have come together as One Health Voice to provide a <a href="http://www.equalitystate.org/PDFs/OHV_Press_Release.pdf">forum</a> 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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />The conference is open to everyone.
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<br />You can register on line at <a href="http://onehealthvoice.com/">www.OneHealthVoice.com</a> or contact LRosedahl@pubaffairsco.com.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">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.</span></span>
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<br />Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-91633510903567255272011-07-16T13:56:00.000-07:002011-07-18T20:14:56.610-07:00Redistricting effort stirs local worries<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkumLjuT5B7oi-jBawFrXCDFQ-I_LXvEXs57zcOrPbt-sc83Yw7YVGfzrmUkt_46PqFPSDapF-sVc9_s1CJCGFjGlxAIyTCOTpg7GU4QQ1sw4kEKibvtjS1cEDaIHpCxPk2vKbYu5bka-/s1600/ESPC_Logo_MaroonBars-W200.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 181px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkumLjuT5B7oi-jBawFrXCDFQ-I_LXvEXs57zcOrPbt-sc83Yw7YVGfzrmUkt_46PqFPSDapF-sVc9_s1CJCGFjGlxAIyTCOTpg7GU4QQ1sw4kEKibvtjS1cEDaIHpCxPk2vKbYu5bka-/s200/ESPC_Logo_MaroonBars-W200.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630061553919017874" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">'One person, one vote' standard must drive redistricting of Wyo Legislature</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Local plans reflect different definitions of 'community of interest' concept</span></span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />Elected officials in <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Natrona%201">Natrona</a> and <a href="http://redistricting.state.wy.us/planviewer/ViewPlan.aspx?plan=Albany%201">Albany</a> 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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">County clerks will draft a plan</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />With more splitting of precincts, she said, it becomes more likely a voter will get the wrong ballot “and that is called fraud.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Challenge the deviation standard?</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The ESPC supports the deviation standard and opposes any exceptions. We will work to ensure that all Wyoming citizens have equal representation.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Plans posted on LSO website</span><br /><br />The Legislative Service Office is making an excellent effort to provide <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/Redistricting/LegilativeRedistricting.aspx">information about redistricting</a>. 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 <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/Redistricting/County%20by%20County%20Statewide%20%20%20Plan.pdf">statewide plan</a> that also is available.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-15423936985232448092011-06-08T13:44:00.000-07:002011-06-10T08:29:11.080-07:00Wyoming needs right return on its oil & gas<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >State deserves higher royalty rate option</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Public hearing June 10 in Cheyenne</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />The office <a href="http://slf-web.state.wy.us/osli/NewsNotices/Oil&GasLeaseMeeting.pdf">announced </a>the meeting a week ago:<br /><br />"A meeting by and between the Office of State Lands & Investments and the Petroleum<br />Association of Wyoming and other interested parties will be held Friday, June 10, 2011,<br />2:00-5:00 p.m. The meeting will convene in the Herschler Building, Room 1699 and is<br />open to the public. The purpose of the meeting is to review and finalize proposed revisions<br />to the State of Wyoming’s Oil & Gas Lease Form."<br /><div style="text-align: center;">*****<br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-weight: bold;">Friday June 10 update</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"> 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: <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Once it's gone, it's gone.</span></span><br />*****<br /></div>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.<br /><br />Then Gov. Dave Freudenthal suggested in November that the proposed increase be postponed until Gov.-elect Matt Mead took office. <a href="http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f879d88e-c2a0-53be-869f-69495903c740.html">He also said</a> the four other members of the Board of Land Commissioners opposed proceeding with a vote scheduled last Dec. 9.<br /><br />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."<br /><br />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 <a href="http://slf-web.state.wy.us/osli/BoardMatters/2011/0611/e-20.pdf">analysis</a> prepared for the Board of Land Commissioners' June 2 meeting, the staff wrote:<br />"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."<br /><br />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.<br /><br />State royalties largely go to support the public school system.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-22732658856492306872011-05-28T05:44:00.000-07:002011-05-28T06:05:10.280-07:00'One person, one vote' means change<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXBRLmvareD9pkyPGjhLKlJ9rZJ5qtsjUiAN4HIaR3acDs5RXwPlyvQqsJrc9R4eKCFGwn64ql0pyJJZLaa7_sF8nDNtfwLYQmnr_cBtKyoityiGyX3AYHWR6XBo_bDvg1xPV_i7BmgT0/s1600/Legislature+Feb+22+2011+004-W260.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXBRLmvareD9pkyPGjhLKlJ9rZJ5qtsjUiAN4HIaR3acDs5RXwPlyvQqsJrc9R4eKCFGwn64ql0pyJJZLaa7_sF8nDNtfwLYQmnr_cBtKyoityiGyX3AYHWR6XBo_bDvg1xPV_i7BmgT0/s200/Legislature+Feb+22+2011+004-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611752074524237362" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Tensions arise with first proposals for new district lines</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Teton County proposal will ripple across southwest Wyo legislative districts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Dan Neal</span><br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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 <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/Redistricting/house%20and%20senate%20percent%20difference%20table.pdf">nearly equal in populatio</a>n to ensure that each voter wields roughly equal power in legislative elections.<br />Since population grew in some areas of the state and declined in others since the 2000 Census, legislative district boundaries must change to reflect <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/Redistricting/County%20Population%20Change.pdf">those shifts</a>. 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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.”<br />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.”<br />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 <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/Redistricting/Adopted%202011%20Redistricting%20Principles%204-12-11.pdf">Principles of Interest</a> on the Legislative Service Office website.)<br /> 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.<br />“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.<br />“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.<br />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.<br />“Rather than say, ‘Keep us whole,’ come up with a plan,” Jaggi said. “Everyone in the state says, ‘leave us alone.’”<br /><br />For another report on this meeting, see the <a href="http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=7342">Jackson Hole Daily</a>.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-25901490032682527332011-05-22T13:29:00.000-07:002011-05-22T13:45:35.369-07:00Medicaid is helpful and should be protected<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtrXldDr8AW2AktGr4dlDrQCOjc9VB32j5dqJnSnm7HYjN6egBqtFKUxRGE9sWxoldaJtBQVOBCieCb9Mz6QUEm13K-V2Vet3YEYT1v9P7nj0H5ss24PC3D9NdtnvbQHII5uF562s1Gqn/s1600/CAPH+logo+low+res.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 143px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtrXldDr8AW2AktGr4dlDrQCOjc9VB32j5dqJnSnm7HYjN6egBqtFKUxRGE9sWxoldaJtBQVOBCieCb9Mz6QUEm13K-V2Vet3YEYT1v9P7nj0H5ss24PC3D9NdtnvbQHII5uF562s1Gqn/s200/CAPH+logo+low+res.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609643948938564114" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Put the bat away </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Barb Rea</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >ESPC health policy volunteer</span><br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />On the bright side, new committee members are getting intensive education from experts on health care and health reform.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.”<br />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.”<br />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.”<br />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. <a href="http://www.scmedicalmalpractice.com/Articles/Health-Insurance-Fraud-Article.pdf">Click here</a> to read <span style="font-style: italic;">Health Insurance Fraud: An Overview</span><br />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)<br />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.<br />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).<br />Does it really make sense to opt out so our tax dollars can go to other states?<br />Don’t we want our poor citizens and blind neighbors to have access to the healthcare they need when they need it?<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Links to Medicaid vs. private insurance research<br />“Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Market Place: Medicaid Payment per Enrollee by Acute and Long-Term Care, 2003 <a href="http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-15.cfm">http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-15.cfm</a><br /><br />“Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace: National Prescription Drug Expenditures, Percent by Type of Payer, 1994-2004” Kaiser Family Foundation <a href="http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-16.cfm">http://www.kff.org/insurance/7031/ti2004-1-16.cfm</a><br /><br />“Comparison of Expenditures in Nongroup and Employer-Sponsored Insurance” Kaiser Family Foundation <a href="http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm111006oth.cfm">http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm111006oth.cfm</a><br /><br />“MEPS Topics: Health Care Costs/Expenditures” Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality <a href="http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPS_topics.jsp?topicid=5Z-1">http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPS_topics.jsp?topicid=5Z-1</a><br /><br />“Comparing Public and Private Health Insurance for Children” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/files/5-11-07health.pdf">http://www.cbpp.org/files/5-11-07health.pdf</a><br /><br />“Medicaid, Private Health Insurance and the Uninsured” John Holahan, The Urban Institute <a href="http://aspe.hhs.gov/medicaid/jan/Holahan.pdf">http://aspe.hhs.gov/medicaid/jan/Holahan.pdf</a><br /><br />“Expanding Medicaid a Less Costly Way to cover More Low-Income Uninsured Than Expanding Private Insurance” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=429">http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=429</a><br /><br />“Administrative costs on Health Plans: A systematic review of current studies” Deloitte Center for Health Solutions <a href="http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/health-plans/1fdbe665e4e06210VgnVCM200000bb42f00aRCRD.htm">http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/health-plans/1fdbe665e4e06210VgnVCM200000bb42f00aRCRD.htm</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:78%;" >Editor's note: Barb Rea is an ESPC volunteer and represents the organization in the coalition Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare.</span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-31349361501411499752011-05-09T13:11:00.000-07:002011-05-09T13:22:41.009-07:00Wyo’s “Healthy Frontiers” pilot program will never replace Medicaid<span style="font-weight: bold;">By Sarah Gorin</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">ESPC health policy volunteer </span><br /><br /> 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.”<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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).<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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 <a href="http://wyomingworkforce.org/resources/tools_sscalc.aspx">Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard</a>, which shows the incomes needed to support basic household expenses on a county-by-county basis.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /><br /> The <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_7f5059be-46e5-11e0-8808-001cc4c002e0.html">rhetoric from some legislators and Governor Matt Mead</a> 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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?<br /><br /> 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.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-30163339358995329552011-05-04T10:06:00.000-07:002011-05-04T10:27:15.678-07:00Microsoft carries the day with technology committeeThe Legislature's Select Committee on Legislative Technology and Process voted Wednesday morning to adopt Microsoft's Exchange to handle its email system.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />In a <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/InterimCommittee/2011/SLTEMAIL.pdf">memo to the committee</a>, the LSO staffer Jamie Schaub made this assessment:<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"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. "<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The select committee set its next meeting June 29 to discuss its <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2011/Interim%20Studies/2011Studies.pdf">interim topics</a>, which include<br />reviewing and recommending rule and process changes to improve the "open and transparent operations of the Legislature."Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-23233972579832506342011-04-15T16:41:00.000-07:002011-04-15T16:52:57.779-07:00Thinking about drilling in the Hoback drainage<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >It shouldn't always boil down to the buck</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Citizens for the Wyoming Range continue to fight to protect this great part of Wyoming. Here's a note they're pushing. 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mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText">Dear Citizens for the Wyoming Range Supporter,</p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>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. </p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"> 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.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"> 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. </p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"> 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:</p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"> <a href="http://www.wyomingrange.org/assets/files/TRCP%20hunting%20values%20project%201.pdf">http://www.wyomingrange.org/assets/files/TRCP%20hunting%20values%20project%201.pdf</a></p><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoPlainText"> 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.</p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hunting values mapping project schedule </span></span><p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rock Springs</span> – Monday, April 18th at the Holiday Inn (1675 Sunset Drive), 7 pm – 9 pm. </p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rawlins</span> – Tuesday, April 19th at the Best Western Cottontree Inn (2221 West Spruce), 7 pm – 9 pm. </p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Laramie</span> – Wednesday, April 20th at the Hilton Garden Inn (2229 Grand Avenue), 7 pm – 9 pm. </p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cheyenne</span> – Thursday, April 21st at the Holiday Inn (204 West Foxfarm Road), 7 pm – 9 pm.</p>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-41887201312314116632011-03-31T04:49:00.000-07:002011-03-31T05:08:47.749-07:00The ESPC in Washington, DC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21gRh7zg0bBWe-F5xUMOAcc6rXk65TJsvuRfeBtvMQtPs369-vchvOV3KjjD31fPHTlZzdtncS2obIDcK7Af0D06q2SqIC1pf5MF1ekhrNbXYL2VL95O7-0Su2LJG7cpJob1Ldx45jZ75/s1600/Barrasso+in+Enzi+office-W260.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21gRh7zg0bBWe-F5xUMOAcc6rXk65TJsvuRfeBtvMQtPs369-vchvOV3KjjD31fPHTlZzdtncS2obIDcK7Af0D06q2SqIC1pf5MF1ekhrNbXYL2VL95O7-0Su2LJG7cpJob1Ldx45jZ75/s200/Barrasso+in+Enzi+office-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590210863166281730" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >ESPC joins effort to oppose budget cuts that threaten recovery</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Appeals to Congress to promote economic security of families<br /></span><br />Here’s the basic argument we’re making to Wyoming’s Congressional delegation as they move forward on the current effort to put together a FY 2011 budget deal. Congress needs to reach the deal before an April 8 deadline, when current temporary spending authorizations expire and we could all see a shutdown of government.<br /><br />As our political leaders struggle to meet this deadline, we’ve joined other advocates from around the country in Washington, D.C. to warn Congress about the impact of cuts that threaten the economic security of families and senior citizens.<br /><br />We spoke with Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso Wednesday morning and will meet with Congresswoman Lummis’ staff this afternoon (March 31). Other groups from around the country will meet with their members of Congress as part of a three-day organizing meeting hosted by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a national organization that works to achieve economic security and independence for families.<br /><br />The cuts proposed in the House budget will require cutbacks in basic federal programs like Head Start. The demand for these services is high. The Early Head Start and Head Start programs on the Wind River Reservation have a waiting list of 140 kids. Others around the state serve many families.<br /><br />In Wyoming and nationally, the proposed federal budget spending reductions will slow job growth and weaken the already tenuous ability of millions of families and seniors to make ends meet. We contend that cutting programs that are helping families and senior citizens stay afloat is short-sighted and jeopardizes their economic security.<br /><br />Leading economists are projecting a loss of 700,000 jobs nationwide if the most recent House spending bill for fiscal year 2011 (HR1) is enacted, according to Wider Opportunities for Women. The potential deal is a moving target subject to intense partisan politics. National Public Radio reported this morning that a proposal seeking more than $30 billion in cuts has been offered by Democrats. The proposal that the House put on the table several weeks ago, passed on strictly partisan lines, includes $61 billion in cuts. We’ll see if that gap can be bridged.<br /><br />The proposed budget passed by the House includes billions of dollars in cuts to job training, education, elder assistance programs. Slashing these budgets will directly affect families, communities and the nonprofits that serve them in many ways, such as:<br /><ul><li>Eliminating volunteer programs including AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America. According to Serve Wyoming, the House budget eliminates funding that supports 1,900 people of all ages and backgrounds who help meet local needs, strengthen communities, and increase civic engagement through 33 national service projects across the state;</li><li>Cuts to Head Start, special education (IDEA) and schools in low-income communities;</li><li>44 percent cut to the Community Services Block Grant program, which provides nutrition, employment, health and other necessary services to over 20 million, including low-income and disabled people. Programs like the Downtown Clinic in Laramie would be affected, depriving many of care that helps keep them out of the emergency room where their care costs much more.</li><li>Cuts to Low-Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which many Wyoming families depend on to stay warm in winter;<br /></li></ul>As the nation struggles with a slow recovery that is producing few jobs, we hope the Wyoming delegation and Congress will propose solutions that create jobs and don’t undercut the middle class.<br /><br />Yesterday, Sen. Enzi said that the budget talks are going on at a very high level with little opportunity for other members to offer their ideas. He said senators are unlikely to be given any opportunity to offer amendments when and if a budget deal is reached.<br /><br />We still believe that as members of the very tight circle that is the Senate, the Wyoming senators certainly can let their negotiators where they stand on programs essential to the economic security of the working families walking the edge of financial disruption and even ruin.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note on the photo: Sen. John Barrasso speaks with Wyoming visitors in Sen. Mike Enzi's office in the Russell Senate Office Building. Wyoming's senators meet with constituents visiting Washington every Wednesday morning.</span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-47979413343088352552011-03-26T16:30:00.000-07:002011-03-26T16:36:29.844-07:00State insurance commissioners meet in Texas<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brokers: the first casualty of the ACA?</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Consumers reps fear NAIC will undercut health care reform<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Barb Rea</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ESPC healthcare advocate</span><br /><br />In 1993, American insurance companies were spending 93% of insurance premium revenue on health care claims. This percentage has been steadily eroding and now some companies spend only 50% of premium revenue on healthcare. The rest goes into administrative costs (which include paying fees to salesmen called brokers) and profits.<br /><br />This calculation is called the Medical Loss Ratio. It is interesting for consumers to note that companies consider what they spend on health care to be a loss.<br /><br />To encourage companies to work more efficiently, more transparently and to provide more value in their products, one of the new provisions in the Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to spend 80% (85% in large group markets) of premium revenues on health care and less on profits. If they fail to meet these guidelines, insurers will have to pay a rebate to their customers.<br /><br />The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) was in charge of figuring out how to calculate and monitor the MLR and last October, after seven months of very transparent work, the commissioners passed the details of how this regulation would work.<br /><br />At the October meeting of the NAIC, the insurance industry came in at the last minute with requests for changes that would have effectively meant insurance companies could operate at a 63% MLR. The commissioners, who are clearly proud of their rigorous methods, stuck to the intention of the law and dismissed those last minute amendments – to the great benefit of consumers.<br /><br />The NAIC is meeting again this weekend in Austin, Texas. A few days before the meeting, consumer representatives learned that brokers, those agents who help sell and service insurance policies on a commission basis, were requesting a vote from the NAIC that would endorse HR 1206, the Access to Professional Health Insurance Advisors Act of 2011. The bill would remove brokers’ fees from the Medical Loss Ratio calculation entirely.<br /><br />The brokers contend that insurance companies will start paying them less in order to meet the MLR rules. This may or may not be true. We don’t know because these fees have always been invisible to consumers and to many regulators, too. There is very little data to determine how much brokers are being paid or how much impact this will really have on the market.<br /><br />One thing is certain though, brokers’ fees were clearly on the administrative side of the MLR equation when the benchmarks were established. The solution to just eliminate fees from the equation altogether would effectively undo the intention of the law.<br /><br />According to Prof. Timothy Jost, one of the NAIC Consumer Representatives, "This bill would effectively end the MLR as a tool for reducing insurer costs, would increase premiums by whatever brokers chose to charge, and would transfer a billion or more in rebates from consumers to producers(brokers)." <br /><br />All sides of the healthcare reform debate agree that one of the major goals of the ACA is to bend the cost curve ---that can only mean that at some point, some people who are making money from the current system will make less.<br /><br />By 2014, buying insurance will be much easier as other provisions in the ACA standardize insurance language and benefit packages so people can make apples to apples comparison when they shop for a new policy.<br /><br />We will never achieve the real goals of reform if every time some stakeholder is going to lose money, they can simply write a bill to eliminate that part of the ACA. Brokers may be the first casualty of the effort to cut health care costs.<br /><br />The MLR went into effect January 1, 2011. Insurers are submitting additional forms to their commissioners which will make all these numbers transparent for the first time. We will have ample information to see which companies and which states are having trouble meeting the MLR and where brokers’ livelihoods are indeed threatened. In the meantime, there is already a waiver process available to states that can demonstrate market instability. We don’t need a sweeping solution at this time.<br /><br />Consumer representatives are asking that commissioners slow down, analyze the data and address these concerns on a state-by-state basis instead of hacking away at important consumer protections that can help reduce costs in the long run.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-41860777182269632602011-03-10T16:21:00.000-08:002011-03-10T16:37:13.365-08:00Dealing with structural racism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioOCR4UeG9K940lgfwIcIv7FctyPublxTw3Ttv5alwD_4WyLvro0m6Qv8JAgVe7XO3THUH0n_tXf7SUaMM0RA8nzo2FU3o_tvXYBurPG2rV7siHL1uhlNJ787tgpDnEjWyHRkmlQhN5_F/s1600/House+floor+-+Feb+25+2011+021-W200.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioOCR4UeG9K940lgfwIcIv7FctyPublxTw3Ttv5alwD_4WyLvro0m6Qv8JAgVe7XO3THUH0n_tXf7SUaMM0RA8nzo2FU3o_tvXYBurPG2rV7siHL1uhlNJ787tgpDnEjWyHRkmlQhN5_F/s200/House+floor+-+Feb+25+2011+021-W200.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582614350618394962" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Questions about hybrid districts and Wyoming’s new county elections law<br /></span><br />Somebody lied on the way to changing Wyoming law governing the creation of election districts for county commissioners.<br /><br />The story begins last spring, when federal district Judge Alan B. Johnson ruled in favor of five Native American plaintiffs who challenged Fremont County’s system of electing county commissioners at large. The plaintiffs successfully argued that the system violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Native Americans.<br /><br />Judge Johnson found that Native Americans, specifically members of the tribes of the Wind River Reservation, have been victimized by historic and continuing racial discrimination in Fremont County. The county’s at-large system of voting denied them access to the institutional power through which they could address this racism.<br /><br />The county’s initial response to losing the lawsuit was to offer a districting plan with a majority Native American district to elect one commissioner, and an at-large district to elect the other four commissioners. These districts were rejected by Judge Johnson because they “perpetuate the separation, isolation and racial polarization in the county, guaranteeing that the non-Indian majority continues to cancel out the voting strength of the minority.”<br /><br />Under federal court order, Fremont County then drew five single-member county commissioner districts and held the first elections in three of them in January (the other two commissioners were carried over and will be up for election in 2012).<br /><br />Meanwhile, Fremont County also appealed the decision – at taxpayer expense – and the matter is now pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.<br /><br />The county also turned to the Joint Interim Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee last year. In September, the county asked the committee to approve a new law that would allow the hybrid districting plans.<br /><br />When the bill, <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2011/Enroll/SF0014.pdf">SF 14 - Counties – election districts</a>, was proposed, tribal leaders argued the county would use it to try to influence the appeals court. The ESPC opposed SF 14 due to the potential for using hybrid districting to discriminate not only in Fremont County but in other areas of the state where there are geographical concentrations of minority populations.<br /><br />But since last fall, the chairmen of the Senate and House Corporations committees repeatedly assured their committee members, witnesses, and the public that SF 14 would have no effect on Fremont County’s appeal. It was clear to observers at the interim meetings that members of the committees also supported the bill only as forward-looking, rather than anything that could or should affect the appeal.<br /><br />The statements from the chairmen, Sen. Cale Case of Lander and Rep. Pete Illoway of Cheyenne, undercut objections to the bill voiced by the tribes of the Wind River Reservation and the Equality State Policy Center. The bill passed.<br /><br />The ESPC then explained its concerns to Gov. Matt Mead and met with two of his legal advisors in an effort to secure a veto of the bill. The governor declined, however, and signed the bill Feb. 24.<br /><br />“We are not messing with the court decision,” Sen. Case said in a <a href="http://wyofile.com/2011/02/hybrid-district-bill-passes/">WyoFile</a> report on the bill. “This just grants counties more flexibility.”<br /><br />Imagine their surprise when the chairmen heard the news that the county’s attorney at the Mountain States Legal Foundation has notified the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals about Wyoming’s new law.<br /><br />The attorney said the new law “may have a bearing on what the state could allow with respect to remedying violations of the federal Voting Rights Act by drafting new county commission districts,” Associated Press reporter Ben Neary reported in a story published in today’s (March 10) Casper Star-Tribune.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lingering question</span><br /><br />So who knew about the county's plan to use the new law in its appeal?<br />Rep. Illoway said he was surprised to learn of Fremont County’s action. Sen. Case said he “did not know about this either.”<br /><br />Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese and commission secretary Becky Enos were in Denver Thursday and unavailable for comment on communication between county officials and legislators. The county’s appeal was to be argued before the appeals court today.<br /><br />No county commissioners were available Thursday, either. The county commission meets again on Tuesday.<br /><br />Neary noted in his March 10 story that Chairman Illoway opened a committee hearing of SF14 by noting that criticism that the bill was intended to undo Judge Johnson’s decision was “the furthest thing from the truth.”<br /><br />Rep. Patrick Goggles, pictured above, disagreed. He is the House minority floor leader, lives on the reservation and is a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe.<br /><br />“If the recent Wyoming legislation is not in response to the Fremont County single district election, then why the legislation?” he asked.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Sen. Case downplayed the significance of the actions by the county’s attorney.<br /><br />“I cannot imagine that it would affect the judge’s decision on the appeal, especially given the delayed enacting date of the legislation,” he said in an email message. “And unless there is a successful appeal, FC (Fremont County) must have single member districts.<br /><br />“Now go way out and assume that FC wins the appeal, I cannot help but note that because single member districts have already been established, the commissioners are unlikely to come up with anything very much different because that is their base.” Sen. Case concluded.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dismantling racism</span><br /><br />Judge Johnson dismantled a classic racist structure when he ordered the end of the at-large voting system in Fremont County’s commission elections. The ESPC consistently argued that the hybrid districting bill erects another structure that easily can be co-opted to impose a replacement racist structure. Counties can use this law to quarantine a minority population in a district of its own while the rest of a county population continues to elect the majority of members of a county commission.<br /><br />Fremont County officials have made obvious their intention to do as much as they can to maintain a status quo the court found guilty of racism. The county's action in front of the appeals court reaffirms that intent. It's time for Fremont County and the entire state to move beyond the racism that has plagued relations with the tribes.<br /><br />If this is how the county commissions of Wyoming will use the new districting law, it should be repealed.Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-82598438248996607052011-03-02T18:31:00.000-08:002011-03-02T18:40:00.552-08:00House Bill 74 dies in Senate<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDv6nClY2o4wj-lXR5A4C6W03OZJKJJMPn6NN-nvM5sny0l7jtpWl_w15I2lxqJlAH5RXiYty3w7BHsH4b2INTJ732LLMd76yhizjW4jb3tQdkU_JCrEsVE-__kOw_KQYETmncTkGqnli2/s1600/Senate+kills+HB74+008-W260.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDv6nClY2o4wj-lXR5A4C6W03OZJKJJMPn6NN-nvM5sny0l7jtpWl_w15I2lxqJlAH5RXiYty3w7BHsH4b2INTJ732LLMd76yhizjW4jb3tQdkU_JCrEsVE-__kOw_KQYETmncTkGqnli2/s200/Senate+kills+HB74+008-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579677557143659010" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Senate kills discriminatory anti-GLBT marriage bill</span></span><br /><br />The Wyoming Senate Wednesday took a stand for equality and turned back a bill that would have voided the legal same-sex marriages of Wyoming residents.<br /><br />The Wednesday vote culminated weeks of debate on the measure during the legislature’s General Session, which ends Thursday. In a last ditch effort to block a vote they knew would be very close, Senate opponents of the measure – House Bill 74 – Validity of marriages – raised procedural objections. Those attempts failed after the Rules Committee retreated behind closed doors to consider each of the objections and returned to the chambers to overrule them.<br /><br />The clerk then called out each senator’s name to hear and record their votes. Sen. John Hines and Sen. Bill Landen, both of whom previously supported the bill, changed their votes. The result was one vote more than was needed to kill the bill, 14-16.<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"Equality of all. In their inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all members of the human race are equal."</span> - Wyoming Constitution</blockquote><br />In the gallery, Jeran Artery of Wyoming Equality broke out a big smile. Supporters from Wyoming Watch, the Focus-on-the-Family clone intent on imposing its fundamentalist Christian views on Wyoming’s secular laws, reacted stoically. A few minutes later Becky Vanderberghe of Wyoming Watch was telling reporters that her group was pleased to have the roll call vote and intends to “go after” the senators who opposed them, presumably a reference to the 2012 elections.<br /><br />“They did the right thing,” Sen. Cale Case(R-SD25, Lander) said of his Senate colleagues. Case worked hard to defeat the bill, which he considers an affront to the Wyoming constitution.<br /><br />The Senate action followed a House vote to approve the conference committee report on the bill. That vote similarly was very close with the minimum number of representatives – 31 – supporting the “compromise” reached by the House and Senate conference committees on Tuesday. And that majority was sealed only after Rep. Steve Harshman (R-HD37, Casper) changed his No vote to Aye.<br /><br />The conference committee met four times to come up with a proposal they thought might be accepted. The committee proposal rejected a Senate amendment aimed at recognizing legal same-sex civil unions and took off a House amendment. The conference committee also narrowed the bill to add two new sub-paragraphs to existing law. Each of them said that marriages legally contracted in other states and countries “… are valid in this state, provided that such marriage contracts are between a male and a female person.”<br /><br />Before the House vote, opponents of the conference report pointed to the Wyoming Constitution to argue against adopting such a discriminatory law. Rep. Pete Illoway, (R-HD42, Cheyenne) quoted Article 1, Section 2.<br /><br />“Equality of all. In their inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all members of the human race are equal,” he read.<br /><br />“People are equal whether you agree with their lifestyle or not,” Illoway said.<br /><br />Other opponents trooped to the microphones in the House. Rep. Pat Childers (R-HD50) noted that in his childhood, “I was told we need to separate church and state.’’<br /><br />“This isn’t right,” Childers said of HB 74. “We have to do the right thing for our constitution.”<br /><br />Proponents made their appeals, too.<br /><br />“There is no argument (whether) all are created equal,” said co-sponsor Bob Brechtel (R-HD38, Casper). “What we’re talking about here is a policy statement.” The statement simply affirms the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman for the purpose of bearing and raising children, Brechtel said.<br /><br />House conference committee chairwoman Rep. Amy Edmonds (R-HD12, Cheyenne) said she would vote for the bill because doing so would “speak the will of the people.” Supporters have argued for years that the majority of Wyoming residents oppose same-sex marriages. A proposal to put a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages and civil unions on the 2012 election ballot failed this session.<br /><br />The Senate offered no high oratory. The senators did not discuss the bill beyond the procedural challenges offered by Sen. Bruce Burns (R-SD21, Sheridan) and Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-SD9, Laramie).<br /><br />After the vote to reject the conference committee report, Senate President Jim Anderson, SD 2, R-Glenrock told legislators he would not appoint a second conference committee to attempt to rework the bill. That decision killed the bill and ended weeks of emotional and sometimes heated debate.<br /><br />The failure of the bill means that Wyoming’s courts are likely next to speak on the matter. A lesbian couple from Lusk has asked to the Wyoming Supreme Court to recognize their right to turn to state courts to hear their petition for divorce since they were legally married in Canada.<br /><br />Here’s the Senate vote on the Joint conference committee version of the bill:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes: </span>Senator(s) Anderson, Barnard, Bebout, Cooper, Dockstader, Geis, Hicks, Jennings, Johnson, Meier, Nutting, Perkins, Peterson and Ross.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nays: </span> Senator(s) Burns, Case, Christensen, Coe, Driskill, Emerich, Esquibel, F., Hastert, Hines, Landen, Martin, Nicholas P, Rothfuss, Schiffer, Scott and Von Flatern.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes 14 Nays 16 Excused 0 Absent 0 Conflicts 0</span><br /><br />Here’s the House vote passing the conference committee version:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes: </span> Representative(s) Blikre, Botten, Brechtel, Buchanan, Burkhart, Campbell, Cannady, Davison, Edmonds, Eklund, Gay, Greear, Harshman, Harvey, Hunt, Jaggi, Kroeker, Krone, Lockhart, Loucks, Lubnau, Madden, McKim, Miller, Peasley, Petersen, Quarberg, Semlek, Shepperson, Stubson and Teeters.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nays: </span>Representative(s) Barbuto, Berger, Blake, Bonner, Brown, Byrd, Childers, Connolly, Craft, Esquibel, K., Freeman, Gingery, Goggles, Greene, Illoway, Kasperik, McOmie, Moniz, Nicholas B, Patton, Petroff, Roscoe, Steward, Throne, Vranish, Wallis, Zwonitzer, Dn. and Zwonitzer, Dv..<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Excused:</span> Representative(s) Pederson<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes 31 Nays 28 Excused 1 Absent 0 Conflicts 0</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Photo: Wyoming Equality's Jeran Artery celebrates defeat of HB 74 with Sen. Cale Case.</span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-34840526707901643362011-02-28T23:59:00.000-08:002011-03-01T00:14:09.654-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW9lrQtiN-7genGiye7Sn_l9SdIwgmtmSl18DNIiUs4WPvZmEcPsNUonRLX7OUZdQWIRRaFoBX5_abNTj8XvEJ-YKK0v-hUzvPhQJbwpWAm1q0H1bfFEX3qrqUlspQmd8kJtDCyP07GaR/s1600/public+records+debate+in+Senate+and+HB+74+conference+committee+035-W260.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW9lrQtiN-7genGiye7Sn_l9SdIwgmtmSl18DNIiUs4WPvZmEcPsNUonRLX7OUZdQWIRRaFoBX5_abNTj8XvEJ-YKK0v-hUzvPhQJbwpWAm1q0H1bfFEX3qrqUlspQmd8kJtDCyP07GaR/s200/public+records+debate+in+Senate+and+HB+74+conference+committee+035-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579021246755793490" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The conference committee finds “marriage is hard”</span></span><br /><br />We had expected the conference committee on <span style="font-style: italic;">House Bill 74 – Validity of marriage</span> to present a report to the Senate and the House on Friday, saying there would be no compromise over civil unions.<br /><br />But the conference report was never delivered to House Majority Leader Tom Lubnau. Members of the House conference committee were informed by Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-HD13, Laramie) that the compromise they approved last Thursday failed to include some essential wording changes.<br /><br />Given the weekend, advocates and opponents alike ramped up their lobbying efforts. Rep. Edmonds lamented to the conference committee that the controversial effort to enable Wyoming to void same-sex marriages made legally in other states and countries “has been foisted on the six of us.”<br /><br />The conference committee is comprised of Reps. Edmonds, Kendell Kroeker (R-HD35, Casper), and Jim Roscoe (D-HD22, Wilson) and Sens. Floyd Esquibel, (D-SD8, Cheyenne), Larry Hicks (R-SD11, Baggs) and Leslie Nutting (R-SD7, Cheyenne). Rep. Kroeker and Sens. Hicks and Nutting are co-sponsors of the bill.<br /><br />Rep. Edmonds told the conference committee she decided to abandon her agreement to last week’s compromise, which stripped a House amendment to the bill and also took off a Senate amendment aimed at recognizing same-sex civil unions made in other states. Edmonds said she instead would take the position that the committee should endorse the bill in the form that it passed the House.<br /><br />Sen. Leslie Nutting said that Edmonds new position “is to say the Senate has no say at all … I see that as a real problem.”<br /><br />The conference committee went through a series of proposed amendments but each of them failed, leading Sen. Nutting to say, “Marriage is hard.” No doubt a legion of her constituents would agree.<br /><br />The committee agreed to Sen. Nutting’s request to schedule one last meeting of this conference committee on Tuesday (March 1) at 12:15 p.m. Rep. Kroeker asked that the committee quickly call it quits if no one comes to the meeting with a proposal for a compromise.<br /><br />If the committee fails to reach a compromise, the leadership of the House and the Senate could appoint a different conference committee to continue the effort to change the bill to make it acceptable to members of both chambers. The leadership also could simply decide not to appoint another conference committee and the measure would fail.<br /><br />The later course is the ESPC’s preferred outcome.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Public meetings bill fails</span></span><br />The Senate on Monday killed HB<span style="font-style: italic;"> 120 – Public meetings</span> on third reading. The measure would have required public boards and commissions to provide 12 hours’ notice of a special meeting, announce the reason for executive sessions, and make audio recordings of executive sessions.<br /><br />The ESPC supported the bill, which was part of a package of refinements to Wyoming’s Open Meetings and Public Records laws. <span style="font-style: italic;">House Bill 119 – Public records and meetings – court proceedings </span>was killed in the House Judiciary Committee. The Senate voted down HB<span style="font-style: italic;"> 121 – Public records</span> in Committee of the whole last week.<br /><br />Here’s the Feb. 28 vote on HB 120:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes: </span> Senator(s) Case, Christensen, Cooper, Dockstader, Esquibel, F., Hastert, Martin, Meier, Nutting, Perkins, Peterson, Ross, Scott and Von Flatern.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nays:</span> Senator(s) Anderson, Barnard, Bebout, Burns, Coe, Driskill, Emerich, Geis, Hicks, Hines, Jennings, Johnson, Landen, Nicholas P, Rothfuss and Schiffer.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ayes 14 Nays 16 Excused 0 Absent 0 Conflicts 0</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span> For a look at all the bills mentioned in this report, please go <a href="http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2011/billindex/BillCrossRef.aspx?type=ALL">here.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Photo above shows the conference committee on HB 74 during its meeting Feb. 24.</span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-13636555603606841332011-02-25T20:49:00.000-08:002011-02-25T21:43:28.374-08:00Time runs out on two bad bills<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1P764QXI01S8u7lJ_JOqQmrUqrxF74LNm6Mcxh7byVMxloCHofsBQ1pPiaxYWavWUqGDKKSF5zURQvmdpNyuWOX0X_K5wCrcFu1trXnft-H9JVdokM7GNQZXXYwUOswwcjy3IItgHAea/s1600/House+floor+-+Feb+25+2011+035-W260.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1P764QXI01S8u7lJ_JOqQmrUqrxF74LNm6Mcxh7byVMxloCHofsBQ1pPiaxYWavWUqGDKKSF5zURQvmdpNyuWOX0X_K5wCrcFu1trXnft-H9JVdokM7GNQZXXYwUOswwcjy3IItgHAea/s200/House+floor+-+Feb+25+2011+035-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577861357195480834" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Amendment discriminating against GLBT minority expires in House<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Repeal of state minimum wage dies on Senate General File</span><br /><br />Friday was the last day to hear bills on General File. Bills not brought up for discussion in Committee of the Whole in either chamber by the end of the day die for the year.<br /><br />We were pleased particularly to see time run out on two measures:<br /><br /> 1. SJ5 – Defense of marriage – constitutional amendment. This proposal would have placed a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot to make same-sex marriages and civil unions illegal in Wyoming.<br /> 2. HB 184 – Minimum wage statutes repeal. This bill would have eliminated laws imposing a state minimum wage and requiring wage data reporting of Wyoming businesses.<br /><br />Many people worked hard to kill the proposed constitutional amendment. In committee testimony earlier this year, opponents of the anti-GLBT legislation worried that Wyoming would be subjected to a long, intense, and ugly campaign if the amendment proposal made it to the ballot. Majority Leader Tom Lubnau indicated earlier this week that supporters did not have the 40 votes needed for House passage (a proposed constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote from both houses).<br /><br />Opponents of SJ5 drew up a slew of amendments and informed the House leadership they would push all of them to force a long and painful debate. House leaders obviously felt they had better things to do with the time.<br /><br />One piece of anti-GLBT legislation remains in play. House Bill 74 – Validity of marriage, was approved by both the Senate and the House. The House refused to concur with a Senate amendment intended to give people in same-sex civil unions contracted in other states or countries access to Wyoming courts if the need arose. The amendment enabled the bill to win Senate approval by the narrowest of margins, 16-14.<br /><br />In a conference committee Thursday, the Senate conferees agreed to drop the amendment. Opponents of the bill hope the change will prove unacceptable to the Senate.<br /><br />The House likewise could reject the compromise, but that seems less likely. The conference version of the bill voids any existing marriage contracts or civil unions that Wyoming residents made legally in other states or countries, which was the main goal of the majority of representatives who voted for HB 74. However, the Senate also stripped a House amendment that the conference report did not restore, so some House members may switch their votes as a consequence.<br /><br />If either chamber does not approve the conference committee report, the measure could be referred to a second conference committee, or legislative leaders could simply drop further efforts to achieve a compromise and let the bill die.<br /><br />The ESPC continues to urge everyone to contact their legislators and urge them to vote <span style="font-weight: bold;">NO</span> on the conference committee report to stop this discriminatory legislation.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Public meetings</span></span><br /><br />A bill supported by the ESPC, the Powder River Basin Resource Council, the League of Women Voters and the Wyoming Press Association got through second reading Friday, but only after approval of an amendment to delay implementation for a year.<br /><br />The bill requires public boards and commissions to give 12 hours notice of a special meeting, to announce the purpose of any executive session and to make audio recordings of executive sessions. The Wyoming Association of Municipalities and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association oppose the bill.<br /><br />Support for the bill is weak and it still must survive third reading Monday. Please ask your senator to vote for this bill, which establishes some reasonable requirements around the handling of the public’s business outside regularly scheduled meetings and in executive sessions.<br /><br />A sister bill, HB 121 – Public documents, was killed Thursday when senators, as Sen. Michael Von Flatern said, began to hear things go bump in the night. The senators said it would be unfair to public servants to require a deadline to make requested public documents available. It was a strange debate in which the Senate lost sight of the public’s need for access to information in order to participate in the workings of government.<br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Tea Party in Montana </span></span><br /><br />A friend sent this list of bills under consideration in the Montana legislature this year. Several of these ideas were pushed in Wyoming as well this session.<br /><ol><li>Legalize hunting with hand-thrown spears (Senate Bill 112)</li><li>Create fully-armed militia in every town (House Bill 278)</li><li>Allow legislators to carry weapons in the Capitol (Senate Bill 279)</li><li>Create an 11 person panel with authority to nullify all federal laws (House Bill 382)</li><li>Allow guns in schools (House Bill 558)</li><li>Eliminate educational requirements for persons seeking job of State Superintendent of Schools (HB 154)</li><li>Lift nuclear ban for purpose of building a nuclear reactor in the Flathead Valley (House Bill 326)</li><li>Withdraw the United States of America from the United Nations (Senate Joint Resolution 2)</li><li>Omit Barack Obama's name from the 2012, ballot because his father was born outside of America (House Bill 205)<span style="font-style: italic;">(This guy was on CNN this week.)</span></li><li>Compulsory marriage counseling for people seeking a divorce (House Bill 438) <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Had this one in Wyoming.)</span></span></li><li>Give sheriffs authority over the federal government in terror investigations (Senate Bill 114)<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" > (Similar proposal was floated in the Wyoming Senate Labor Committee.)</span></li><li>Legalize hunting with silencers (House Bill 174)</li><li>Lift the prohibition on carrying concealed weapons in bars, churches and banks (House Bill 384)</li><li>Eliminate law that requires landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors (House Bill 354)</li><li>Require the federal government to prove in court that the National Parks were lawfully acquired. (House Bill 506)</li><li>Officially designate the "Code of the West" as the "Code of Montana" (Senate Bill 216)</li></ol><span style="font-size:85%;">Photo above shows two House pages responding to a request from Rep. Cathy Connolly of Laramie.</span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5437554140261893246.post-87272856737109235712011-02-24T22:55:00.001-08:002011-02-24T23:04:23.539-08:00Equality with an asterisk?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSCkcckLBzCVRRoYYGGtT2FO5S9eXnTBtdKPou6RdmGP8TV4dLl7e9swUWW8I9mNN_UgaclQOahoT__0sXV7S8NgHEWluzS_iDnPn7H8REnX4Kv3pfeUkr9U-npznIMLctGnKDnSQcx4UD/s1600/public+records+debate+in+Senate+and+HB+74+conference+committee+034-W260.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSCkcckLBzCVRRoYYGGtT2FO5S9eXnTBtdKPou6RdmGP8TV4dLl7e9swUWW8I9mNN_UgaclQOahoT__0sXV7S8NgHEWluzS_iDnPn7H8REnX4Kv3pfeUkr9U-npznIMLctGnKDnSQcx4UD/s200/public+records+debate+in+Senate+and+HB+74+conference+committee+034-W260.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577518646852876594" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The conference committee offers its “compromise” on equality</span></span><br /><br />The conference committee on House Bill 74 – Validity of marriage will present a report to the Senate and the House on Friday that says there will be no compromise over civil unions.<br />Same-sex unions, regardless of whether they are legal in their state of origin, will NOT be recognized in Wyoming if the committee’s report is adopted.<br /><br />The conference committee, which included Reps. Amy Edmonds (R-HD12, Cheyenne), Kendall Kroeker (R-HD 35, Casper) and Jim Roscoe (D-HD22, Wilson) and Sens. Floyd Esquibel, (D-SD8, Cheyenne), Larry Hicks (R-SD11, Baggs) and Leslie Nutting (R-SD7, Cheyenne), voted 4-2 to strip a Senate amendment aimed at recognizing same-sex civil unions made in other states. Roscoe and Esquibel opposed the committee proposal.<br /><br />"We're just digging ourselves further into a quagmire," Esquibel said to explain his opposition to what he considers a bad bill.<br /><br />Instead, the conference committee will ask the House and Senate to adopt an amendment that makes clear that Wyoming will recognize any marriage or civil union between two people legally made anywhere so long as those marriages and unions are between one man and one woman.<br />Here’s the Senate amendment the committee stripped from the bill. It would rest under statute number 20-1-111 Out of state marriages.:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"(c) Parties to a domestic or other legal civil union lawfully entered into in another state, commonwealth, territory, district or possession of the United States or a foreign nation, which are not recognized as a marriage under the laws of Wyoming, shall be entitled to access to the courts of the state for the purposes or resolving disputes that arise out of their domestic or other legal civil union.".</span><br /><br />The committee instead proposes this language:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“(c) Parties to a marriage or other legal civil union lawfully entered into in another state, commonwealth, territory, district or possession of the United States or a foreign nation, which is recognized as a valid marriage or other legal civil union under subsections (a) or (b) of this section, shall be entitled access to the courts of the state of Wyoming for the purposes of resolving disputes that arise out of their marriage or other legal civil union.”</span><br /><br />Both sections (a) and (b) stipulate that marriage contracts are valid “provided that such marriage contracts are between a male and a female person.”<br /><br />Neither section refers to civil unions.<br /><br />Since the Senate passed the bill relying upon the idea that state law would recognize legal civil unions made outside Wyoming, the conference committee recommendation may not win majority support in that chamber.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Please act now</span><br />The ESPC urges Wyomingites to write their state senators to vote to reject the conference committee report. The bill clearly discriminates against many people who live in Wyoming who have secured legal marriage contracts or civil unions in other states or countries. Please tell your senator to vote NO against the conference report.<br /><br />While you’re at it, please contact your state representative and likewise ask them to reject this discriminatory legislation.<br /><br />Wyoming should live up to its motto as the Equality State.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Participate</span><br />Citizens can register their opposition to HB 74 by using the “Online Hotline” or the telephone Hotline – 1-866-966-8683 or, in Cheyenne, 777-8683.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Note on the photo</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">That's the committee in the photo. From left, Sen. Floyd Esquibel, Rep. Kendall Kroeker, Co-Chairman Rep. Amy Edmonds, Co-Chairman Sen. Larry Hicks, Sen. Leslie Nutting, Rep. Jim Roscoe. </span>Dan Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08231289353889009793noreply@blogger.com0