Wyoming Education Association - Legislative Update March 13, 2020

WEA Legislative Update | March 13, 2020

This is the final daily Legislative Update from the 2020 Budget Session. Thank you for trusting the Wyoming Education Association to act as your voice at the legislature. Look for a full legislative summary and analysis in the upcoming edition of WEA News.

The 2020 Budget Session came to a close Thursday night. For education advocates, the Wyoming Education Association, educators, administrators, education support professionals, students and all of those individuals who contribute to the state’s wonderful education system, the 2020 legislative session ended with positive outcomes.

After the joint conference committee that was assigned to hear House Bill 40 School finance - model recalibration met and concluded in a stalemate that yielded no results, the members of the conference committee worked in an informal manner, meeting one another individually in an attempt to resolve their differences. By the end of the evening, House Bill 40 passed the conference committee without any of the amendments that were passed by the Senate. This means that no advisory committee will be formed and that recalibration efforts will move forward as planned.

19 line-item vetos had been utilized in the Governor’s released budget. One of those vetos struck down the language that would reduce the compensation for NBCT. Those educators who have worked so diligently to receive their certifications will continue to be compensated with the full $4000 stipend.

The Wyoming Education Association lobbying team was hopeful that the Governor would utilize a line-item veto for the reduction in funds appropriated to districts for model-funded employee health insurance. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

However, due to recalibration efforts, the cut to health insurance-related appropriations is not as bad as it may seem. In fact, the reduction was to be, in total, a 7.5% reduction. That reduction would span two years, with the first year receiving the smallest cut to health insurance funding, with just over 2% being cut. The remainder was to be cut out of the second year. Since recalibration will examine the health insurance component of the funding model there is a good possibility that the findings will demonstrate what we have understood all along, that education, including teacher health care, has been underfunded in the state and the cut will have to be rolled back. The Wyoming Education Association will continue our cooperative efforts with recalibration and keep membership informed as the process progresses.

Finally, several other bills were enacted last night that will have significant impacts on education funding in the state. Senate File 138, the bill that lays out how the contentious Occidental land purchase will be made, and from which accounts that funding will be drawn, passed both houses and is on its way to the Governor's desk. Of debate was which accounts were to be drawn from to make this potential purchase. One of the accounts that was being negotiated was the School Foundation Program (SFP) account. The House initially resisted utilizing the Legilative Stabilization Reserve Account (LSRA) account, but, in the end the compromise included utilizing the LSRA account and ensuring that a significant amount of the money that could be made from the purchase and utilization of these lands would be directly deposited into the SFP.

Given that the details of how much the state would be paying, how they would make this land profitable for the state, and whether or not the deal even goes through remain to be seen, it is unclear as to an exact dollar amount that would go to the SFP.

The legislature also passed a bill that would establish a gaming commission. A gaming commission would ensure that revenues generated from legalized gambling would go through the same process as other revenues, and a portion of them would help to fund education.

The reality of Wyoming’s volatile economic situation has become glaringly obvious. The many discussions within the legislature about the looming fiscal cliff facing our state had many policy options proposed to solve the problem. Most of these discussions involved “trimming the fat” or reducing spending across agencies. The Wyoming Education Association does not agree with this approach.

Instead, WEA agrees with the voices of those senators and representatives, having advocated for increasing revenue streams through means of taxation and economic diversification. The state is constitutionally mandated to fund education and should not attempt to utilize recalibration as a means to cut education funding or programs. The demands, responsibilities, technical and task knowledge of our workforce today have only grown, not been reduced. Therefore, it is only reasonable that what schools teach these students to prepare them for a future in our global economy must evolve and grow, too, not be reduced.

The legislature must take a serious look at generating these revenue streams. As their rhetoric has included notions of “slowing growth” the reality is that this is an unreasonable approach to maintaining adequate education funding in Wyoming. We can and must look for efficiencies in our system, but we must also realize that due to the increase in enrollment, the increase in cost for health care provision and the increase in demands on our workforce and students signifies that we must embrace this growth, not ignore it, but instead generate new revenue streams to support it.

The WEA will continue our work in communities across Wyoming now that the session has come to a close. We look forward to working with our membership, policymakers and all community stakeholders to continue to support and protect quality education in the great state of Wyoming.

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