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Thursday, January 17, 2019
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers with an update from the day in the House of Representatives. Today, the House considered and passed 9 bills on second reading, including:
HB0002 - Regulation of hunting methods
HB0044 – Expungement of Juvenile Court Records
HB0054 - Federal natural resource policy account-amendments
HB0078 - Education major maintenance funding.

Thirteen bills passed the House and will be delivered to the Senate for consideration. Bills of note include my bill on shed antlers and horns, HB0012. Other bills include
HJ0001 – Wyoming Support for Delisting the Grizzly Bear
HB0006 – Physical Therapy-scope of practice revisions
HB0028 – Regulation of shed antlers and big game horn collection
HB0066 – Lodging Tax
Read a statement from the House Majority on the Lodging Tax here.

The House Committee of the Whole considered a number of bills.
HB0073 – "Use of dogs-recovery of killed or wounded big game" was discussed. The bill, applying to game and fish, would allow a person to use a leashed blood-trailing dog to help recover a killed or wounded big game animal. This bill was passed within the committee over voice vote, bringing our statutes close to those of our neighboring states.
HB0021 – "Election Readiness Account" was also discussed. The bill creates a permanent account through which counties may purchase updated election equipment. An amendment was passed raising the amount from $7.5 million to $15 million, and after much debate, the bill passed.

The Committee of the Whole also addressed bills pertaining to special electric utility agreements, rights of way communications services, wage garnishment, and Series LLCs among others.

Please follow my Facebook page for up to date information and email me at albert@albertsommers.com with questions or concerns.
Thank you
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Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers checking in from the floor of the House of Representatives. I have been spending a great deal of time in the Appropriations Committee and today we began to accept or decline recommendations from both Governors Mead and Gordon. The Committee will have made final motions by Friday, but it will take staff a week to write the budget.

This morning, the House considered and passed 13 bills on second reading including my bill HB0012 - Shed Antlers and Horn. Several other bills of interest include:
HB0006 – Physical Therapy-scope of practice revisions
HB0028 – Regulation of Shed Antlers and Big Game Horn Collection
HB0066 – Lodging Tax
HJ0001 – Wyoming Support for delisting the grizzly bear

Several additional bills passed the House and will be delivered to the Senate for consideration. These bills included:
HB0003 - Board of outfitters and guides-civil penalties. Passed 44-7-9-0-0
HB0013 - Jury procedure amendments. Passed 51-0-9-0-0
HB0041 - UW board of trustees-chairman. Passed 51-0-9-0-0
HB0069 - Collection of sales tax by marketplace facilitators. Passed 42-9-9-0-0

The House Committee of the Whole considered a number of interesting bills including HB0002 - Regulation of hunting methods. This bill authorizes the Wyoming Game and Fish to regulate new and emerging technologies being utilized in hunting. I spoke in support of this bill because the Game and Fish needs the ability to be responsive to ever changing technologies and balance the need for fair chase of game. Changes to hunting regulations will still be debated in a public forum with public input via the Game and Fish Commission. The bill passed committee of the whole on a voice vote. There may be amendments to this bill moving forward to limit the scope of the Game and Fish Department’s authority on this issue. I will monitor changes and continue to protect fair chase and the sporting nature of hunting in Wyoming.

Additionally, the Committee of the Whole considered bills pertaining to equal pay, education major maintenance funding, vehicle title requirements and criminal justice amendments amongst others.

One bill failed the Committee of the Whole. HB0072 - Wage transparency failed on a vote of 27-32-1-0-0. This bill would have made it illegal for employers to fire employees for discussing wages.

I can be reached at albert@albertsommers.com.
Thank you
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Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you from the 6th day of the 65th General Session of the Wyoming Legislature. The Wyoming House of Representatives is in full swing and has considered several pieces of legislation with wide ranging impacts on the residents of Wyoming.

The House passed, on third reading, HB0025 – Virtual Education Amendments, by a vote of 58-0-2. The House also advanced seven bills on second reading, including some interesting bills like HB0003 - Board of outfitters and guides-civil penalties, HB0037 – Elected Officials Residency Requirements, and HB0057 – Financial Technology Sandbox.

The House Committee of the Whole also heard and passed several bills on voice vote. These bills included:
HB0005 – Medicaid benefit recovery-estates
HB0006 – Physical therapy-scope of practice revisions
HJ0001 – Wyoming support for delisting the grizzly bear
HB0066 – Lodging Tax
Of particular interest to me is HB0066, the Statewide Lodging Tax. This bill would impose a lodging tax of 5 percent with 3 percent being used to fund the Wyoming Department of Tourism and 2 percent to be distributed to local governments. This bill creates a mechanism for removing the Office of Tourism from the General Fund by establishing a dedicated funding stream. This is a continuation of a strategy the Legislature has employed for agencies like the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Additionally, this bill would shift the funding of the Office of Tourism off the backs of Wyoming citizens, as 80 percent of this tax is paid by out-of-staters. I voted for this bill.

HBs 12 and 28 passed Committee of the Whole, and both dealt with shed antler hunting. My bill, HB12, gives the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission the authority to regulate the date, time-of-day, and location of shed antler seasons. Currently the season opens May 1 at midnight on the west side of the Continental Divide. This bill will give the Commission some flexibility to set reasonable opening hours and adjust for long winters. HB 28 would give the Commission authority to regulate shed antler hunting statewide on public lands. Other areas of the state are facing similar issues to what Sublette County faced several years ago. Both bills passed Committee of the Whole, and I voted for both of them.

I can be reached with questions or concerns at albert@albertsommers.com.
Thank you
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Monday, January 14, 2019
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting to you on January 14 from Cheyenne.

Today, in Committee of the Whole, we debated several bills including one that amended juror selection, composition, and excusal, one that clarified elected county office residency requirements by ensuring a candidate had been a resident in the county for at least a year, one that refines our online sales tax statutes to ensure that companies like Amazon collect Wyoming sales tax from all of their clients, and a bill that creates a financial technology sandbox where businesses can ask to suspend certain laws to test new financial instruments. These bills passed Committee of the Whole.

On Third Reading today, we passed HB38, which will allow legislators and state board and commission members to receive the federal per diem rate. The per diem rate has not been increased for several years, and it has become difficult or impossible to pay for room and board on the old rate of $109/day. We receive this rate when we travel to interim meetings and during the legislative sessions.

My Joint Appropriations Committee will begin to develop the budget on Wednesday, after we hear Governor Gordon’s requests on Tuesday.

I can be reached at albert@albertsommers.com.
Thank you