Wyoming's 2022 Session Is Officially Comlete

The Capitol is a lot quieter this week as the 2022 Wyoming Legislative Session has ended. For the last time this year, let’s go over what happened last week under the golden dome of interest to older adults in Wyoming.

The good drawer giveth and the good drawer taketh away:  We talked about it two years ago:  the dreaded “drawer,” To those new with the process, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, the Majority Floor Leaders of both houses of the Legislature, and committee chairs can choose not to have a bill heard in their committees or on the floor of the Legislature and effectively kill the bill by not having it heard before a deadline.

Last week two bills AARP Wyoming was following got stuck in the drawer. SJ002 - a bill that would have triggered a vote to change the state constitution to allow for Tax Relief for the Elderly and Infirmed didn’t get a hearing in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, HB27, a bill determining when and how hospitals and nursing homes could set rules for visitors didn’t get out of the drawer in the Senate. 

SJ002 seemed to have strong support, gaining 57 aye votes to just five nays during three votes in the Senate and one vote in the House Revenue Committee. However, it wasn’t able to get out of committee until after the deadline to do so after changes to the bill in the Senate took longer than we had hoped. Look for this to come back next year with AARP Wyoming’s full-throated support.

Property Tax Refund Program Funded:  While SJ002 would have been great for relief of property tax burdens for Wyoming’s age 50+, another effort by lawmakers will offer more immediate property tax relief. 

A budget amendment has funded the State’s Property Tax Refund Program for the first time in years.The program will be run through the State Department of Revenue and applications by citizens will need to be made no later than June 6. The Revenue Department is in the process of updating its website with the application for refunds and adding the 2021 qualifications to take part in the program. The information and application should be available next month. Until then, keep checking this website to apply for the refund program, or go to your local County Treasurer’s Office starting in mid-April to get an application. 

So what’s next? Before they left Cheyenne, Legislative subcommittees put out a call to the public asking what issues should be studied in the interim before next year. Committees took in those requests last week and discussed their preference for study topics before submitting those thoughts to the Legislature’s Management Council, which will have final say over what will be studied by which committees. The Management Council will meet April 8 to and announce the topics at that meeting. 

AARP Wyoming will be at that meeting and many of the interim meetings around the state to make sure your interests are being considered. If you have subjects or thoughts on what issues you would like us to advocate on, please click here. AARP Wyoming would love to hear from you.