Category Archives: Legislation

As the Legislative Committees continue to meet, they are discussing issues and developing bills that are of interest to Treasurers. Some of those issues and bills are listed here, with links and noting which committee is working the bill:

Real estate transfer tax (Revenue) — a tax on property sales price, collected by Treasurers.

Transportation computer system funding (Transportation) — adds a $5 fee to all registrations.

Antique motor vehicle definition (Transportation) — changes definition of antique vehicle. Committee voted to table bill but form a working group to rework antique plate, cost, eligibility and use requirements.

Tax lien enforcement – amendments (Minerals) — amendments to the lien statutes passed in the last legislative session.

The Joint Transportation Committee has announced their meeting on May 21-22, 2020, which will be conducted online.

The meeting agenda was also posted, showing the committee will focus on transportation issues on the 21st and military issues on the 22nd.

The meeting will be live-streamed at www.wyoleg.gov.

The Minerals Committee, Co-Chaired by Senator Anderson and Representative Greear, has announced their first interim meeting on May 14th and 15th. The meeting will take place on-line.

The Committee posted the agenda, which includes a discussion of ad valorem tax issues on Friday, May 15th at 10:30 am. Specifically, the committee will address SF 139, the bill that passed the 2020 legislature addressing mineral liens on unpaid production taxes.

The livestream of the meeting will be available at www.wyoleg.gov.

What’s better than that new car smell? That’s right! The smell of new legislation, hot off the LSO presses. This year, as always, there were a menagerie of bills that became effective immediately, or on July 1, or next January.

Read all about the legislation enacted in this session here.

Governor Mark Gordon exercised his line-item veto power over the budget bill and vetoed the footnote in WYDOT’s budget requiring them to collect an additional $5 on every registration. The Governor’s statement said:

“I thank the Legislature for recognizing the importance of updating the revenue information system at the Department of Transportation (WYDOT). It is outdated and vulnerable. Without replacement it creates risk for all of the data on the system, and worse, failure could impact the delivery of services to the public. I am not sure anyone realizes how much we all rely on this system. Nonetheless, using the budget bill to raise revenues is problematic. This provision legislates from within the budget, and even for a project I wholeheartedly support I am impelled to exercise my veto authority. My line-item veto is intended to eliminate the problematic fee while authorizing WYDOT to move ahead using its own funds on this project until the new system is fully funded.”

The legislature still has the final day of the session, March 13th, to challenge or override the veto.

The legislature passed HB001/SF001, the budget bill for the next state biennium. In the Transportation budget, on page 21 of the budget bill, a provision was added to have WYDOT “assess and collect or cause to be collected” an additional $5 on each registration.

The fee would be collected for a two year period, beginning July 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2022, and would go towards the State’s planned upgrade of the Revenue Information System (RIS).

WCTA President Eisele has contacted WYDOT requesting they get an opinion from the Attorney General to determine whether the budget provision actually provides authorization for County Treasurers to collect fees beyond what the current statutes dictate.

The legislators considered a bill to put the $5 increase into statute, but that bill failed.

The budget bill can be read here.

As the Budget Session gets into full swing, the WCTA will be tracking bills of interest and legislation the association has taken a position on.

Click here to view the WCTA legislation spreadsheet.