Wyoming Capitol Outlook

Wyoming took a big step yesterday toward becoming the first state to tax wind energy production – not property tax, not severance tax, but an excise tax, a duty on the megawatts produced by wind turbines. The House passed the tax on first reading yesterday after a legislative committee lowered the rate from $3 per megawatt to $1 per megawatt, and delayed implementation until 2012. Even then, new wind farms will have three years to generate revenue before they start to pay.

If the wind tax passes – and it has two more readings in the House and a trip to the Senate before it’s final – it will likely be coupled with other bills that more strictly regulate wind developments, requiring bonding for decommissioning, setbacks from property lines, and permits from county governments or the Industrial Siting Council.

With the reduced tax, Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) tried to redirect revenues to county governments – the entities most hard-hit by wind development – rather than the 60-40 split between the state and local governments in the original $3 tax bill. That failed, and under the current bill counties and the state will share the tax proceeds.

Several powerful legislators – Rep. Pete Illoway (R-Cheyenne) and Speaker Colin Simpson (R-Cody) among them – argued for “caution”, saying the tax idea needed more study before action. Earlier in the day, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said at a press conference that delaying for a study “is sending out the announcement for the funeral date,” and decried the “full fledged assault of lobbyists” trying to block the wind tax.

Rep. Tom Lubnau (R-Gillette), a leader on energy issues, said the wind tax was “the first time in my lifetime” taxes could be diversified away from fossil fuel severance taxes, and Rep. Kermit Brown (R-Laramie) said wind lobbyists would “dilly dally” and try to put it off more and more: “Let’s get started.”

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If Gov. Freudenthal thinks delaying to study an issue is “sending out a funeral notice”, perhaps that’s what he’s trying to do with the hike in retirement contributions for state employees. While the governor acknowledges that the retirement system is in trouble – not disastrous trouble, but serious enough to require a bigger contribution by both the state and employees – he asked the legislature to delay a year before state employees are asked to kick in a small contribution.

Currently, state employees don’t pay a cent toward their retirement. They’re supposed to pay half of the 11.4 percent of wages that go into retirement – with the employer, the state, picking up the other half. But since 2004, the state has paid the employee’s share as well. Quite the deal (full disclosure: my paycheck comes from the state, through Wyoming PBS, though I’m not in the state retirement plan).

To make the retirement fund more solvent, an additional 2.8 percent of wages needs to go in, and the proposal is to have the employees actually pay their half of that increase – about 1.4 percent of what they earn. Sen. Mike Massie (D-Laramie) joins the governor in arguing for a delay – hopeful, apparently, that they can cushion the blow particularly for young, low-salaried employees, and maybe another solution will come forward over the next year.

The Senate isn’t buying it. “Suck it up and take care of it now,” said Sen. Phil Nicholas (R-Laramie), “or ignore it and the problem cascades to larger and larger problems.”

The bill is moving forward in the Senate. No funeral notices have been posted. I’m cancelling next year’s trip to Morocco.

The various fees and federal money that go into maintaining Interstate 80 don’t pay the bill, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and so it’s asking the Wyoming legislature to create a “Tolling Authority” to collect fares from drivers – particularly of trucks – on the busy interstate. (Perhaps “Trolling Authority” would work too, since it’s angling for big dollars, and then it could also regulate those hairy little beasts lurking under the overpasses).

The income from tolls would pay for operation and maintenance, which now amounts to about $70 million per year, mostly federal money, and needs to be “twice that, ”according to Pat Collins of WYDOT. With the income from tolls, he told the Senate Appropriations Committee, his agency would embark on an ambitious effort to add a third, cars-only lane on the interstate from border to border. There would be no booths, but rather transponders or “license recognition” technology.

The authority and the plan are designed to please the Federal Highway Administration, which must approve any tolls on interstate “freeways”. And while Collins insisted WYDOT would be back to the legislature for permission before they “pull the trigger on tolling”, he acknowledged that this bill tells the FHA that Wyoming supports it.

“You’re telling me you’re going to do it,” said Sen. Charles Townsend (R-Osage), who eventually cast the sole committee vote against the bill (the Appropriations Committee reviews it only for fiscal impact – it came out of the Senate Transportation, Highways andMilitary Affairs Committee).

Townsend wasn’t just concerned about the trucking industry – who had a representative there to oppose tolls –but about the impact on Wyomingites generally. There is no mechanism for exempting Wyoming residents from the tolls, even if they’re primarily aimed at the enormous out-of-state traffic – 50 percent of it trucks – that beats up the interstate and scares us to death in February blizzards. The low-end of tolls would be about $3 per car and $30 per truck, and studies estimate such charges could drive as much as 40 percent of traffic to other routes – a big impact on businesses along the I-80 corridor.

But when Sen. Phil Nicholas(R-Laramie) noted that the heavy traffic was costing Wyoming more than it was getting in return, and asked the Wyoming Trucking Association for an alternative solution, Managing Director Sheila Foertsch said only, “I wish I had one.”

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Some familiar faces in different places:

Members of the Appropriations Committee can perhaps be forgiven when, during discussions of increasing employee retirement contributions, they looked for answers right past Thomas Wilson, the Executive Director of the Wyoming Retirement System, to a sandy haired fellow with rolled up sleeves standing in the doorway. It was Steve Sommers, who retired last year after many years as the indispensable budget expert at the Legislative Services Office. Sommers – who’s now in the retirement system himself – deflected questions to Wilson, who capably answered them.

Standing in the Senate Gallery last night well after adjournment was another familiar face, former Speaker of the House Randall Luthi. Luthi spent a couple of years in the George W. Bush Administration running the Minerals Management Service during a time when the agency was recovering from some major scandals, including influence-peddling for sex and drugs in the Denver office. Luthi has been practicing law in Wyoming for the past year, but will leave shortly to return to Washington, D.C., in the employ of the National Ocean Industries Association, which describes its mission “to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment” for companies developing off-shore energy. Makes sense for a guy who not long ago was testifying before Congress about polar bear habitat loss.

Only a government geek could produce a list of whichlegislative committees are the most “fun” to attend, but I can’t help myself –hey, I’m the same guy who rushed back from a Valentines Day weekend at a spawith my favorite wife to attend those meetings.

It’s at these early morning gatherings that important andrevealing lawmaking often happens, and I prefer certain panels for interesting(and often controversial) bills, good leadership in the chair, and a few sharp,articulate members to make the debate bounce.

Let’s start with the Joint Appropriations Committee, with a fat budget in hand and a love ofminutiae: be prepared to listen to a lengthy discussion of whether the word“only” on page 10, line 35, is essential to a study of fueling state vehicleswith natural gas. But this is how you find out that there IS such a study,hidden in hundreds of pages of numbers. And this committee is populated withsome of the better brains in the Capitol…though only one brain, that of Senate ChairPhil Nicholas (R-Laramie), seems to be directly wired into the budget.

Revenue Committees, don’t get much attention, but this yearthat’s where wind tax bills go, and the Senate team is another hub of smartsand wit. Senate Labor, Health and Social Services tackles tough issuescreatively; and you can find some fun in Travel, Recreation, Wildlife andCultural Resources, partly thanks to lively chairman Sen. Bruce Burns (R-Sheridan).

On the House side, the competing, assertive viewpoints inthe Education Committee have made it something of a madhouse in recent years –just what a journalist likes. Ag committees generally feature sedateconversations about strange pests and acre-feet of water, but I find myselfdropping in often on the House panel; also Travel, Recreation, Wildlife andCultural Resources is a big, fun bunch, particularly when they’re howling about wolves.

But my favorites are the Judiciary Committees, both Houseand Senate, which get some of the best, tough issues (this year it’s ramping up penalties for driving under the influence, which caused bad blood between House and Senate last year). I’m particularly partial to the House side, chaired by Rep.Keith Ginghery (R-Jackson). This morning they handled a bill that would deal with street gangs – mostly consisting of dogs where I live, but the committee handled it soberly and respectfully; workers’ compensation appeals – wherelawyers on the panel asked knowledgeable questions of the state Supreme CourtChief Justice, Barton Voigt; and the most serious of several resolutions topush-back against federal government intrusion on states’ rights, House Joint resolution 9.

It was a lively discussion, smoothly moderated by Ginghery,with a guest appearance by Speaker Colin Simpson (R-Cody). You grow to expectsmart questions and discussion from the whole bunch, but I’ll single out veteran Rep. John Patton (R-Sheridan),younger upstart Rep. Mary Throne (D-Cheyenne) and Rep. Frank Peasley(R-Douglas), a colorful loose cannon who often hits a target.

The bill is one of two moving forward in the House thatwould push back against federal government usurpation of states’ rights, andwhile it seems at times a fool’s errand – the U.S. Congress is not likely tocower before a resolution from the Wyoming legislature – it describes a routeto strengthening states rights provisions in the U.S. Constitution throughcongressional action that would be more plausible, and less explosive, thanconvening a Constitutional convention.

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The target of much ire among states toward the federalgovernment is the interstate commerce clause, a passage in the U.S. Constitutionthat gives the feds power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, Indiantribes, and among states – federal courts interpret it broadly to allow all sorts ofpesky regulation.

At today’s meeting, Ken Hamilton of the Wyoming Farm Bureauthrew out a funny phrase that was new to me but probably oft-heard among state’srights advocates: the ‘glancing goose’ theory, under which a goose flyingacross state lines looks down briefly at a body of water, and at that instant governmentlawyers declare the water a conveyance of interstate commerce, and subject tofederal regulation.

Wyoming is the nation’s energy bread basket, and every year the legislature has to tackle some new aspect of how government stimulates production, protects the environment, or extracts some revenue from the enormous number of ergs the state produces. Last year, it was the issue of carbon sequestration.

This year,it’s wind.

Two major bills were presented to the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development committee yesterday that would give the state and local governments much more control than they now have over the wind towers sprouting all around the state.

The bills emerged from the work of the Wind Energy Task Force, a public/private group appointed by the legislature (anyone who thinks legislating is an easy, low-wattage job needs to thumb through the task force’s report).

Rep. Tim Stubson(R-Casper) led the way on the first bill, which would give counties the power to set the rules for wind energy facilities; it would also require bonding and decommissioning plans, as well as setbacks. (Why setbacks? Rancher Doug Coopertold the legislators neighboring ranches worry about big turbines “throwing icicles onto my cows.” Big icicles.)

The second bill, led by Sen. Drew Perkins (R-Casper), brings larger wind farms under the authority of the state’s Industrial Siting Council. Smartly, the bill includes the collection systems – transmission lines, substations and other stuff – that may criss-cross the landscape around the many wind facilities now in the planning stages for Wyoming.

The joint committee seemed well disposed toward the bills, and we’ll see how they fare moving through the chambers.

Two other efforts to wrap government arms around wind power may prove more controversial, though both have the support of Governor Dave Freudenthal: One would put a one-year moratorium on wind energy projects using eminent domain to cross private land; the second would set up an excise tax, so the state could collect more than just property tax revenue from such projects.

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When politicians aren’t working on bills, conferring with lobbyists, or scarfing a little prime rib at one of the nightly receptions, one of the things they like to talk about is…other politicians. And a favorite topic these days is the upcoming race for governor.

Incumbent Dave Freudenthal seems to have enjoyed keeping everyone in limbo by holding out the possibility that he will challenge the state’s term limitation law and run for a third term. But while the governor keeps his cards close to his chest – even his closest aides claim not to have been told what he’ll do – the general view, including party insiders, is that he’s not running…not this year, at least, and not for governor.(Ah, yes, there are other offices, and other opportunities…)

On the Republican side, House Speaker Colin Simpson continues to say he will make his announcement either way after the session. But readers of the Drudge Report – not me, someone had to direct me there – may think the decision’s been made when they follow a bold ad at the top of the page asking: “Is it time for Wyoming to establish new taxes?” Click on it and you are transported to a non-survey in which you are invited to “Stand With Colin” against any new taxes. And, at the bottom: “Paid for by Simpson 2010 Exploratory Committee.”

Sadly, cousin Milward Simpson, director of Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, a Democrat, has announced he won’t run for governor, killing the possibility of some clever campaign games in a Simpson vs. Simpson race.

Every legislative session, an issue pops up that gets everyone in lather – lots of high-flying rhetoric, passionate argument, and time-eating maneuvers…over legislation that either doesn’t matter much too many or doesn’t ultimately accomplish much of anything. Last year it was gay marriage. This year: telling the federal government to back off.

There are several resolutions of this ilk on the docket this year, most of them reminding the feds forcefully that the 10th amendment reserves to the states all those duties not expressly conveyed to the federal government in the Constitution. “Cease and desist!” say the resolutions, and variously go after gun laws, endangered species protection, clean water rules, and federal ID requirements. House Joint Resolution 5 (Rep. Pat Childers,R-Cody, and others) sternly reminds the feds that we can “abolish” them whenever we feel like it. Gov. Dave Freudenthal has chimed in as well, calling for an amendment to the Constitution.

Now, most everyone has some aspect of federal government that they find intrusive or unwarranted. Of course, they may not always agree which: for some it may be restrictions on gun rights and for others it may be restrictions on abortion rights. Perhaps more important, though, is whether these time-consuming resolutions are an effective way to rock the halls of Congress in Washington D.C.

So, we’re instituting the Kerfuffle Watch (“kerfuffle” (Merriam-Webster): a disturbance, a fuss, to become disheveled). Let’s hope not too much time is spent fulminating about rewriting the federal Constitution from Cheyenne, when there are citizens in Wyoming worrying about jobs, educating our kids, health care and keeping our energy revenues flowing.

Non-budget bills require a two-thirds vote to get into the legislative stream, and the first few days of the legislature are marked by a lot of bills being read, argued for and against, and voted in or out.
Some are so obscure you may never hear about them, but we’ll try now and then to highlight interesting ones, and offer a few snippets of debate. For instance, a bill that was introduced this week to regulate juveniles’ use of tanning salons. Rep. Lori Millin (D-Cheyenne) is concerned that kids are going into the tanning booth with no rules about the duration of exposure, and wants to require parental consent before they turn up the heat. (Perhaps this should remind us on the Kerfuffle Watch that states can get pretty intrusive too…)

After Millin spoke passionately about the risk that kids darkening their skin today will risk skin cancers 30 years from now, House Minority Leader (and, incidentally, Native American) Patrick Goggles (D-Fremont County)got up and declared a “conflict of interest.” Speaker of the House Colin Simpson, chuckling and red-faced, said he was not sure this was quite the kind of “conflict” the rule contemplated.

Rep. Seth Carson (D-Laramie) didn’t get a deer this year, and he’s wondering if it has anything to do with the bark beetle epidemic that is turning the Medicine Bow Mountains rusty red.

Well, maybe not. Actually, the openings in the forest that may ultimately follow bark beetle kills could provide grassy meadows that would enlarge big game population. (Perhaps we should invite Rep. Carson up to Lander and guide him next fall – yes, WE got our deer…)

In one of those largely unnoted early morning meetings at the legislature that can be so informative, a panel heard U.S. Forest Service officials and State Forester Bill Crapser describe the huge acreages of pines under siege by the evil beetle. Over 1.2 million acres are affected, worst of all in the Medicine Bow (the Bighorn Mountains, so far, are relatively unscathed).

The beetles are attacking smaller and smaller trees, and the Forest Service,according to Rick Cables, the Rocky Mountain Regional Forester, and the absence of sawmills in Wyoming makes it harder to reduce the devastation and fire risk using private industry. Whether you think it’s caused by global warming or flatulent bison, it’s happening.

Cables proudly declared he’d wrangled $40 million additional federal dollars to work on the problem, but Rep. Jeb Steward (R-Saratoga) called that amount an “insult” against the scale of what he deemed a $5 billion problem. The smooth-talking Cables did not disagree.

It’s not clear, though, what the Wyoming legislature or even $5 billion falling from the skies could do, other than clean up the mess – marketing the dying timber may not be an option. There was talk about reopening the Saratoga sawmill,(there were nine sawmills in Wyoming a decade ago; one today), possibly with help from the Wyoming Business Council, but the market for its studs is terrible right now, according to Jim Neiman, who runs a successful forest products company in the Black Hills. Even pellets for stoves– a fashionably ‘green’ product – are lousy business in today’s economy.

And that’s just pine bark beetles. Other killer pests may be right behind, we learned this morning, including the Douglas fir bark beetle and the emerald ash borer.

In the closing days of an eight-week session, tempers fray, which can lead to some harsh words among colleagues, especially back and forth between House and Senate.

Nowhere is that more true than in the Joint Appropriations Committee, where they are thrashing out the final details of the supplemental budget bill in conference. The big issues are a property tax cut (which the Senate cut, but the House wants to keep in, using funds earlier appropriated for new building at the Capitol Complex) and whether or not to put $100 million in surplus revenues into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund or an easier-to-access rainy day account.

But the fights can be about almost anything. This morning, it was a House amendment directing state agencies to look for budget cuts. Senators led by Chairman Phil Nicholas (R-Laramie) argued that the legislature shouldn’t tell the governor’s executive branch agencies what to do – even though the amendment would pretty much underline what the governor was already saying to the agencies.

“Absurd,” said Nicholas. And a lot more.

“The image we’re giving ourselves is ridiculous,” said Sen. Ray Peterson (R-Cowley).

Disagreeing on the amendment, but perhaps agreeing with the description, House Chairman Rosie Berger (R-Sheridan) finally cut it off with a terse, “Thank you for that dialogue.”

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Perhaps the legislators would be in better frames of mind if they didn’t have so much to finish in the final week. At this point, those minds are mostly made up, the arguments are mostly exhausted, and there is rarely the opportunity to bring new facts or ideas to the table.

A meeting this morning of the House and Senate Travel. Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources committees was an exception, though. Experts from universities and the Wyoming Game & Fish Department presented information on research about sage grouse, wolves, elk, and…zebra mussels.

It was an informational meeting, and that was what made it so refreshing – no political posturing. (That is, unless things heated up when they got to wolves – by then I was listening to the howling in the Joint Appropriations Committee). Experts from the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University presented their project to map sagebrush – by quantity, quality, and species – for the entire state…a key tool in keeping sage grouse populations from succumbing to loss of habitat.

State officials are hoping to keep sage grouse off the endangered species list – not an easy task, given that the birds are “not the brightest of animals” according to CSU scientist Cameron Aldridge, and won’t do much to save themselves.

The legislators listened and asked questions, and it was heartening to think that they really want to know what the science tells us. Those present included the two committee chairs, Sen. Bruce Burns (R-Sheridan) and Rep. Pat Childers (R-Cody), as well as Sens. Kit Jennings (R-Casper), Kathryn Sessions (D-Cheyenne), and Hank Coe (R-Cody; and Reps. John Patton (R-Sheridan), Kathy Davison (R-Kemmerer), Dave Bonner (R-Powell), Bill Thompson (D-Green River) and Allen Jaggi (R-Lyman).

As for the zebra mussel – well, it’s a little shellfish that has traveled from its southeast Atlantic Ocean origins on the bottom of boats through Europe and across to the United States, where it has done tremendous damage to fisheries in the Great Lakes. It has now appeared in Colorado and California, and officials are doing their best to stop its spread in western waters.

Speculation about the infusion of federal stimulus cash into Wyoming continues unabated, with state officials shy about asserting a hard figure for what the state will get. You’ll read $501.8 million in the paper tomorrow; or possibly $516.8 million – both figures far underestimate what’s coming our way.

Those numbers – released today by Lynn Boomgaarden, Wyoming’s Director of State Lands and Investments – represent the minimum Wyoming government will receive in discretionary or non-discretionary funds, and she acknowledges the estimates are conservative. But if you look down the list – highway money, water money, education, and so on – you see a lot of blanks: grants to combat violence against women, grants for home weatherization, funds for Health Information Technology, areas where we don’t know yet what the rules will be sharing in the largesse. And there are other programs where we know the total dollars available nationally, but haven’t yet figured what we will apply for - like $1.5 billion (nationally) to combat homelessness; or $125 million (nationally) in rural law enforcement grants. There is funding available in all these categories, and if Wyoming fills out the forms, and makes a few rules, we’ll get some of it - but it’s not part of the $516.8 million calculation.

But that’s not all.

The $516.8 million represents only what comes to and through state government. There will also be millions distributed through federal agencies that are very big players in Wyoming, like the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. And there will be tax cuts that go directly to individuals, and work-study funds for Wyoming citizens that don’t flow through state agencies.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal and his staff are wisely cautious in what they say about the “moving target” of the stimulus package, which is still being shaped back in White House and various federal agencies. But it’s clear that it goes far beyond the formula dollars for transportation, education and other areas, and well beyond the $516.8 million identified so far. Let’s take a guess – really, nothing more than a guess – and say it will be above $600 million when the auditors have moled their way through the budgetary labyrinth. And that’s conservative.

Lynn Boomgaarden will be a guest on Wyoming PBS’ Capitol Outlook this Friday.

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It should surprise no one to hear that tempers fray in the legislature as the session scrambled toward the close. And the hottest friction points are often between House and Senate Committees which have to work out differences regarding key bills in last-minute conferences. Publicly, legislators are generally polite. Behind the scenes and off the record, it’s a lot more interesting.

It’s not just soap opera interesting – often, there is important legislation at stake, such as the House bills to toughen penalties for DUI (driving under the influence), which died this week. Legislators say part of the problem was the poor relationship between the Senate Judiciary Committee (chaired by Sen. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne) and House Judiciary (chaired by Rep. Keith Ginghery, R-Jackson).

Appropriations is another hot spot. There were threats on the Senate side (chaired by Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie) not to pass out a supplemental budget bill, because of battles with the House committee (chaired by Rep. Rosie Berger, R-Sheridan). That’s not likely to happen – there are too many goodies for too many legislators in the spending bill – but the two sides are barely speaking.

Same goes for the Labor, Health and Social Services committees (House side chaired by Rep. Jack Landon, R-Sheridan; Senate side led by Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper), where the enmity spans a couple of legislative sessions.

February 24, 2009

The move to cut property taxes for homeowners in Wyoming has gotten mixed support from the 60th legislature, where solons can’t seem to decide whether constituents consider it a priority. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted tonight to cut funding from an expanded homestead tax exemption bill – but not without a moment of sympathy for struggling homeowners like…Harrison Ford.

Ford, most of us know, lives in Jackson when he isn’t making movies. The homestead property tax exemption bill (HB 68) that passed the house would give most property owners in Wyoming a $300 tax break. Though there have been efforts to limit it to people with low incomes, or to houses below a certain appraised value (say, $275,000), the bill that passed the House, and a Senate committee, would apply to everyone who has lived in his or her house for a year and submits an affidavit to the county assessor.

Sen. Mike Massie (D-Laramie), who wanted to “means-test” recipients of the tax break (he suggested the property tax discount go only to households earning 300 percent of poverty level income), asked at the committee meeting tonight, “If we pass this bill, does Harrison Ford get a tax break?”

Appropriations Chairman Phil Nicholas (R-Laramie) said, “He probably needs it.”

Riposted Massie: “You’ve seen his last movie?” (Was that the forgettable fourth Indiana Jones movie; or has there been an even more forgettable movie since?)

The bill came back to the Appropriations Committee because of the price tag: it eliminate about $40 million in property tax revenues, which the state would then have to make up to local governments. The House has included the legislation in its supplemental budget, paying for it by shifting funds previously appropriated for work towards building an expanded Capitol government complex in Cheyenne.

The Senate committee, though, voted against funding the bill, 5-0. That could mean that property tax relief – now headed for the budget bill conference negotiations – could be in trouble.

It’s been unclear from the start whether this is the populist issue that proponents like Gov. Dave Freudenthal and House Speaker Colin Simpson (R-Cody) seem to think it is. Harrison Ford, after all, didn’t even show up to plead his case.

Education issues have slipped quietly through the 60th legislature, because most of the heavy lifting of recent years – on issues like raising teacher salaries, building new schools, and the Hathaway higher education scholarships – is completed and underway. But there is some fine tuning going on, and anyone interested in education might want to attend those early morning committee meetings where decisions are made. You are bound to encounter a bill or two by Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper), who has his hands in almost anything having to do with public schools.

For instance, ‘instructional facilitators’. When I was on a school board a few years ago, I was skeptical about these new state-funded positions when they appeared in my district’s budget. It was a fashionable new idea in education circles – ‘master teachers’ who would show struggling under-performers how to improve, without a penalizing evaluation. But it might also be seen as a way to pad school budgets with new positions, rather than just putting more and better teachers in the classrooms. (Journalists are trained to be skeptical – you might want to keep them off school boards…)

Among Harshman’s many bills this year is one to ‘fine tune’ the facilitator program, upping the qualifications for the position (more teaching experience, masters degrees, national certification) and evaluating results. “The days when I started, teaches were sole practitioners,” Harshman told the senators. Now, if testing shows students in a class aren’t “gaining”, in will come the facilitators to coach. “Where kids aren’t growing, we’re going to help those teachers grow.”

Chairman Hank Coe (R-Cody) called the facilitators “very successful. We all like it.”

But when we asked Mary Kay Hill, Director of Administration for the Wyoming Department of Education, whether the program was “very successful”, she said there was as yet no quantified evidence of that in a program only two years old. Districts like it – not surprisingly – but the evidence of success is purely anecdotal. Education officials, she said, are still working on tools for evaluating.

Nevertheless, even a skeptical former school trustee/journalist can tolerate Harshman’s bill, which passed the committee 5-1 this morning, since it costs nothing, ups the qualifications for facilitators, makes sure they are not used by districts for other purposes, and attempts to measure results.

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A recurring theme in legislative debates is about keeping the evil federal government off the backs of Wyoming citizens. Whether it’s clean water, or wolf management, or energy industry practices, it comes up again and again.

Now they’re even trying to get their hands on our drivers licenses. Bad federal government.

Wyoming is wrestling with whether to modify its drivers licenses to comply with standards issued by the Department of Homeland Security establishing what’s called the REAL ID so they can be accepted as identification for boarding airline flights, visiting federal buildings, or stopping in at nuclear power plants (one of our favorite vacation destinations). Though DHS set a deadline of 2008 for compliance, all 50 states have been granted extensions.

When a Senate-passed bill to move Wyoming into compliance came before the House yesterday, there were the usual complaints. “It’s the federal government once again coming in and telling us what to do,” growled Rep. Matt Teeters (R-Lingle).

But Rep. Roy Cohee (R-Casper) said Wyomingites might prefer complying to the alternative when they board a commercial flight. “If you think it’s onerous to have to take half your clothes off now,” said Cohee, “wait until you don’t have a REAL ID card – they will be examining places you don’t want them to.”

With imaginations running wild, the House passed the REAL ID bill on first reading.