Our View: Legislature needs better priorities

Another legislative session has wrapped up and while there were some positive aspects to the session, there were some pieces of failed legislation that really shouldn’t have.

One of the more disappointing failures involved legislation that would include protections for gay and transgender residents. The bill’s hearing in committee made news when a Republican representative from Cheyenne made disparaging comments about the bill, commenting about the lack of protections for pedophiles and suggesting the bill take effect when Hell freezes over.

The bill’s failure left a scar on the state motto as “The Equality State.” Wyoming lives in the shadow of Matthew Shepard’s murder, despite the fact that it took place nearly 20 years ago. While Wyoming is slowly catching up in promoting equality for its gay residents, actual legislation extending discrimination protections against gay and transgender residents, without allowing for religious exemptions, would help bring the state into the 21st century. It’s something that should be revisited during the next legislative session.

A second disappointment was the legislatures failure to adopt a plan extending Medicaid benefits in Wyoming. This move would have allowed many low-income residents the opportunity to seek healthcare under Medicaid and, as the Wyoming Department of Health has pointed out, would have saved the state money in the long run. Wyoming’s a deeply Republican state, which can be argued can hurt the state in some situations. This is a case where its residents have been impacted by the state’s refusal to work with the federal government.

Another issue that is disappointing is the legislature’s look into the possibility of taking over federally-administered lands. What this could ultimately result in, if the legislature moves forward after its interim study is complete, is a situation where Wyoming residents’ right to actively hunt, fish and camp on federal lands will be restricted in favor of some other use. As Rep. Stan Blake, D-Green River, fears, it could mean the state would sell that land to allow mineral development and other business interests to take precedence over what many residents feel is their right to recreate. This is something the legislature should back away from, as the state could not only pay the cost of maintaining federal public lands, but if it winds up a ploy to sell land for mineral development, the people hurt by that plan would be the state’s residents themselves.

The Wyoming Legislature has done a lot of good for Wyoming, but these instances show there needs to be some improvement, or at least a mild paradigm shift in the legislature to help Wyoming with what matters most, its residents.

 

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