Letter To The Editor: The Legislature Remind Me Of Former UW President Phil Dubois

Dear editor: It feels like this year’s legislature is ... looking to change just about everything that Wyomingites hold near and dear, many of the reasons we continue to choose Wyoming as our home.

February 02, 20256 min read

Legislature 2 2 25

Dear editor:

As I walked my new puppy out in the desert today, I thought how much her golden coat matched the Wyoming prairie.

That made me think of when former University of Wyoming President Phil Dubois changed the university’s bright gold to “Wyoming prairie gold” in 2000, part of a marketing strategy designed to boost sales of Wyoming merchandise.

The new Wyoming prairie gold was beige whereas traditional Wyoming gold is a bright yellow gold.

This was hugely controversial with some fans refusing to switch out of their traditional brown and gold gear.

Meanwhile, the iconic UW logo was changed to look more like the Denver Broncos logo. A Gillette News Record article announced the return to the traditional gold in August 2007. Dubois left the university and state in 2005. 

Why is this relevant beyond matching my new puppy’s fur? Well, it feels like this year’s legislature is on a path reminiscent of Dubois’, looking to change just about everything that Wyomingites hold near and dear, many of the reasons we continue to choose Wyoming as our home.

A slew of bills that are counter to some of the best parts of the “Wyoming way” are threatening to upend our entire foundational beliefs.

What are some closely held Wyoming values? Rugged individualism with a healthy dose of community and get it done attitude. We are better when Wyoming problems have Wyoming solutions.

Local control is a key tenet to meeting the needs of people in our vastly different communities. Finally, Wyoming is unique and special and we don’t want to ruin it.

Let’s begin with HB 215, which threatens to undermine voters' belief in free and fair voting in the state of Wyoming by addressing problems that have been debunked many times.

When rumored stories of “I heard that somewhere else in the state there was the chance that someone voted illegally” surface and when people ask for proof of it, the proof is generally nonexistent.

Meanwhile, our friends and neighbors who work for the local county clerk’s offices are drug through a trough of dirty water of rumor and innuendo.

The damage done to their reputations and our voting system cannot be undone. But maybe that is the point?

In response to articles on this topic, people point out that we need to adopt paper ballots to ensure voting integrity. Did these people not vote in the last election?

We have paper ballots and I have always voted on one in my lengthy Wyoming voting career. That any bill would lead people to think that the election system has undesirable features that it does not have is troubling.

Maybe we should look at how to improve voter turnout since only 27% of the voting age population showed up for the 2024 primary.

Given that many races were determined by the primaries, this should be concerning that more people didn’t want to exercise their right to vote. 

Let’s move on to two very different bills that have the same goal: making certain government positions more political. (Given how many people hate politics, it’s hard to believe that people want anything to be more political.) HJ 6 would make state judges and Supreme Court justices run for election.

Currently a judicial nominating commission provides a slate of nominees to the governor who then chooses from that slate. Another bill, Senate File 98, would require school board candidates to declare a political party affiliation rather than making it a nonpartisan race.

Both of these bills are likely to lead to influential money pouring into these elections that could lead to the judges and school board members to feel beholden to their donors and make decisions not based on sound law and common sense but off of the desires of their political donors.

Again, I point to the fact that only 27% of the voting age population voted in August 2024. Will making even more issues hyper partisan and political lead to more people exercising their right to vote or will it push people further from the polls? Do Wyoming citizens want their judges influenced by any local, state, or national political party?

Finally, it’s somewhat jarring to see the self professed fiscal conservatives in our legislature promote bills that are obviously unconstitutional.

The lawsuits that will be filed over these bills will cost the state millions of dollars trying to defend what will almost certainly be struck down.

There are several bills in this category but let’s focus on HB 199. which creates a universal school voucher system. It will give parents $7,000 per student to choose options outside of public schools for their children.

The Wyoming Constitution prohibits state money from being spent on private or parochial schools. If this bill passes, it will be challenged in court immediately and it will take months or years to litigate. None of that litigation is free so you can bet that millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent only to find out that it is in fact unconstitutional.

Once that money is spent, it is gone and the only way to replenish the state coffers is to find a way to increase taxation (also not a very Wyoming thing to do). And will the proponents of these bills still be choosing Wyoming as their home or will they have long ago moved on, much like the former UW president? 

The legislature seems to not be listening to what constituents really want and need in this state: healthcare, support of local infrastructure, economic diversity, and protection of our abundant natural resources.

I’m not seeing a great deal of these bills from this legislature. Let’s learn some lessons from the past and not let ill informed decisions from out of state influences put us on the path that will take years to course correct.

By the way, my puppy’s coat is definitely closer to the traditional Wyoming gold and matches the true Wyoming prairie perfectly.  

Thank you for your time. 

Jennifer Wilmetti, Rock Springs