CHEYENNE — The first movements in an interim committee study may be discarded as debate continues.
So there is still hope that a couple of the recent unfortunate decisions will die as debate continues and the new set of summer lawmakers will have more time to ponder their positions.
If instead they progress further, perhaps unhappy citizens should start planning for “Save Local Control” protests in front of the Capitol building.
This new legislative gang in charge is the hard right-wing Freedom Caucus, a religious so-called populist party.
It controls 42 of the 62 seats in the house, according to a recent Politico interview with Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett.
With Democrats controlling only six house seats, that leaves only 14 for the remaining traditional Republicans.
The caucus is exerting its new power for actions that are totally in union with the federal MAGA version of a populist party with a religious bent.
But some of those actions are contrary to Wyoming’s independent positions when it comes to governing.
One example is public schools. Local control of those schools has always been sort of a sacred cow. Look at all the lawsuits.
The other big sacred cow was the University of Wyoming (at least in winning Cowboy football years).
But the university has suffered blows from the new MAGA federal administration and from within.
This decision on how to handle school library books for age levels of students is now up the local school boards.
We have had a succession of rousing school board meetings bursting with disagreements over the control of the books. Some of those conflicts were decided through the school board elections which were local.
Recently the Joint Judiciary Committee voted to forward a bill to regulate the school books for sexual contact with the main target being gay and associated groups.
So here it goes. Probably another lawsuit down the line.
The school book ban was not unexpected.
What was a shocker was the sudden attack on the tax money local governments spend to get representations from the such organizations as the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association
These are professional groups with directors and lobbyists who have credibility with the Legislature and attend countless committee meetings to present the case for their local government clients.
Without them I think you could have chaos.
In the worst scenarios, the lawmakers could expect lots of visits to the Capitol Building, including busloads of mayors, county commissioners, sheriffs, police chiefs, fire chiefs — the list goes on.
I don’t think this new idea will live long in the corporations committee, however. The mayors are organizing.
The third dud proposal has nothing to do with local control. It is the committee move to vote to submit Supreme Court justice nominees to vetting by the Wyoming Senate.
Obviously, the caucus people are upset with Wyoming judges because of their adverse rulings so far on the Legislature’s anti-abortion law.
This move is their retribution.
It must be pointed out that if the lawmakers had crafted their law more carefully there might not have been a lawsuit, or if there were, they might have prevailed
The purpose of the current judicial selection system which has been in place for decades, was to get the seating of judges out of the political arena as much as possible.
The committee proposal plunges it back in with both feet.
The Wyoming Legislature can do better than this.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
