Amid a recurring spat about the difference between resident aliens and illegal immigrants, the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board voted Thursday to allocate $5 million for various infrastructure and housing projects – mostly for small Wyoming towns.
The project stalled during an April 2 meeting when the board tabled it.
At that meeting, Secretary of State Chuck Gray tried to bring an amendment to ensure that for the housing-related grants, only U.S. citizens could receive the benefit, and that applicants would be cross-checked through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.
Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and state Treasurer Curt Meier both struggled aloud with the logistics of that.
A spat between Gray and Gov. Mark Gordon followed, and the governor told Gray to “shut up.” The governor apologized for his outburst the following week.
On Thursday, Degenfelder said she’d been working with the Trump administration on acceptable language for verifying people’s residency in the housing programs. She said she’d run the language through the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office as well.
“In the last few weeks I’ve worked with the Trump administration to ensure we’re aligned to their vision of the future of housing benefits, and really with this intent, we ensure Wyoming taxpayer dollars are not benefitting (the use of) these programs to illegal immigrants,” she said.
Degenfelder requested a global condition for housing benefits, that would have the entities receiving the grants check initial purchasers or residents through the SAVE program, and report annually to the board’s administrative arm, the Office of State Lands and Investments.
Under her amendment both U.S. citizens and resident aliens could receive the benefits, as it invoked Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980.
Gray questioned whether that federal law should apply to state grants.
Degenfelder had had a similar question April 2, when Gray first pitched the idea of using the federal SAVE system for verification.
Gray said Thursday that Section 214 "has nothing to do with the application of state funds."
He added, "I think (Housing and Urban Development Authority) was probably a little confused about what exactly we're trying to do. I wasn't at that meeting. I wasn't invited. But I think the idea that this federal law would need to apply to state funds is just incorrect."
Gray later called the "resident alien piece... so offensive to me and wrong" and asserted Degenfelder's amendment was "watered down."
After Gray made multiple attempts to replace Degenfelder's amendment with his own, Degenfelder parried, "I just want to be abundantly clear, with the Section 214 language: that was given to me by the Trump administration, whom I support wholeheartedly. That language was from them, not watered down."
Gray answered, "So, President Trump didn't give you that personally, correct?"
Degenfelder said he hadn't, it was from the Housing and Urban Development Authority.
"Oh, so it’s not the president," said Gray. "Gotcha."
Gordon steered the board back onto the vote. The SLIB consists of the state's top five statewide elected officials.
Trump has endorsed Degenfelder to become Wyoming's next governor. She is running in a three-way race for the GOP nomination against retired Marine Col. Brent Bien and state Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, each of whom has garnered various endorsements of their own.
Gray is running in a 10-person race for the GOP nomination for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat. To date, Trump has not publicly endorsed a candidate in that race.
The Constitution
Meier asked Gray if he was “aware that resident aliens were part of our constitution’s protections for property rights?”
Article 1, Section 29 of the Wyoming Constitution says, “No distinction shall ever be made by law between resident aliens and citizens as to the possession, taxation, enjoyment and descent of property.”
Meier later characterized resident aliens as different from undocumented aliens. He gave examples of green card holders and temporary visa holders.
The IRS defines resident aliens as people who aren't U.S. citizens but meet the green card test or "substantial presence test."
Gray disputed Meier’s reading of this provision as too broad, saying it shouldn’t apply to public benefits, which are different from the right to own property.
The two men persisted in disagreement on that issue throughout the meeting. Meier later said that as public officials, they risked violating their oaths of office and in turn being thrown out of office if they violated the state constitution, which he asserted adopting Gray’s amendment would do.
Gordon discouraged excessive back and forth outside the allocation effort.
Gray repeated his motion to revert back to his amendment numerous times throughout the meeting, and every time it died for lack of a second.
“Mr. Secretary, I’m sorry, that fails,” said Gordon.
The board also changed Degenfelder’s amendment so that the state’s E-Verify citizenship check and Real ID Wyoming driver’s licenses would serve to verify residency or citizenship.
“This is a significant watering down of what’s already been watered down quite a bit with the superintendent’s motion with allowing resident aliens,” said Gray.
Gray voiced his protest of each project with a housing component, saying it’s “offensive” to the people of Wyoming that resident aliens would be receiving the benefits.
Toward the end of the meeting Gordon asked Gray to clarify whether he understood that not just resident aliens, but also U.S. citizens could receive the housing benefits.
Gray confirmed that it could be “either.”
The Transparency Pitch
Chris Rodkey, a Pavillion man, approached the board to urge public transparency, as well as responsibility and accountability, regarding publicly funded projects.
Gray asked Rodkey his thoughts on, “How we break the dishonesty of the media?”
“If you’re pursuing an America-first conservative perspective in this country and in state policy, I mean it’s a 24/7 onslaught attempt by the media to obscure that work and sort of, do the bidding of this insider group that doesn’t want the policies that the silent majority wants,” said Gray.
Rodkey said he hadn’t labeled the media as “per se” dishonest in his speech urging transparency.
The media could have covered county commission meetings better in some instances, perhaps, said Rodkey.
“But by and large I think (transparency) falls back here – to these (governmental) groups,” he said. Rodkey theorized that whatever the government would spend in advertising public benefits allocations, would yield a monetary return in fiscal conservatism.
“That’s my thought on that,” he said. “The media is going to change as we push it to change.”
Gordon said he’d “love to work with” Rodkey on viable avenues.
The Approval
The board approved the following:
- $500,000, mostly for ADA-compliant sidewalks, curbs and gutters for the town of Lander;
- $400,000, for a house-flipping program in Upton and Newcastle, by which the towns could resell the refurbished properties at market value;
- $400,000 for infrastructure for Ranchester;
- $500,000 to fund infrastructure and other provisions for developmentally disabled people in Cheyenne;
- $750,000 to house working people in Rawlins;
- $750,000 for infrastructure in Buffalo;
- $373,000 for infrastructure in Ten Sleep;
- $327,000 for county employee housing in Washakie County – which one commissioner said was to house a sheriff’s deputy in the town of Ten Sleep;
- $1 million for a road project in Kemmerer.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
