Election season is here, and the Freedom Caucus is touting its legislative achievements.
The list is thin.
They won a lawsuit affirming that printing fabrications on campaign flyers was permissible political speech, passed a series of constitutionally suspect abortion bills, advanced redundant election-fraud measures addressing a problem that has never affected a Wyoming election outcome, and claimed credit for energy production levels driven by market forces, not legislation.
They also passed a significant property tax cut without backfilling the lost revenue — a decision that has squeezed local schools, hospitals, fire departments, and emergency services.
The school recalibration bill deserves special mention. It fundamentally restructured Wyoming's school finance formula — the framework that has governed education funding for two decades. School finances are impacted and student activities are going to have to be curtailed.
Backlash has been fierce enough that the Freedom Caucus has taken to the airwaves to defend it.
But the real story of this legislative session is not what passed. It is what failed — and what would have happened had the Freedom Caucus controlled the House, the Senate, and the Governor's office simultaneously.
Start with the University of Wyoming.
The Freedom Caucus pushed a bill cutting roughly $40 million — about 11 percent — from UW's block grant, while exempting the Colleges of Education and Agriculture from the cuts. That would have fallen disproportionately on the science, business, and law schools. The University would have been gutted.
A separate bill would have stripped $6 million from UW athletics, setting the program back a generation. The instability caused by this cut would have impacted Wyoming athletics for a generation.
Then there was the misnamed "Second Amendment Protection Act."
The bill imposed a $50,000 civil penalty on any Wyoming law enforcement agency that cooperated with federal authorities on firearms-related enforcement.
The practical consequence: an officer assisting a federal agent who asks a suspect to put down a weapon could trigger the penalty if the suspect turned out not to be the intended target.
Every sheriff in the state opposed the bill. It passed both chambers anyway — and was vetoed by the Governor. Officers and departments who put their lives on the line daily were spared financial ruin for split-second judgment calls.
Three energy bills died in the Senate after passing the House: a moratorium on new solar and wind projects, repeal of the three-year tax exemption for wind energy production, and elimination of condemnation rights for electric generation collector systems.
Whether one supports or opposes renewable energy, legislation that arbitrarily picks winners and losers increases political risk and discourages investment in Wyoming across the board.
The gloriously named, "Fifth Amendment Protection Act" — the Checkgate bill — failed in the Senate after a supporter distributed checks on the House floor to legislators who subsequently voted for the measure.
The House found no impropriety. The Senate disagreed, and the bill died there. Institutional integrity, at least in one chamber, held.
A bill restricting state investment in companies with DEI programs died after analysis showed it would cost Wyoming's portfolio hundreds of millions of dollars in foregone returns. Writing ideological checks with the state's investment account turned out to be a bad idea even by purely financial standards.
A charge to purge libraries of so-called pedophiles collapsed for the simple reason that no evidence existed of any pedophile employed in a Wyoming library. Expect the issue to reappear in campaign mailers regardless.
State employee cost of living increases would have never happened. In the debate about the increases, Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie commented “I know this is a huge dollar amount, “But our greatest asset is our people — the people who come to work every single day so passionate about what they do.”
Freedom Caucus stalwart, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, countered, “I would say our greatest asset is the taxpayer.”
I guess we’ll see how that comment shakes out with the voters.
Finally, the budget. The Freedom Caucus could not pass a budget in its first session controlling the House. In its second, it spent forty hours debating amendments only to have its conference committee surrender the entire House position to the Senate in fifteen minutes.
The Senate's version prevailed. Had the Freedom Caucus controlled both chambers, Wyoming would currently be operating under a disastrous budget.
When you vote this fall, remember the full record. Some of the most consequential work done in Cheyenne this session was the legislation that never became law.
If the Freedom Caucus takes control of the House, Senate and Governor’s office this session, which is their stated goal, Wyoming will be a vastly different place that it is now.
Be cautious that your vote is not a vote to burn down the state.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
