2021 WACO Fall Meeting: Revenue Committee Meeting

2021 WACO Fall Meeting - Campbell County CAMPLEX

Revenue Committee Minutes

1. Renny MacKay gave an update on CARES Funding and ARP Strive, Drive and Thrive Strategy availability for County Hospitals to get reimbursement for nursing support; ARPA Revenue update: Infrastructure: energy development; economic Development-Lineup Workforce with Higher Education; Direct Distribution around ARPA – no proposal from Governor/Legislature

2. Jerimiah – Direct Distribution against ARPA is in play.

3. Mineral Ad Valorem Transition: no questions

4. Local Option Taxes: Revenue Meeting-Jerimiah will present

5. Interim Topic Discussion: Interim Topics being discussed by Revenue Committee

Agriculture, Water, State & Public Lands, and Energy & Environment Committees

Roll Call:

Lloyd Thiel, Dru Palmer, Terry Wolf, Bruce Jolley, Paul Bertoglio, Rob Hendry, Colleen Faber, DG Reardon, Dave Neves, Robert Short, John Espy, Jeanne Whalen, Rick Grant, Tony Lehner, David North, Mary Thoman, Joel Bousman, and Pat Wade

Approval of the May 2021 minutes.

Beth Calloway – Executive Update:

- Update on the 30 x 30 Initiative. There needs to be more of an explanation on a path going forward and they are monitoring the situation.

- Sage grouse: BLM going back to look at 2015 plan. Forest Service has not issued their final plan. They will monitor it.

- Gateway West oversight group: Project moving forward.

- Migration Corridors: Two corridor reports have been finished and there is one more report to complete.

- EPA and Army Corps of Engineers are going back to the previous WOTUS rule.

- Governor is petitioning the Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the grizzly. There is a petition in other states to list wolves again.

- FNRPA: There have been some budget cuts. There are limited funds for the remainder of the biennium.

- The moratorium on oil and gas leasing and the lawsuit that was filed by the State were discussed.

- A potential increase to royalty rates was discussed.

- Renewable energy: BLM is holding public listening sessions.

- Joel Bousman gave an update on what the NACo Public Lands Steering Committee is doing in regards to the 30 x 30 initiative and a letter they are putting together.

Esther Wagner: Update from Congresswoman Cheney’s Office

- Reconciliation

- Royalty rates

- Leasing moratorium

- Carbon capture

- 30 x 30 plan

- Working to reform the NEPA process and infrastructure bill.

Holly Kennedy

- Discussed the Meat Processors Act.

- The House only had 24 hours to review the Reconciliation Act.

- Department of Labor is looking at occupational heat exposure and a possible federal heat standard.

- WSA’s – Following up on the WCCA’s effort.

Kate Farr and Bryn Stewart with Senator Barrasso’s office gave an update.

- Carbon capture update.

- Onshore moratorium.

- Discussed were two forestry bills that they hope to get bipartisan support regarding replanting trees and active management.

Adam Stewart: Senator Lummis’s office

- Navigable Waters.

- Grizzly bear delisting bill.

- Stop Catastrophes Act bill.

Orphaned Water Rights – David Schroeder with State Board of Control

- Discussed how they become orphaned.

- Rights become defunct mainly because of development.

- People moving into what use to be farmland.

Effects of orphaned water rights.

- Interstate water compacts – Wyoming is subject to downstream obligations.

- Towns need more water to expand.

- Makes it difficult for appropriators to change right when there are orphaned rights.

Solutions

- The board is looking at various options to possibly move these rights and be able to put them to beneficial use elsewhere. With the current statute, their hands are somewhat tied.

- Try to keep it from happening going forward.

- Keep the water rights active.

- Detach rights into a bank and they need to be moved to new lands within five years.

- Proposed legislation was discussed.

National Association of Counties Update – John Espy

- WIR in Salt Lake: 10/12/21 to 12/15/21.

Meeting adjourned at 1700 hours.

Elections, Land Use, and Government Operations Committee

Present: Co-Chair – Phillip Scheel, Co-Chair Dossie Overfield, John Johnson, Terry Cram and Mark Newcome. Guests –Barbara Rasco, Dean - UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Gleyn Bledsoe - UW Extension, Suzanne Engels - DEQ, Mary Lankford – County Clerk’s Association, Leland Christensen – Senator Lummis Office. Jerimiah

Rieman, WCCA Executive Director – Industrial Siting.

Chairman Scheel called the meeting to order.

John Johnson moved and Dossie Overfield seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the May 20, 2021 meeting in Rock Springs. Motion passed.

Barbara Rasco provided the group with updated information on UW Extension. There was no 3% cut to the Extension budget; they currently have 6 open positions around the state; there is a proposal for three educators across the northern part of Wyoming, those being Ranch Management, Food Safety, and Family consumer science. They have hired two specialists 1) regional impact analysis, and 2) beef. They are currently looking for a weed specialist. School enrollment is steady. Barbara also updated the group on Academic reorganization being done at the University. Several suggestions were: Ag econ is staying in Ag college, Nutrition moves to Health Science, Early Childhood ed moves to education, and a proposal to move wildlife, fisheries, zoology, physiology and botany to Ag. Chemistry may be moved to Engineering.

Jerimiah Rieman updated the group on the Industrial Siting program and rule making efforts. DEQ is currently working on the rule. The group felt there needs to be a definition of “unmitigated impact." For future projects, there may be a tiered system of payment. This group proposed a tier system of 2.76% for small projects, 2.26% for medium

projects and 1.76% for large projects, up to the council’s discretion.

Suzanne Engels, Administrator of DEQ Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste Division gave an update on her programs. There is also a new DEQ website showing all landfills in Wyoming and what they accept at each site. There was a long discussion on disposal of CWD animals.

Mary Lankford, past county clerk and current consultant with the Clerk’s Association, gave an update on the process of redistricting. Proposal to keep 60 representatives and 30 senators. She reviewed some of the criteria that is used in redistricting such as “one man one vote”, geographic features can be taken into account, and all must be careful

with the voting rights act. She stated the LSO website has lots of information on the redistricting. After redistricting is complete, County Commissioners in affected counties will have to update precinct boundaries watching for no splits. She stated the run-off bill will probably come back this year to the Legislature, but it will take a constitutional amendment to pass so could not take effect until 2024. They are also looking at statute changes that would allow processing of early voting – not counting, just processing.

The Interim topics on the list to be discussed were: Special Districts, Public Works contracting, Reforming courts, and Search & Rescue funding. Very little discussion on these topics.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

WCCA Health, Safety & Social Services Committee

Fred Frandson – Chair, Washakie County

Gunnar Malm – Co-Chair, Laramie County

(NDM notetaking)

Attendees: Fred Frandson, Natalia Macker, Mike Jones, Felix Carrizales, Michael Colling, Tom Ringley

Guests: Angie Van Houten WDH, Stephanie Pyle WDH, Dr. Alexia Harrist State Epidemiologist, Dirk, Jackie King US Senator Cynthia Lummis, Jen Davis Health and Human Services policy to the office of the Governor, Larry Allen Fremont.

Commissioner Frandson called the meeting to order. The minutes from the May 20, 2021

meeting were approved. Commissioner Ringley moved to approve, Commissioner Macker

seconded. All approved.

Prevention Grant/Suicide Prevention – WDH - Angie van Houten, Stephanie Pyle

• WDH provided update on mental health and substance abuse issues around the state

• Highest burden for suicide lies within group of middle aged men; will see if data from

• Lifeline on ages can be provided data for lifeline on ages; Commissioners are interested in as granular of data as possible to assist with education efforts

• Felix and Mike Jones would like to be added to the prevention quarterly phone calls.

  
  

COVID 19 Update – WDH - Angie van Houten, Stephanie Pyle, Dr. Harrist

• 955 COVID-19 related deaths; Out of 130 deaths that occurred after vaccines were

  widely available, only 7 of those were among people who were fully vaccinated

• with the uptick in cases, hospitals are experiencing impacts; as of today 194 people hospitalized; National Guard activated to assist hospitals; working with Hospital

  Association to support efforts to recruit traveling staff; starting grant program for hospitals to utilize for staffing retention, vaccine, and other items; working on supply shortage for treatment options (this is a national issue/not just Wyoming); working with medical ethics committee on how to allocate limited supplies moving forward while there is a shortage – have received recommendations and are working on pushing those out;

• funding is available for schools for testing, contact tracing and vaccine administration (currently 15 school districts have requested funding); increase in testing demand is coming from employers; vaccine administration – trying to help in the 5 counties that

  public health is the only place to get it; FDA recommendation is that boosters should be available for 65 and older and those at higher risk because of health conditions;committee is meeting to work through this recommendation

• CDC recommendation is universal masking in healthcare settings

Rural EMS Service Update – Jen Davis from Governor Gordon’s office, Commissioner Larry Allen

• Governor has a taskforce working on this including costs of training, insurance

  companies are at the table talking about other reimbursement options (including

  Medicaid); looking at options for regionalization; aware that counties don’t have

  additional revenue options since 21 of 23 are at full 12 mills; big challenge is the historic reliance on volunteer workforce and that no longer getting volunteers in the door for staffing

• Next steps are to see what other opportunities there might be; Troy Babbitt is working

on NextGen 911 project so there could be some federal funding coming or could use

some ARPA funding to stabilize

Telecommunicator Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation – Richard Garrett, AHA

• Should dispatchers be certified in CPR instruction, and/or other trainings

• This training allows an emergency dispatcher to give guidance to a caller on how to give CPR to someone experiencing cardiac arrest until responders arrive

• Red Cross supports CPR for dispatchers

• This is an important component of a network and system of response and care because of distance/time required in emergency response

• Per AHA – TCPR must meet or exceed national standards, incorporate standards of AHA or Red Cross, and provide information on best practices for relaying instructions to callers

• Continue to work to see if we can craft a legislative initiative or a regulatory initiative or another way; would really like to see a statute but want to be sensitive to budget

  constraints

• Using legislation recently passed in Texas as model

• The transportation committee has taken up as interim topic; Rep Henderson is taking

  the lead on getting input from stakeholders on the bill

Indigent Burial Draft Agreement – Jerimiah Rieman

• Statute passed last session to get some funding, split with DFS and Counties

• DFS is administering the fund and is working with WCCA to give our 50% to the WCCA and then counties would apply to WCCA. Jerimiah is working through the technical elements of this and then would be able to start getting invoices. Currently planning to charge a 5% administration fee to the fund.

  
  

Title 25 –

• County Attorneys have rewritten this; first review is very positive in terms of shift to

  focusing on care and rights to the people involved

• All Counties should review and give feedback

Commissioner Frandson adjourned the committee.

Transportation & Veterans Affairs Committee

Meeting was called to order at 3:15 by Chairman Marty Ertman. There were 21 people present, Ralph Torango, Scott Taylor, Tom Dehoff, Pete Hallsten, Mark Ayen, Luke Reiner, Sara Janes-Ellis, Sandra Sandersen, Taylor Rosetti all representing WYDOT, Jenifer Shassetz (Sheridan P.D.), Joey Williams (Campbell Co. Sheriffs), Aimee Binning (NG 911 Planning Coordinator), Jerimiah Reiman (WCCA), Kelli Little (WCCA), Commissioners Marty Ertman, John Midkiff, Nick Siddle, Jim Willox, Robert King, Tom Ryan, Heber Richardson.

Commissioner Siddle was asked to take notes.

Commissioner Siddle moved to approve minutes of previous meeting. Commissioner King seconded, motion passed.

Topics Discussed:

County Road Construction and Maintenance Fund

• Regulations, Education, On-Line Form process, Manual rewriting

  
  

WYO Link

• Options for raising revenue, Sir Charge on citations, Increase 911 fees, Vehicle Registrations Fee.

• Need roughly $20 million in local level updates next 5 years.

Revenue Information System

• Covered fairly well by Director Reiner this morning

NG 911 Working Group

• See handout they covered.

Veterans Affairs

• Del Shelstead not present, and call to Tim Shepard unsuccessful.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:18