Lawmakers discuss bills at town hall

Posted 1/28/20

Local lawmakers have several favored pieces of legislation and issues they plan to explore in the coming legislative session, ranging from tweaking virtual education to making it easier to sue the …

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Lawmakers discuss bills at town hall

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Local lawmakers have several favored pieces of legislation and issues they plan to explore in the coming legislative session, ranging from tweaking virtual education to making it easier to sue the government.

Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, discussed Medicaid expansion plans with the audience at a Wednesday town hall at Northwest College. He stressed that he wasn’t for or against it. He just wanted to explain the facts and why it’s being considered as a way to address some problems with affordable healthcare.

Kost said current Medicaid income limits may discourage some people from pursuing more or better employment for fear of losing Medicaid coverage. There is another group whose incomes are above the poverty level, but they’re not eligible for Medicaid and can’t afford other options.

“They’re doing their best, but they can’t afford insurance,” he said.

The problem comes when people get sick and don’t seek treatment until they have to go to the emergency room, which is very expensive. They then can’t afford their healthcare bills.

This causes a strain on critical access hospitals, which serve much of the state. Powell Valley Healthcare is among them.

By law, these hospitals cannot refuse care. So, when bills go unpaid, they have to write it off as bad debt. This can run hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, Kost explained. These losses ultimately are borne by those with insurance, and the overall costs of healthcare go up.

Medicaid expansion aims to provide insurance to this population and help alleviate some of these problems for critical access hospitals. The cost to the state would be $20 million to $30 million, and the federal government provides a match.

 

Permanent daylight

Laursen said he’ll again be pursuing a bill to make daylight saving time the permanent time for Wyoming, which would technically put the state on Central Standard Time all year long.

In order for the change to be enacted, similar bills in Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho would need to be passed, and the federal government would need to approve the change.

Powell resident Carolyn Danko said that sunrise times near the Canadian border would be near 9 a.m. in January.

“Are we wanting our little kids walking to school in the dark?” she asked.

Laursen said he had tried to pass the bill in the last session, and this was one of the objections raised.

“But I think people are just tired of the clock changing. Trying to get back to your normal life is tough on people,” Laursen explained.

He said a compromise might exist going with a half-hour jump forward.

The three lawmakers asked for a show of hands of those who supported the measure, and about half the room showed support.

 

Sovereign immunity

Laursen said he would sponsor a bill that would prohibit the state from inserting clauses into contracts that allow them to claim government immunity when legal disputes arise. He said the clauses are unfair for contractors.

Speaking after the meeting, Laursen gave a hypothetical example of a case where a contractor was delayed in completing work due to a federal regulation beyond his control. The contractor then gets fined for the delays. If the contractor sues the state over a contract with that clause, the state can just claim governmental immunity.

Laursen said this could be limiting contractors who bid on state projects, and contractors may increase their bid to anticipate for costs associated with contract disputes that can’t be resolved in courts.

“They’re not going to complain about this for fear of retribution,” Laursen added.

Laursen sponsored the legislation in the previous session, and it died in committee.

 

Other bills

Kost also discussed his support for a bill that would allow for an expedited process for the voluntary exchange of private lands for state or federal lands, on a value for value basis.

The rationale for this, Kost explained, was to improve access, where a state-owned parcel is isolated by private or federal lands, making it difficult to lease or otherwise generate revenue off the land. The exchange would allow for more contiguous state parcels.

Northrup, who chairs the House Education Committee, expressed support for a bill to resolve a problem with funding for virtual education. State law was modified to permit districts that provide online instruction to students in other districts to receive funding for that work. Unfortunately, the law still doesn’t allow for the same thing within a district. So, for example, if a student at one Powell elementary school views a math lecture online provided by a teacher at another Powell elementary school, it doesn’t count toward the district’s funding.

“It’s hard to believe we have to have a bill for this,” Northrup said.

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