Wyoming Senate debate letting government publishing occur online vs. in newspapers By Brendan LaChance on March 3, 2021
(Shutterstock)
CASPER, Wyo. The Wyoming Senate took up debate on Wednesday, March 3 to eliminate some requirements for government entities publishing information in local newspapers.
Senate File 17 would allow counties, towns and school districts to post minutes of meetings and salary information on their own websites rather than paying to have these published in a newspaper.
“As you can imagine, needing to pay for publishing of minutes of meetings when [those can be made] available on the public entity’s website or other locations can be quite costly,” Sen. Tara Nethercott (Laramie County) said. “We heard testimony from some of these entities that it comprises anywhere from 1% to 10% of their total budgets and can have a particular impact on the smaller communities where those margins are significantly smaller.”
By Brendan LaChance on February 24, 2021
Voters cast ballots in Vista West on Tuesday, Nov. 3. (Dan Cepeda, Oil City)
CASPER, Wyo. Wyoming and the United States operate as republic in which the people elect representatives who then have the authority to establish laws, including the ability to impose taxes.
Wyoming’s Senate Revenue Committee rejected an effort that could have moved the state in the direction of direct democracy rather than the republican form of government during their Tuesday, Feb. 23 meeting.
The committee rejected Senate Joint Resolution 01 on a vote of 1-4 during the meeting. That resolution wouldn’t have implemented full-blown direct democracy, but proposed putting a question before voters to amend the Wyoming Constitution such that voters would have to approve any new taxes or tax hikes.