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November 9 & 10, 2006
Room 302
Senator Bruce Burns, Co-Chairman
Representative Pat Childers, Co-Chairman
Senator Stan Cooper
Senator Mike Massie
Senator Tony Ross
Senator Michael Von Flatern
Representative Kermit Brown
Representative Kathy Davison
Representative Jerry Iekel
Representative Wayne Reese
Representative Jim Slater
Representative Bill Thompson
Representative Dan Zwonitzer
Representative Keith Gingery
Lynda Cook, Staff Attorney
Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the
Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
The Joint Travel,
Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee met in
The committee
adopted two bills requested by the department of state parks and cultural
resources relating to transfer of state lands to the department and divestiture
of the state veterans' museum. The
commission also adopted bills regulating gambling in the state and allowing the
state to enter into the multi-state lottery.
The committee adopted a bill providing for film production
incentives. The committee also adopted
several bills to address game and fish department funding.
Co-Chairman Bruce Burns called the meeting to order at 8:30 am. The following sections summarize the
Committee proceedings by topic. Please
refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.
Minutes from the July 2006 Committee meeting were approved with the
addition of language indicating that the department of state parks and cultural
resources received an attorney general opinion that the department could not
contract with the volunteers or another non-profit group to run the state
veterans' museum, as the current statute is written.
LSO staff walked the
committee through the bill and explained the provisions of it.
Craig Whitehead,
President of the
Virginia Shoffstall
and Ed Atchison, representing Wyoming Council on Problem Gambling, testified
regarding the bill. They are neither
supportive nor opposed to the bill. They
just want to ensure that problem gambling is addressed in this state. They proffered two amendments. The first creates a revolving account to
treat problem gambling. (Appendix 5). They also offered an amendment that would
require licensees to submit a plan to address compulsive gambling. (Appendix 6).
Mr. Atchison discussed the other problems related to problem gambling
including suicide, domestic violence and alcoholism. Mr. Atchison agreed to provide informational
data regarding the actual costs of gambling to communities. Senator Burns suggested that these amendments
should be part of a separate bill outside of the lottery bill.
The amendment
requiring licensees to implement a plan to prevent and address problem gambling
was discussed. There was discussion of
requiring signs at each license location rather than making a mom and pop
operation create a plan.
Howard Carson,
businessman, testified regarding the bill.
He supported the bill because the fact is that other states are
siphoning off revenues from
Ladonna Backman
testified in opposition to the bill. She
testified that powerball targets the people that can least afford it. She suggested that it is too costly from a
social perspective.
Linda Reynolds,
State Parks and Cultural Resources, testified that state parks would like to be
considered as a potential recipient of revenues from the bill.
Terry Cleveland,
Game and Fish Director, testified in support of the revenue going to game and
fish. He did not address the public
policy of gambling vs. not gambling.
John Emmerich, deputy director, proposed an amendment that would replace
“account to be used as appropriated by the legislature” with “fund, created by
W.S. 23-1-501 to be used”.
The bill was moved
by Representative Zwonitzer, seconded by Senator Von Flatern.
Amendments approved:
Page 1-line 12 Delete “and shares”.
Page 4-line 23 After “
Page 4-line 24 Delete.
Page 5-lines 1&2 Delete
Page 6 section (vi)
remove and insert representation by appointment district..
Page 9-lines 11
through 13 Delete.
Page 9-lines 8 &
9 Insert a salary of $150 per day for
days they are working. Use language
from page 3, gaming commission bill.
Page 11-line 20 Delete “Make” insert “By October 1,
submit”
Senator Massie asked
staff to find out how many other agencies have the ability to issue a subpoena
to compel documents.
Page 14-line 21 Delete “or” insert “through”
Page 15-line 15 Delete and renumber
Page 16-linesw 11
through 13 Delete
Page 17-lines 22 and
23 Delete
Page 18-line 2 Delete “(i) through (iv)” insert
“(ii) and (iii)”
Page 22-line 14 Before “costs” insert “reasonable”
Page 25-lines 15
though 22 Delete
Page 29-line 16 Delete “credited” insert
“transferred”; delete “a” insert “the”; delete “account” insert “fund created
by W.S. 23-1-501,” delete “as”.
Page 29-line 17 Delete “appropriated by the
legislature,”
Page 29-line 1 After “salaries” insert “and
benefits”.
Page 29-line 21 Delete “general fund” insert “state
parks and cultural resources department’s capital construction account”.
Page 29-after line 8 Insert:
(c) By rule and regulation the board may reserve
up to 1% of the total revenues for grants to be awarded to local governments
and nonprofit organizations to support prevention and treatment of problem
gambling. Criteria for the award of
grants shall include:
(i)
[use
criteria from Virginia Shofstall’s handout]”
Chairman Burns asked
LSO to contact the multistate lottery corporation to determine whether this
kind of top skimming is allowed.
Page 34-line 14 After “fund” insert “up to”.
Committee
discussion:
Senator Massie noted
that the committee dropped the restriction on receipt of gifts is to have the
stricter language of the
Representative Iekel
argued that a lottery is not a need for the state, it is a want. The state doesn’t need the money and it is
not worth the social economic impacts it will create.
Representative
Davison spoke in opposition because she is opposed to creating yet another
state agency.
Senator Cooper spoke
in opposition. He stated that the
legislature has looked at a lottery bill 6 times since 1999. It has never passed. He noted that 70% of the people who buy
lottery tickets are buying them outside of their family budget. He is concerned that the social costs will be
higher than it is worth.
Representative Brown
testified that he is opposed to gambling but he is support of this bill because
the people want it. He sees lottery as
distinct from gambling that entails instant gratification.
Chairman Childers
spoke in support of the bill because they need to be answerable to the people
and the majority of the people want it.
Representative Reese
spoke in favor of the bill. It is
something the majority of the people say they want. It may be increased government but it is self
supporting.
The committee passed
the bill (Opposed: Cooper, Davison, and Iekel).
LSO staff walked the committee through the bill.
Bruce Asay testified
in opposition to the bill. His concern
is that it sets up a structure by which gambling could be expanded within the
state. There was discussion as to whether
there is sufficient oversight of bingo in the state and no requirements for
where the money goes. There is also no
ability under current law for local authorities to prohibit gambling in their
communities.
George Parks, WAM,
testified that municipalities want to ensure an adequate ability to enforce
gambling laws.
Chairman Childers
moved the bill, Representative Iekel
seconded.
There was discussion
in how the multi-state lottery bill would work with the gaming commission
bill. It would depend on how the bills
progress.
Amendments adopted:
Page 9-line 20 Before “costs” insert “reasonable”
Page 12-lines 5
through 8 Delete through “chapter”.
Page 24-line 21 After “the” insert “maximum”
Page 31-line 13 delete “of” insert “as to”; after
“city” insert “or”; delete “or” insert “and the”; after “county” insert
“commissioners”; delete “in” insert “as to unincorporated areas of the state
of”; after “Wyoming” delete the remainder of the section.
Page 34-line 1 &
2 – reduce appropriation to $150,000.
The committee
discussed the need for the bill as well as the problems with creating a new governmental agency.
The committee passed
the bill (Opposed: Cooper, Davison, Zwonitzer).
LSO staff explained
the bill to the committee
The bill clarifies
the definitions within the gambling statutes the same as 07 LSO 0084.W1, but
without creating a licensing structure and state agency oversight.
The bill was moved
by Senator Massie, seconded by Representative Iekel.
The bill passed (Opposed: Cooper and Davison).
Senator Massie
explained that he requested state parks to provide the committee with their
needs for historical site interpretive needs similar to what they presented for
their capital construction needs.
Milward Simpson and
Pat Green presented the report.
(Appendix 9). Mr. Simpson
explained the department's interpretive needs.
The total budget to fully fund those needs would be $22 million. There was discussion regarding the various
specifics of their request. The request
would be only $3.4 million of one time funds if major construction were left
out of the request. (Appendix 10).
Representative
Thompson handed out a letter from Ruth Lauritzen, director of the
The meeting
adjourned at 4:30 pm
The meeting
reconvened at 8:30 am, November 10, 2006.
The bill divests the
state veterans’ museum as a state park, thereby putting control of the museum
back in the hands of Natrona county.
Milward Simpson explained that there was a meeting at the Natrona county
airport with all the interested parties.
There was a concern when the state employed curator left employment that
there could not be any non-state employees in the building when a state
employee was not present. In the
meantime the department reassigned a staff person from a park to the museum so
it could be reopened. The other issue is
that the state has professional curation requirements that the volunteers do
not want to follow. There were other
issues involving marketing and meeting the desires of the volunteers to
increase the size of the museum. The
largest problem is that the building is not museum compatible, but the murals
within the building that make the building so extraordinary cannot be moved,
and the building itself cannot be retrofitted without altering the historic
integrity of the building.
The building would
now be called the
Chairman Burns moved
the bill and Representative Iekel seconded.
Amendments adopted:
See Appendix 13.
The bill passed
unanimously.
The bill transfers
lands in several state parks that are held by the state land board to the state
parks department. It also transfers the
Lake DeSmet access lands to game and fish.
Susan Child, state
lands department, explained the bill.
Ms. Child provided maps of each of the areas to be transferred. (Appendix 15)
Ms. Child provided
amendments to the legal descriptions that were needed after reviewing the legal
descriptions with a fine tooth comb.
There are no substantive changes.
(Appendix 16). She also provided
an estimate of the value of each of those lands. (Appendix 17). The total estimate is approximately $5.5
million but that number may be higher when the appraisals are finished. Therefore they are asking for the bill to
provide for a $6 million dollar appropriation, or as much thereof as is
necessary to accomplish the sales.
Fred Pannel, state
lands, explained that the rent to state parks keeps going up and the value
keeps going up so if the state wants to keep these lands as a state park then
they should transfer them now.
John Emmerich, game
and fish, testified in support of the bill.
He explained that the Lake DeSmet access is very important to boat
access.
Representative
Zwonitzer moved the bill, Representative Davison seconded.
Amendments adopted:
See appendix 16 and 18.
Page 17-line 24 Delete “general fund” insert “budget
reserve account”.
The bill passed
unanimously.
07 LSO 0018.W2-Film production incentives. (Appendix 19)
Diane Shober
presented the bill. The bill creates
incentives for film production in Wyoming.
Ms. Shober provided a white paper explaining the benefits of having
films produced in Wyoming. (Appendix 20). She provided written testimony from Bill
Sniffen supporting the legislation (Appendix 21). She also provided an article from the Denver
Post discussing how Colorado is missing out on these productions (Appendix 22).
Ms. Shober explained
the process that would ensure that adequate consideration was received before a
penny was paid to a production company.
The department proposes to use the same process as the business ready
communities program.
Representative Iekel
walked the committee through the bill on behalf of Representative Berger who is
the lead proponent of this bill. He
explained how the bill met the requirements for a public purpose, statutory
authority and adequate consideration.
Milward Simpson
testified in support of the bill. Dave
Hanks, Matt Driskill, and Kari Cooper, Wyoming
Tourism Board, testified in support of the bill.
Tanner Dahlin, a
filmmaker in Wyoming, testified in support of the bill. He has first hand experience in production
where the lack of incentives in Wyoming is hurting the chances of having a film
filmed here.
Dr. Julie Elledge,
executive producer of educational programs, testified that her companies are
primed to film several projects and this incentive program would encourage them
to film in Wyoming.
Tom O’Day provided
written testimony in support of the bill (Appendix 23). Robin Elledge, Filmmakers' Exchange,
supported the bill. Lynn Birleffi,
Wyoming lodging and restaurant association, supported the bill.
Representative Iekel
moved the bill, Chairman Burns seconded.
Amendments adopted:
Page 2-line 13 Delete “a” insert “any one (1)”
Page 2-line 15 After “electronic” insert “or
film”
Page 4-line 1 After “state” delete balance of
the line
Page 4-line 3 After “state” insert “of
Wyoming”
Page 7-line 21 After “process,” insert
“requirements for substantial completion of contractual commitments,”
Page 10-line 6 Insert “Any money not expended by
June 30, 2008, shall not revert to the general fund.”
The bill passed (Massie opposed).
Terry Cleveland and
John Emmerich provided the committee with written testimony regarding the
departments need for additional funding.
(Appendix 24)
The bill provides an
account for reimbursing the department for lost revenues due to the various
free and reduced price licenses in statute.
Ben Lamb, Wyo. Wildlife
Federation and Wyo. Conservation Voters, supported the bill.
The bill passed
unanimously
The bill raises all
license, application, stamp, permit, and entry fees and landowner coupon
payments by approximately 20%. The
increase would raise revenues by approximately 5.6 million dollars each year,
although it would also affect the number of licenses sold.
Ben Lamb testified
in support of the bill, however he expressed a weariness of sportsmen having to
take on the brunt of the funding needs.
Lynne Birleffi,
Wyoming lodging and restaurant association, testified that her membership supports
this bill.
David Bush, Sportsmen
for Fish and Wildlife, testified that his board has not taken an official
position on this bill. The same was
expressed by Marian Shultz, outfitters and guides.
The bill passed
unanimously.
This bill causes an
annual increase in game and fish license fees based on the implicit price
deflator.
The department
proposed an amendment to bring in landowner coupon payments to the bill. (Appendix 28).
Ben Lamb supported
the bill.
The department’s
amendment was adopted.
The bill passed
(Zwonitzer opposed)
This bill authorizes
general funding for programs that benefit the population in general. Those programs are the sensitive species
programs, conservation programs, education programs, general programs, sage
grouse conservation programs and veterinary services programs.
Amendments:
The department
provided proposed amendments lowering the dollar figure and clarifying that the
funds are a one time appropriation.
(Appendix 30). The committee
directed LSO to draft the amendment in such a manner that insures that the
money may be transferred at the effective date but that if it is not all used
then the money would be given back.
The committee
supported and amendment to have the department report to be to JAC also.
Kathy Purvis, Trout Unlimited,
testified in support of the bill.
Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife support this concept. Wyo. Wildlife and Wyo. Conservation Voters
support the bill.
Members of the game
and fish commission testified in support of this bill.
Jim Magagna,
Stockgrowers Association, testified that they recognize the legitimate need for
funding for these areas and realize that funding should be from more than just
sportsmen. However, he wants to see
language in the bill that ensures that none of the money be used to acquire
lands in fee title or water rights. With
respect to general programs, he disagrees with funding the administrative
expenses unless they bear a relationship to the proportion of the budget from
general funds.
The bill passed
unanimously
The bill extends the
exemption from property taxes for state owned property to the game and fish
department.
Jim Magagna
testified in opposition to the bill.
The bill was tabled
by unanimous vote.
There being no further business, Co-Chairman Pat Childers adjourned the
meeting at 3:50 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Bruce Burns,
Co-Chairman Pat
Childers, Co-Chairman