When Wyoming legislators gavel in for the biennial budget session this week, their primary focus is supposed to be grappling with the dollars and cents of the state budget. For 20 days every other year, our elected lawmakers are tasked with this one non-negotiable constitutional duty: passing a balanced state budget that allocates funds responsibly.
I can certainly give them grace as they prepare for what’s ahead – this is not an easy task, after all. It would be absurd to expect 93 opinionated legislators confined to one building for the majority of 20 days to engage with perfect harmony when it comes to where the government should invest more and where they should trim the fat. But ultimately, when it comes to our state’s revenue stream, Wyoming’s not in trouble. In fact, Gov. Mark Gordon has proposed a balanced budget.
What we should expect, however, is that our lawmakers stay focused on their constitutional duty and the task at hand. Yet mere days before the start of the legislative session, it appears the lure of sideshow attractions are taking priority in the minds of our elected leaders.
If the early bill filings are any indication, we’re at risk of trading serious governance for a high-stakes “culture war” circus that could jeopardize our civil rights and liberties. A sample of this legislation includes:
- House Bill 10, this year’s version of a now-familiar culture war tactic: book banning. This legislation – which insinuates that public and school libraries house “sexually explicit” materials – would require librarians to move books the government deems inappropriate. Moving a book to a less accessible section for its intended readers or removing it from a school library entirely is an example of censorship and substitutes state control for parental judgement.
- House Bill 32, which would authorize Wyoming law enforcement to test truck drivers’ English if they suspect someone lacks proficiency in the language. Policies like this do more harm than good, often allowing discriminatory motives to guide decision making, rather than genuine safety needs.
- House Bill 49, which would ban absentee ballot drop boxes and make voting less accessible for Wyomingites. Absentee ballot drop boxes in convenient places allow voters to securely cast their ballots at a time of their convenience – especially important for rural voters who have to travel long distances to vote.
Some legislators may claim they have a “mandate” to push bills like these through the legislature. But their duty is to pass a budget. And with 20 days of a budget session, every hour spent debating these kinds of bills is an hour stolen from the real work that goes into fulfilling that duty.
While politicians argue over so-called “obscene materials” in libraries or how voters return their absentee ballots or the English proficiency of truck drivers passing through the state, the actual nuts and bolts of our state’s future that live in the budget – from education funding to essential health care services – could be left in the shadows. Culture wars, after all, don’t pay the bills.
Lawmakers’ opportunistic attempt to usurp the priority of the budget and ram through bills with sweeping, catastrophic consequences for civil liberties represents a continued failure to respond to constituents’ demands. As Americans, we pride ourselves on our democracy – what we like to think of as the greatest system of governance on earth. What’s happening in Cheyenne is starting to look more like a three-ring set up for the greatest show on earth.
And when the session becomes a circus, the clowns are the only ones who win.
We don’t need performers in the Capitol. We need accountants, builders and leaders. It is time to leave the costumes at home and get to work on the 2027-28 budget that actually determines our quality of life.
We’ll be paying close attention to what our legislators are doing in Cheyenne, and we hope you will, too.
A version of this column also appeared in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.