Rep. McKay Erickson (R-Afton) called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Monday, February 16 with a report on the ongoing 2026 Wyoming State Legislative session in Cheyenne. Rep. Erickson touched on bills related to education and education funding, property taxes and more.

(0:00) 744 this morning on SVI radio, Swift 98 and the spur joining me live now over the phone, (0:07) Representative McKay Erickson of Star Valley with the legislative report from Cheyenne this morning. (0:11) Good morning, Representative. What one week down and two more weeks to go, right? (0:17) You bet.

Well, three weeks. Three. Yeah.

Who’s counting that way? (0:22) Yeah, I guess it’s all in all in days, but I know. Appreciate your time. And (0:26) it’s been, of course, a lot of work early, early on.

Maybe give us a quick snapshot of (0:32) what the first week was like in Cheyenne. Yeah, well, we, you know, as everybody knows, (0:38) we have to consider all these bills that are non-budget bills. And we definitely filled the (0:45) docket with a bunch of those over 200 bills came at us and were written to come at us.

And I think (0:53) we ended up with 100 plus that were actually introduced or made the cut of the speaker and (1:02) then about 50 of those or so made it. Others didn’t get considered. And so it was a bloodbath (1:08) that first week of, you know, having to consider a lot of information right off the bat.

And (1:15) but I think we made some good decisions on those. And we’ve got some (1:18) ones that need to be considered during this budget session as well as (1:23) spend most of our time on the budget. So I feel good about that.

Well, of course, (1:28) Representative in the House Education Committee, there’s been a lot of talk getting into the (1:33) session and even during the session on education funding and and everything like that. Of course, (1:38) you and I talked quite a bit about the recalibration bill, and that was one that (1:41) actually did not pass the two thirds vote, correct? Yeah, it didn’t make it through the (1:47) House version of that. But actually this morning, the Senate version of it is going forward.

And (1:53) again, we feel good about that simply because in the House, I mean, who’s kidding who? It didn’t (2:00) have much of a chance to be amended because of there’s just a fair share of individuals that (2:08) want to see that recalibration go through without any kind of amendments or adapting it to make it (2:16) better and to pull the levers that needed to be pulled to make it fair and equitable. So we were (2:23) okay with that. It gives us another shot at doing that through a little more favorable of a committee (2:29) and that is through the Senate version.

So that’s actually being presented up there to the committee (2:35) tomorrow or today this morning at eight o’clock. And we have some local folks down here even ready (2:41) to testify on that. So that’ll be that’ll be good to hear.

So I’m headed up there right after (2:47) we get done with this. So Representative McKay Erickson on the weekday wake up this morning, (2:52) any bills that did go through last week that you feel are worth mentioning this morning? (2:58) Yeah, you bet. I kind of want to talk about it.

It’s an education bill and it’s Wyoming’s Tomorrow (3:03) Scholarship. And what it does is it extends the halfway scholarships out for multiple years in (3:10) case recipients need a break for say, you know, a mission, a family, jobs, military service, (3:16) or, you know, just basically unexpected life events. And it doesn’t put a time cap on that.

(3:22) So we do have lifelong learners that can, you know, once they earn that (3:26) halfway scholarship, they’ll be able to use that throughout the years. And again, (3:31) the money’s there. It’s not like we have to come up with the money again.

It’s there (3:35) in their name and they can use that during kind of an extended period. (3:42) So I like that one. We also all just kind of jump into these.

I know we’re a little short on time, (3:47) but I was real proud of and happy to see the Veterans Property Tax Exemption for all (3:53) that have served honorably. And if you remember that bill passed a couple of years ago, it was (3:59) just for combat veterans. And so we’re opening that up, the property tax exemption for non-combat (4:08) vets too, and that includes the National Guard.

So again, really liked the idea behind it as well (4:18) as the push behind it for making sure that we take good care of our veterans and give them the (4:24) honor that they deserve. So that was a good one. I’ll just jump on to a couple others here.

Of (4:31) course, we’re dealing a lot with the energy policy of Wyoming going forward and how open for business (4:37) are we to consider using our energy sources, our abundance of energy sources to really develop (4:44) the state. And I’m for that. I’m really pushing hard on a series of bills that open us up and make (4:52) sure that we are taking full advantage of that.

I’m kind of the any and all. If they can pay their (4:58) own way and they bring back jobs and tax structure to the state of Wyoming, I’m for that. So we (5:07) just want to show that we’re very much open for business and Wyoming will work out our best (5:13) possible plan to develop our energy sources.

Of course, you’ve probably heard, Duke, about a lot (5:20) of the funding for the University of Wyoming. It’s kind of coming down to two camps, I guess, (5:31) if you will. There’s those of us who want to see us completely steer away from the vindictive (5:38) funding cuts that are really focusing on, well, we’re going to teach you a lesson and we’re (5:44) going to hold the purse strings and take that away.

And I just think the University of Wyoming (5:49) is way too important and the opportunities that it provides our kids. And so we’ll be attempting (5:55) to get some of that funding back. And if there’s a problem with one of the programs, (6:00) then we want to deal with that and have oversight in that, but not act in a vindictive way to cut (6:08) the budget for a great university.

So we want to keep our best and brightest here. So that will be (6:16) a major effort this week as we continue on with the budget as well as some other bills that are (6:22) related to that. So it’s good stuff.

Absolutely representative. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Go ahead. (6:28) I just was going to say one, of course, I get a lot of calls and of course we’re still talking (6:34) about property tax discussion and how to really zero that in and find that sweet spot that we (6:41) know. See how the adjustments that we’ve made, we’ve made a considerable amount of effort (6:47) with three or four level levers that have been pulled to see that we’re giving tax property (6:55) relief and especially restructuring so that it’s not so painful for people to live in a very (7:01) expensive county in Lincoln County.

And hopefully give that opportunity for younger couples to be (7:10) able to buy and individuals able to move here and participate in our school systems and working at (7:17) our hospital and things like that, because we’re having a hard time finding people that can (7:21) actually afford there. But we’ve got to, as I said before, we’ve got to make sure that we find (7:26) that sweet spot to where we’re not absolutely devastating our municipalities, our special (7:31) districts, local education. So that’s going to be a tall order.

That’s a big lift in order to do (7:37) that. But we’re headed that way. And, you know, kind of like I’ve said to multiple people, you (7:49) know, actually, we hear about a lot of the problems here in Cheyenne, but there’s a lot of (7:54) dang good people that are really working and striving to make the state better.

And I like (8:01) to focus on the positive movements and the proactive nature of the legislature to try to do (8:07) our best. So we’re hoping for that. That’s Representative McKay Erickson of Star Valley (8:12) House District 21.

Appreciate your time as always, Representative, and we’ll touch base again soon. (8:18) You bet. Hello to everybody up there.

I’m getting homesick, but I’ll make it through. (8:23) Well, we appreciate what you’re doing in Cheyenne. Thank you so much.

(8:26) All right. Thank you. (8:27) You bet.

That’s Representative McKay Erickson. It’s all part of the (8:30) weekday wake up this morning on SVI Radio.