McKay Erickson, Representative for the Wyoming House in Area 21 which includes the south end of Star Valley, spoke with SVI after the conclusion of the first week of the 2026 session which is a biennium session focus on the budget.

“We have to consider bills that are non-budget bills and we had over 200 in the first week,” he said. “We ended up with 100+ that were introduced and about 50 of those made it. Others didn’t get considered. It was a bloodbath but I think we made some good decisions and can spend most of our time on the budget.”

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Erickson noted the following bills that are among those receiving attention.

Education Funding

“A bill for school recalibration did not make it through the House but the Senate version did,” he said. “In the House, it didn’t have much of a chance to be amended. There are just a fair share of individuals who want to see that go through without any kind of amendments. It gives us another shot to go through that in the Senate version.”

Wyoming Tomorrow Scholarship

“The Wyoming Tomorrow Scholarship extends the Hathaway for multiple years in case recipients need a break with life events,” Erickson added. “It doesn’t put a time cap on it. The money is there in their name and they could use it in an extended period.”

Expanded Property Tax Exemption for Veterans

“Last year when this was passed it was just for combat vets,” Erickson continued. “We are opening that up to all those who served honorably. We really like the idea behind it and the push to make sure we take good care of our veterans.”

Energy Policy

“There’s a lot of discussion about how open for business are we for using our sources of energy to develop the state,” Erickson said. “I’m for that and a series of bills that helps us take full advantage. If they can pay their own way and contribute to the tax structure I’d like us to be open for business.”

UW Funding

“It’s coming down to two camps,” he added. “Those of us who want to steer away from the vindictive funding cuts and I just think it’s too important and the opportunity it provides our kids. We’ll be looking to get that back and look into any programs that need to be addressed but not in a vindictive way. We want to keep our best and brightest here. That will be a major focus this week.”

Property Tax

We are trying to find that sweet spot,” Erickson noted. “We’ve made a considerable amount of effort to see that we’re giving relief and restructuring so that is not so painful to live in an expensive county such as Lincoln County. We want to give younger couples a change to buy and people to participate in our economy. We need to find that sweet spot so that we are not devastating our municipalities. We hear about a lot of the problems but there are a lot of good people who are working and driving to make things better.”