Wyoming Legislative Report - January 8 - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

Wyoming Legislative Report - January 8

The 62nd Legislative Session is now underway and there's a lot of major tasks ahead of Wyoming lawmakers.

They'll have to craft a supplemental budget, address the proposal to expand state health care programs and discuss issues of school accountability.

Robert Geha will be at the Capitol each day with all of the hot topics this session.

You can expect a wide range of issues from legalizing gay marriage or civil unions to gun rights legislation. Also bills to raise the state fuel tax a dime a gallon to 24 cents and raise vehicle registration fees by 10 bucks.

Those revenue bills would raise about $90 million a year with about $65 million of that going to WYDOT for road maintenance. Should be interesting to see how Democrats and Tea Party Republicans line up together against the tax increase but for different reasons.

House Speaker Tom Lubnau is under fire for his idea of giving local governments the ability to regulate firearms in some public places.

Lubnau says his objective is to fix what he calls a poorly worded gun limits bill in the last session.

Opponents say this kind of legislation would strip gun rights from citizens and violate the U.S. and Wyoming constitutions and though they recognize the responsibility for public safety, they say the right to self-defense is equally important.

Look for anti-discrimination bills allowing for gay marriage or civil unions in Wyoming.

Democrat Cathy Connolly says the legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity to protected categories of state law.

Including access to fair employment practices.

Wednesday morning, Governor Mead will give his state of the state address to a joint session of the legislature.

We'll have complete coverage of that on Wednesday's newscasts.