A bill that would have given Wyoming's five statewide elected officials raises has died in the Wyoming House, and the bill's sponsor says he doesn't plan to introduce it next session.

In fact, Rep. Dan Zwonitzer says he only introduced the bill to make a point.

House Bill 175 would have given Wyoming's Governor, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Auditor, and State Superintendent raises.

The original bill would have increased the governor's salary by $60,000 and the other four elected officials would have gotten $27,000 raises.

But the proposal was later scaled back to raises of $8,000 each.

Zwonitzer says he brought the bill to make the point that 17 county officials across the state are making more money than statewide elected officials.

He says as an example the County Coroner of Campbell County is making more money that the State Auditor or Wyoming Treasurer. Zwonitzer also says that the deputies of the elected officials are making about $40,000 more than their boss is in Wyoming.

He says every school district Superintendent in the state except one is making more than the state Superintendent. The raises wouldn't have taken effect until 2019.

While Governor Matt Mead didn't directly threaten to veto the bill,  he recently criticized the measure, saying "I don't think we should be doing that."

Zwonitzer says of the bill "It wasn't the best time to do it, but I was doing it more to make a point" than to actually raise the salaries.

The bill missed a recent deadline for consideration by the house Committee of the Whole and is now dead for this session.

Zwonitzer says he was surprised when the bill made it out of committee and adds he asked the Majority Floor leader not to hear the bill on the house floor, leading to its death.

 

 

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