Gordon Vetoes 3 Bills, Doesn’t Sign Bills on Redistricting and Salaries
On Friday, Governor Mark Gordon announced that he has decided to veto three bills, Senate File 106, Senate File 55, and House Bill 137, while also letting two bills, House Bills 96 and 100, become law without his signature.
Of those bills Gordon vetoed, they dealt with creating a stable coin that would be issued by the Wyoming treasurer, creating new regulations for insurance companies to experiment with new products, and changes to the ways that state land is exchanged between parties.
For each veto, Gordon provided a letter explaining the reasoning behind his decision, like with Senate File 106, the stable token act, Gordon said that he believes the Wyoming Treasurer's Office already has too much on its plate and can't handle the additional burden of a cryptocurrency, along with unanswered questions about the fiscal impact and constitutionality of the bill.
Senator Dan Dockstader said that because the legislative session has already ended, there will not be the possibility of an override for the three bills that the governor vetoed.
Gordon also did a line-item veto on two bills, Senate Files 1 and 66, which resulted in some of the sections having their veto overridden, and some not.
The other two bills, that Gordon didn't sign but still became law, were also given letters describing the governor's reasoning for not signing.
One of the bills, House Bill 100, which draws new legislative districts across the state and adds two new seats in the House and one new seat in the Senate, has some issues due to a few districts being outside the federally required population deviation of 5%.
While the half-page letter by the governor mentions deviation and the need to "see our elections have their best chance to proceed in an orderly and proper way," it doesn't provide too many details on why Gordon chose to let the new map go into effect without his signature.
Gordon also chose not to sign House Bill 96, which increases the salaries of the governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer, and Superintendent of Public Instruction by about $60,000 each and would take effect in 2023, after the next election for those positions.
In the letter, Gordon appears to dislike the bill for increasing their salaries despite not asking for one but also acknowledges that paying more for the position would allow more people the opportunity to run for those positions who might otherwise not have the financial means to do so.