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December 3 & 4, 2002
Room 204, Capitol Building
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Senators: Anderson, Cathcart, Harris, Hinchey and Larson
Representatives: Baker, Burns, Jones, Philp, Reese, Sadler and Tipton
Sommers, Temte, Nelson and Byrnes
Senators: Devin and Schiffer
Representatives: Hines and Meuli
Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
All meeting materials and handouts provided to the Committee by the Legislative Service Office (LSO), public officials, lobbyists, and the public are referenced in the Meeting Materials Index, attached to the minutes. These materials are on file at the LSO and are part of the official record of the meeting.
Cochairman Larson called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic. Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.
Governor Geringer addressed the Committee and presented highlights of his 2003 supplemental budget recommendations. The Governor stated he believed there might be a slight uptick in revenue forecast revisions in January, which should allow the legislature to maintain the 5% of general fund revenue reserve in the budget reserve account. He stated that he attempted to limit his recommendations to only those items that were of an emergency nature. Please refer to the Governors Supplemental budget and budget message for further details of his recommendations.
The information is available on the State web-page.
In response to questions from Committee members, the Governor stated he felt there was a significant unfunded liability for leave time, the request for the endangered species position is second year funding, and that his recommendation for covering 75% of both single and dependent health insurance for employees would provide an incentive to bring more non-covered families into the system. With respect to Medicaid, he stated he recommended funding only the match rate change shortfall, mostly with the $25.5M set aside from last session and that he didn’t think the states match rate from the feds was overly sensitive to millionaire incomes.
Frank Galeotos, Darald Dykeman and Ralph Hayes from the Department of Administration and Information addressed the Committee on state employee health insurance. They provided some additional information requested by the Committee at the meeting in Riverton, and provided a new actuarial study performed on several proposed alternatives regarding increasing the state’s contribution towards dependent coverage. Please see Appendix item #3 for details of the information. The group stated that a very small number of state employees use public programs to subsidize their health insurance, that a significant number of state employees don’t enroll eligible kids for a variety of reasons, that increasing the states contribution would probably create a cost shifting away from other governmental entities health insurance programs, and that the best option dollar wise for the state would be to cover 75% of both the single employee and dependent coverage.
Flexible leave time
Mr. Galeotos explained the flexible benefits ideas and stated that he had very little negative comments regarding the idea and the plan would address the leave time unfunded liability and allow for employees to help themselves with respect to health insurance.
Mr. Fred Herbel of the Wyoming Highway Patrol Officers Association, presented and discussed LSO-0188.W1, state employees-sick leave reimbursement. This bill would allow retired employees to convert unused uncompensated sick leave upon retirement to help towards health insurance. The Committee asked for some fiscal information for the proposal and took no action on the bill.
On the general issue of employee health care, the Committee asked that a bill draft be prepared that implemented the Governors recommendations on covering 75% of the cost for both single employee coverage and dependent coverage and the flexible benefit plan.
The Committee received a brief report on the effects of the appropriation to DD direct care salary increases made last session from Ruth Sommers, Regional Services Providers, Garry Freel, Big Horn Enterprises and Sean Griffin, Community Entry Services. The group stated the increases had allowed them to retain employees and significantly decrease turnover, which in turn meant a much improved level of service to their clients.
The Committee discussed the no net new programs issue assigned to the Committee by Management Council. The Committee agreed to ask for two bills, one that would repeal the no net new program statutes, and one that would repeal the four programs added to the list last session. Those programs are: the seed lab, the K-12 school capital facilities commission, the rabies control program and the office of water programs at the University.
The Committee recessed at 3:20 p.m.
Call to Order (December 4)
Cochairman Baker called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.
Please note the entire proceedings on December 4 were recorded by a court reporter. Transcription of the proceedings and discussions will be available at a later date.
Mr. Dodds Cromwell, Mr. Jim Coleman and Mr. Gordon Longwell of MGT of America and J-U-B Engineering presented a review and value engineering report on the Sheridan county school district #2 middle and high school building projects. Please refer to Appendix item #8 for details of their findings.
There being no further business, Cochairman Baker adjourned the meeting at Noon.
Respectfully submitted,
______________________ _______________________
Grant Larson, Cochairman Mike Baker, Cochairman