State Director Tony Gagliardi reports from Cheyenne on the March 11 end of the 2022 legislative budget session

Wyoming businesses were relieved to see legislation concerning an increase in the Wyoming fuel tax and mandatory reporting of information concerning a gross receipts tax fail introduction.

After summer committee hearings of the Joint Revenue committee, it was my opinion that both an increase in the state’s fuel tax and an attempt to implement a gross receipts tax were certain. This was a time when being wrong was not a bad thing.

Five Bills of Highest Small Business Importance

• House Bill 22-0014 called for Increasing Wyoming’s fuel tax, and Senate File 0042 would have required “each entity required to file an annual report and pay an annual license fee … to the secretary of state … total gross receipts reported for federal tax purposes.” NFIB Wyoming opposed both bills.
  
  
  
• HB 22-0059 decreed that “no compensable injury related to COVID-19 that occurs during the period beginning Jan. 1, 2020, and ending March 31, 2022, for which coverage is provided under this act and for which a claim was filed on or before March 31, 2022, shall be chargeable to an employer’s experience rating.” NFIB support HB 22-0059, which Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law.
  
  
  
• HB 22-0125 requires the Director of Workforce Services to provide information as to the roles and responsibilities of both the employer and employee when notice of a workplace injury is filed. The director shall provide information to both parties as to resources and responsibilities of the employer and employee. NFIB supported this measure, which the governor signed into law.
  
  
  
• SF 22-0036 attempted to address difficulties faced by Wyoming’s small, local pharmacies. Evidence was provided during the summer interim hearing of small, local pharmacies having to accept terms and conditions dictated by the large Pharmacy Benefit Managers that large chain pharmacies did not have to accept. This meant often having to accept reimbursement for less than the wholesale cost of a drug being dispensed to a patient. NFIB backed this bill, which unfortunately died in the House.

The 2023 Legislative session will begin Jan.10, 2023