The 2026 Budget Session of the 68th Wyoming Legislature adjourned on Wednesday, March 11. We thank all of the legislators for their time and service in the Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming is a true Citizen Legislature which means the legislators serve part-time while balancing their legislative work with their professional and personal commitments back at home.

The biennial budget was adopted into law on March 6 with multiple items to note for agriculture. The Wyoming Livestock Board received funding for an additional field veterinarian as well as one-time funding for disease mitigation. The University of Wyoming (UW) received funding for veterinary medicine education to address the ongoing concern of the shortage of rural and large animal veterinarians. UW also received funding for a state match for rangeland health and crop science research. Wildfire resources were supported through the budget with funding for the Office of State Lands and Investments Forestry Division for wildland fire module crews. Additionally, funding was directed to the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Income account to prevent the introduction and spread of invasive plants on private and state lands as well as wildfire restoration projects on private and state lands. 

In the budget session, any legislation except for the budget bill must receive a 2/3 vote from the House or the Senate to be introduced. Most of the legislation WyFB worked fell into our 11 policy priority issues areas of: Private property rights, water, land use, federal lands, state lands, wildfires, wildlife, fiscal responsibility, tax policy, rural vitality and election integrity.

Private property rights are fundamental for our organization. We were pleased when private property rights were protected when the corner crossing clarification bill did not pass Committee of the Whole in the Senate. The?10th?Circuit Court of Appeals determined corner crossing under certain conditions is legal, however, this proposed legislation would have broadened the scope of corner crossing from federal lands to include state lands and local government lands. The legislation also weakened recourse for incidental trespass and damages to private property should someone corner crossing damage the adjacent private property.

Water is one of our state’s most valuable resources and a priority issue for our organization. A multitude of water bills were signed into law including the voluntary conservation of water pilot program for the Colorado River, funding for a groundwater study in water control areas, a bill to modernize how Wyoming’s irrigation and water districts can fund large scale maintenance of aging water infrastructure and the annual omnibus water bills.

Electrical reliability and private property rights drove the discussion on the prescriptive easements for electricity delivery bill which has been signed into law. The Wyoming Rural Electric Association led a stakeholder group that included the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation on this legislation. The collaboration on the development of this bill is one that ensured strong consideration of private property rights while balancing the need for electrical reliability. This law provides for prescriptive easements for electric utilities with established delivery systems that were installed, and remain in use, on the property on or before January 1, 2006.

Wildland fire management is a key priority for our members and the state. Effective April 1, there will be additional funding for the state forestry division of the office of state lands and investments for 24 employee positions to support wildland fire suppression modules for the state forestry program, some of these positions will be seasonal and several are full time. Our members have witnessed first-hand the nimble response of the state forestry department during wildland fires and this investment in manpower for the office will certainly be helpful for the fire season. Additionally, amendments to the Wyoming state forestry good neighbor authority revolving account eliminated employment restrictions on state personnel hired to conduct good neighbor authority projects.

Bills to address landowner hunting licenses in limited quota areas and transferrable landowner hunting licenses failed in the House and failed introduction in the Senate, respectively. The role landowners play in providing wildlife habitat cannot be underscored and is an important policy issue. We joined with the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association to propose an interim topic to the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources that would consider landowner recognition for habitat considering current compensation programs including damage payments and landowner licenses as well as explore additional options to recognize the landowner’s role for wildlife habitat. Interim topics will be assigned April 1. 

Multiple bills covering a wide range of tax policies were proposed and either failed introduction or were not considered for introduction. The proposals included a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate residential property taxes and a bill to raise the state sales tax if the amendment to eliminate residential property taxes were to pass. Taxes and government spending are policy conversations that have been ongoing for generations and will no doubt continue.

As we move into the interim to discuss topics for the 2027 legislative session, WyFB will continue advocating daily on behalf of our members to implement WyFB member policy. We are proud to stand up for you and with you as we work to keep agriculture strong here in Wyoming and our nation.