Subdivisions, Telecommunication, and Business Entities: I hate mornings

Happy Valentines Day!

I really hate early meetings. The Senate Corporations Committee started the day with a meeting was 7:00 AM. It is not that I do not like mornings…quite the contrary. It is just that I hate meetings in the morning. Because I am the Senate Chairman of Corporations, I have to be on time – even early -- and organized. This is a tall order for me before 8:00 AM.

Today is a day about controversy. My Corporations Committee spent almost three hours on Senate File 26: Business Entities Registered Agents. This is a bill that was developed by the Committee in the interim between last year’s session and this one. Our first witness was Governor Freudenthal who urged us to pass the bill to tighten up our laws with respect to corporations. The Governor’s presence was unusual – except for the initial budget meeting with the Appropriations Committee -- I do not recall another time when a sitting Governor has testified before a legislative committee. The Governor was followed by Wyoming Secretary of State Max Maxfield who, with his staff, took us through the bill. There are lots of opponents from the corporate agent community. After three hours we still were not finished with the public input and our work on the bill so we had to continue the meeting until after the legislature adjourned. Finally at 5:30 PM we finished the bill and headed for the barn. At the AARP reception (don’t mess with us old folks) I ran into Secretary Maxfield who, while supportive of most of the Committee’s changes – was very unhappy about the very last amendment. We agreed to sleep on it and think more about it. There will likely be changes offered on the floor of the Senate.

In between the two sessions of the Corporations Committee meeting was the real work of the day. Subdivisions are a hot topic on the Senate floor and with the folks back home. The issue has been brought to a head by a mega development of 35 + acre parcels of the Brook’s ranch in Natrona County. The proposed bill, SF 11 – Large lot Subdivisions, would allow counties the option of regulating these large lot subdivisions up to a lot size of 140 acres. This a hot button at home where, right or wrong, the planning division of the county has not been known for their accommodation of subdivision developers. I am getting a ton of emails, almost all from realtors and almost all against the bill. Amendments to the bill, which would allow for significant exceptions for landowners, have been on and off and now are on again. The amendment satisfies some of the realtors back home, but others are still mad. Subdivision regulation is a distasteful subject for me, the closet libertarian that I am. I understand the property rights issue to the heart. I also understand the costs that ranchette sprawl imposes on county government costs, and I confess to a twinge about the sometimes irresponsible loss of our open space. The last senate vote on SF 11 will be tomorrow. After that it is the House’s turn.

During the lunch hour I attended the House Corporations Committee in order to testify on a bill for a small clean up to our telecommunications law we passed last year. For better or worse I am the legislative resident expert on telecommunications legislation. It is an industry that I worked in for a number of years. Surprisingly, the clean up amendment was non controversial and the bill sailed through -- a pleasant surprise.