This last couple of weeks the House Appropriation Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee met in conference several times to work out the differences in their respective budget bills. We were able close all of the gaps on Tuesday evening and of Friday voted to approve the Joint Conference Committee Report. We will be presenting the Joint Conference Committee Report to the House and Senate members on Tuesday.

Even though it doesn’t mean a lot in the whole scheme of the total budget, I am very pleased that I was able to get funding for the tribal liaison positions we had previously reduced. The Senate had pulled the position funding out in their floor amendment. The House members were very supportive and in Conference Committee Senator Bebout and Senator Gierau along with all of the House Committee members supported putting it back in. I was also able to put additional funding in for our Senior Citizen Boards, and our Senior Citizen Centers.

On Wednesday Senator Kinskey from Sheridan and I were asked to appear on PBS’s Capitol Outlook to visit about the budget bill. If anyone is interested you can access the interview on You Tube. Let me apologize ahead of time if I embarrass anyone with my comments or appearance.

Last Sunday evening the Fremont County legislators had the pleasure of meeting with our school districts from the county while they were here in the capitol city.

You will recall that we were working with the students from Pathfinder High School to adopt the Blotched Tiger Salamander as the State Amphibian. The House had a lot of fun debating the merits of the Blotched Salamander verses the Wyoming Toad and the Leopard Frog. In the end the Blotched Tiger Salamander prevailed. The students will be in Cheyenne on Tuesday to join Governor Gordon in signing the bill.