The night before election Ahaa! I was in Casper today for the Capital Finance and Investment Committee (Cap Fin) in Casper. We put the finishing touches on a couple of bills that will allow the State Treasurer to get a greater return on our state investments by removing some of the legislative obligations to our permanent funds allowing more of the corpus to be invested for a longer period and not be treated the same as “cash”. We are doing this by creating some reserve accounts and funding them to the level where they can cover obligations that previously relied on corpus income to cover. We also drafted a resolution to our Congressional delegation to amend Wyoming’s “Act of Admission” as a state redefining how income generated on state lands to include earning, and not just interest.

I would like to thank everyone for the words of encouragement, help, and contributions in this re-election effort. I’ve knocked on a lot of doors and visited with a lot of people, which is something I really enjoy. I’ve appreciated the candor of the conversations and found them invigorating. The strength of Wyoming is her people.

I have had a number of people ask questions on the constitutional amendments, and I encourage you to vote for them. We currently require our judges to retire at age 70, and many are able willing, and eager to continue to serve in that capacity. One of the amendments would extend the mandatory retirement age to 75. We are younger today at 75 than our grandparents were fifty years ago. The other amendment would allow the State Treasurer to invest the local government funds entrust by cities, towns, counties, and other political subdivisions to him in the WYOSTAR 1 and WYOSTAR 2 funds in a more prudent diversified manner. Allowing for a portion of these funds to be invested in stocks and other securities in addition to bonds or short-term cash type investments which is where these funds are currently invested.

As you vote tomorrow, I would appreciate your vote.

Thank You.