Thread by @IAmNickReynolds

Good morning! The Wyoming Legislature's Management Council is already underway a few minutes early discussing a number of emergency bills related to COVID-19. Gov. Mark Gordon is on the call.

Watch live here:

Gordon now addressing members, laying out the impacts of COVID-19. Said all three legs of Wyoming's economic stool -- tourism, agriculture, minerals -- have been devastated.

Unemployment is at record-high numbers, and largely made up of skilled workers. "The longer we can keep them in Wyoming, the faster we can rebound."

As far as the CARES Act and the $1.25 billion in funds we've received, the language on how to use the $ is vague, but the penalties "are high," Gordon said. Said there will likely be an unduly high scrutiny of how Wyoming uses its funds, particularly in a partisan atmosphere.

Gordon says our needs are broad, and we need to be able to disberse those funds broadly to address those. Said whatever we do should be simple and transparent in order to mitigate any potential punishment from an audit down the road, which Gordon said is all but inevitable.

Gordon proposing a three phase spending plan for the money to lawmakers, requesting significantly more in phase one than the Wyoming Legislature has proposed. Here's what that looks like:

Phase two, Gordon said, wil be looking toward meeting the needs of communities, towns, and counties, who can submit requests to the state for reimbursement of COVID-related expenses. All phase one money left over would likely carry into this phase.

Gordon said he has concerns about a later funding date in October -- which will likely have to happen to make sure all of the funds are dispersed before they expire at the end of the year.

Said they want it to be paced to make sure they have sustained economic activity this yr.

Also proposing a direct grant program to businesses through the Wyoming Business Council, similar to the PPP. Though we've disbursed millions in aid through the federal program, said Gordon, there is more need is out there.

Numerous healthcare providers -- as well as energy and mining companies -- did not receive emergency funding from the feds, he said. The Kemmerer mine, for example, is one of these, due to the volume of out of state employees they have. Want to give them aid, but with scrutiny.

Here's the timeline of what that program -- if approved -- would look like:

This is a significant amount of dollars... nearly a quarter of all funding to businesses.

Closing by saying that it has never been more important for the executive and legislative branch to "work together."

There has already been a bit of early tension in the governor's authority to spend this money and the legislature's responsibility to appropriate it.

Connolly asking about how support of the poor is acknowledged in his plan. Gordon said they are "first and foremost" in his plans, calling phase one as a kind of "catch all" in this plan.

Sen. Mike Gierau asking abt the state lending program for businesses, including the flow of funding and the use of community banks.

Gordon said he believes that could be worked into his plans. "We're not talking about setting up a program as much as a process," he said.

Said he wants a "broadly reactive" plan for sectors they deem as critical or which may have been left out by the PPP program, and want criteria bankers need to help disburse the funding with accountability. (A tricky point naturally with businesses like minerals).

Said it's hard to anticipate the gaps at this point, but would like to be able to set up a program quickly and refine it as we go. Senate President Drew Perkins now asking about the state following up to make sure the money is used properly.

Gordon said any use of funding needs to be "traceable and trackable." Tells lawmakers that the @WyoBizCouncil has already been looking into setting up a process that could get these funds out. Sounds like they're moving fast, but wanna work w/ legislature in doing that.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss now asking about access to affordable healthcare, and if we have programs or funds to support that.

Gordon said we want to retain workforce and keep them able to be employed to minimize that problem, but said he would welcome ideas to bridge gaps in coverage.

Said this would likely be a "longer conversation," he said, particularly as additional waivers come out. Said most ideas about healthcare are additional policy considerations the executive branch "has no business making on its own."

Hmmm...

Now taking a pause until 9 a.m.

We'll be working bills the rest of the morning, sounds like. If you're unfamiliar, read my prior coverage of those here: trib.com/news/state-and…

We've been discussing specifics about UI benefits and a rent payment program -- I covered some of the possibilities of that program below.

We've rehashed a lot of this stuff already, but I'll keep y'all apprised of any changes. trib.com/news/state-and…

Mike Gierau arguing the 200 percent FPL threshold for rent forgiveness could present problems for Teton County, where housing costs are significantly out of line with Wyoming's average wages.

Dept. of Workforce Services recommended extending workers comp eligibility for contracting COVID-19 beyond December, saying this is likely something we could be dealing with well-beyond then.

Robin Sessions Cooley also sounds to be advocating a work-sharing program (using UI to make up for hours lost due to furlough) as a good, long-term solution for workers past December.

Said that this program would not impact the balance of the UI fund and could actually result in paying out less in UI benefits over time -- essentially, allowing cost-burdened employers to cut costs while keeping workers from seeking full benefits from the system.

The dilemma here, Sen Perkins said, is setting up a statutory program over months when people need help now. However, Cooley said we would need statutory changes to implement something like this anyway.

Now talking about rolling out the grant program for businesses. Why $350 million? It's what Idaho did, and what the business council has deemed necesarry.

Do we know what the need is? We don't yet -- working on diving into the NAICS codes to see who may have missed the boat on PPP. But there will likely be some overlap involved there.

Lots of broad language in every bill, Sommers noted, particularly around evictions. Betsy Anderson, the Gov's council, said there are still questions about how to meet all of the unique needs of people who are laid off. Said this is likely the only avenue they have to do so.

We still don't have set numbers on the number of renters that could need this, she said, nor do we know the numbers of evictions. All she has, she says, is the anecdotal evidence of people calling the governor's office who can't pay their rent.

Rep. Mike Greear questions whether those calls could have been from people who might have been "scared" and didn't understand their financial situations given unemployment payments -- said we shouldn't just be in a rush to "spend money."

Connolly doesn't want this program to go away because it's simply "too broad." Asked if the gov's office would support some forms of means testing. Gov's office open to it, but don't believe that because some might take advantage of it, doesn't mean we should get rid of it.

Liisa Anselmi-Dalton says people who are receiving unemployment should be able to pay their rent -- maybe not in Jackson -- but suggests there could be some way to account for that.

Sen. Perkins noting that few people have savings, and that putting parameters to manage income against federal poverty guidelines if people's income is suddenly "zero" is difficult... hard to answer questions on what restrictions would look like for this program.

Gov's office advocating to remove those restrictions on pverty level if possible.

We've been working the bills. Now on this one: wyoleg.gov/InterimCommitt…

Some minor changes so far. Provisions to eliminate the 25 percent loss of income and to delete the "rebuttable presumption of lost income" from page 9 have so far failed.

Gierau is now proposing eliminating 200 percent of federal poverty line language -- in-line with what the governor asked for.

Perkins still hung up on how you measure lost income -- said having this qualification there outlines intent that can be hammered out in rulemaking.

Conversation's a little all over the place right now on the motion. Bill Landen said there are some folks in his district just above that 200 percent threshold, would like to discuss that more. Now, Anselmi-Dalton asking why don't we also cover mortgages for homeowners.

Now Perkins wants to divide the motion -- one to eliminate the 200 percent margin (that passes 8-5) and one to eliminate language about being unable to pay rent as a final qualifier for funding, which could snare some folks receiving UI benefits. (That fails by a large margin.)

Funding amount for the program will stay at $10 million, but Sen. Drew Perkins said he would support adding additional money to the fund later on.

Having some internet problems... Now working off my phone. Forgive me for any consequences that may have.

Barlow now bringing up the plans suggested by Gordon this morning to prop up small businesses impacted by COVID-related closures. Looking at increasing qualifiers to 50 businesses, limiting grants to $50,000, and limiting the stage one amount to $50 million, rather than $350m.

Minerals Committee would then look at the other businesses the governor wanted -- like energy -- and introduce more money in round two.

Note: numerous appropriations in one bill leave this subject to a line-item veto by the governor.

Rothfuss said that the small business protections we're looking to pass in this bill don't actually offer those protections with the current language, and could actually incentivize businesses that just laid people off in order to cut their losses.

After some discussions, we've gotten to the energy provisions. Greear said we could put in language that could cover mines and such, but only to make up for the costs of, say, sanitizing buses and providing PPE, since mines never actually closed.

This could potentially part of phase three of funding, he said. Minerals Committee is set up for the 14th and 15th where they were already planning to meet with the business council, he said, but they could push that back.

Perkins is against additional appropriations in this bill -- wants to keep it simple. Harshman will vote against that as well -- we're looking at immediate relief to main street now, he said, and additional money can come later.

It passed, so now could be subject to vetoes.

We've been talking about the emergency appropriations bill now: wyoleg.gov/InterimCommitt… Gov. Gordon's counsel, Betsy Anderson, giving one more pitch for the phased rollout of funding discussed this morning. To refresh, here's what that looks like:

Nevermind -- we're WAY further in the discussion, my livestream was lagging by about 10 minutes. My apologies. They're now trying to limit the governor's authority to standing up emergency programs as-needed.