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SJ0006 • 2025

School capital construction-constitutional amendment.

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution to transfer responsibility to construct public school facilities to school districts by providing mandatory and optional state funding mechanisms.

Education Taxes
Did Not Pass

The latest official action shows that this bill did not move forward in that session.

Sponsor
Senator Scott
Last action
2025-02-10
Official status
inactive
Effective date
3/1/2025

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material did not provide information about voter decisions or the consequences of rejecting capital expenditures, which were removed from the explanation.

Amending Wyoming Constitution for School Construction

This resolution proposes changing the Wyoming Constitution to make local school districts responsible for building public schools, with optional state funding mechanisms.

What This Bill Does

  • Proposes a change in the Wyoming Constitution that makes each local school district mainly responsible for providing school buildings and facilities through bonds or other means.
  • Requires equalization of bond costs so that no district's property tax rate exceeds what it would be if all districts had an average valuation per person.
  • Gives the state legislature the option to provide additional funding to help districts with financial difficulties.

Who It Names or Affects

  • Local school districts in Wyoming

Terms To Know

Equalization aid
Money provided by the state to help local school districts pay for building and maintaining school facilities.
Capital construction
Building or improving physical structures like schools, roads, or bridges.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill did not pass in the Wyoming Senate.
  • It is unclear how much additional funding the state legislature would provide to help districts with financial difficulties.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

SJ0006SS001

Standing Committee • Senate Education Committee

Adopted

Plain English: The amendment changes the Wyoming Constitution by shifting the responsibility of building public schools from the state to local communities.

  • Removes language about a system being enacted and replaces it with a statement that the amendment shifts school construction obligations to local communities.
  • Eliminates three lines related to the current school construction system.
  • Adds 'the responsibility to finance' after 'return', removing the word 'a'.
  • Replaces 'system' with 'communities' in the text.
  • The amendment's full impact on how schools will be financed and built by local communities is not detailed here.

Bill History

  1. 2025-02-10 Senate

    S 3rd Reading:Failed 18-12-1-0-0

  2. 2025-02-07 Senate

    S 2nd Reading:Passed

  3. 2025-02-06 Senate

    S COW:Passed

  4. 2025-02-03 Senate

    S Placed on General File

  5. 2025-02-03 Senate

    S04 - Education:Recommend Amend and Do Pass 3-2-0-0-0

  6. 2025-01-23 Senate

    S Introduced and Referred to S04 - Education

  7. 2025-01-22 Senate

    S Received for Introduction

  8. 2025-01-21 LSO

    Bill Number Assigned

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
25LSO-0244
2025
STATE OF WYOMING
25LSO-0244
Numbered
2.0

Senate Joint Resolution NO. SJ0006

School capital construction-constitutional amendment.

Sponsored by: Senator(s) Scott, Biteman, Brennan, Olsen and Salazar and Representative(s) Andrew, Bear and Lien

A JOINT RESOLUTION

for

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution to transfer responsibility to construct public school facilities to school districts by providing mandatory and optional state funding mechanisms.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING,
two-thirds of all the members of the two houses, voting separately, concurring therein:

Section 1.

The following proposal to amend the Wyoming Constitution, Article 7, by creating a new Section 24 is proposed for submission to the electors of the State of Wyoming at the next general election for approval or rejection to become valid as a part of the Constitution if ratified by a majority of the electors at the election:

Article 7, Section 24.

Provision of school facilities.

(a)

The legislature shall by law provide a system for public school capital construction, subject to the following:

(i)

Each local school district shall be primarily responsible for providing school facilities for the district through bonds or other means;

(ii)

The decision of the voters in an election authorizing capital expenditures for public school capital construction, however financed, shall be final and neither a school district nor the state shall be required to fund any capital expenditure for public school capital construction rejected by the voters;

(iii)

The cost of paying bonds and interest shall be equalized so that the required school district mill levy does not exceed what the mill levy would be if the district had an assessed valuation equal to the state average per person assessed valuation, with the applicable federal census information being used to determine the number of persons. Equalization may be provided for capital construction financed by other means;

(iv)

Financing of the equalization may include appropriations or dedicated sources of funds and shall include, if necessary, a statewide mill levy at a rate to ensure payment of the equalization. Compliance with the debt limitation imposed by article 16, section 5 of this constitution shall be determined using only the school district's share of the payment for the debt;

(v)

The legislature shall provide a system to determine which capital facilities are not needed for education and therefore are not subject to equalization;

(vi)

The legislature may appropriate funds to relieve hardship.

Section 2.

That the Secretary of State shall endorse the following statement on the proposed amendment:

In 2001, the Wyoming Supreme Court decided in
State v. Campbell County School District
that providing school facilities was the responsibility of the state, and not an individual school district. School districts had previously provided school facilities and had financed the construction of these facilities through local bond issues approved by the voters and repaid by a local property tax. The system enacted by the Legislature to comply with the Wyoming Supreme Court decision primarily relied on bidding bonuses from new coal leases, which no longer yields significant revenue.

This amendment will return school capital construction to a local system with the addition of mandatory state equalization aid to raise the amount raised by the local tax up to what a statewide levy would raise on a per person basis. The amendment also authorizes, but does not require, the Legislature to appropriate additional funds to relieve undue hardships experienced by school districts seeking to complete capital projects.

(END)

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