Feb. 15—CHEYENNE — The construction of school facility projects has long been funded at the state level, but lawmakers in the Wyoming Senate now suggest passing that off to the local districts.

A joint resolution introduced in the Senate on Thursday calls for an amendment to the state constitution, which would transfer the responsibility for all school facility construction projects to local school districts. Senate Joint Resolution 5, “School capital construction-constitutional amendment,” was sponsored and introduced on the floor by Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper.

“Our current system really is not going to work any longer,” Scott said. “As a practical matter, we’ve got to do something differently.”

The main source of revenue for school construction projects was federal coal lease bonus funds, which are no longer available, Scott said. The senator added this resolution has to be a constitutional amendment because the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled previously that the state must provide equal access to quality education across the state.

The resolution proposes going back to a bond-issue system, Scott said, where local school capital construction projects are up to the voters. If voters agreed with the constitutional amendment, school facility projects would largely rely on property taxes for funding.

“It does have an equalization feature in it that, I think, eliminates the problems that have led to the (state) Supreme Court decision,” Scott said. “That equalization feature is essential.”

The joint resolution narrowly passed introduction on the Senate floor, with 22 ayes and nine votes against the resolution. Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, was the only local senator in Laramie County, home to the state’s largest school district, to vote against the resolution.

Nethercott told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in a text message that she believed this resolution should be further studied as a committee bill during the interim session. However, she added she would likely support the bill if it made it back on to the floor.

The other eight lawmakers who voted against the bill were Sens. Jim Anderson, R-Casper; Eric Barlow, R-Gillette; Ed Cooper, R — Ten Sleep; Mike Gierau, D — Jackson; Stacy Jones, R-Rock Springs; Bill Landen, R-Casper; Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie; and Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston.

The joint resolution will next be discussed in the Senate Education Committee.

Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.