2023 Session Retrospective: Rep. Trey Sherwood of House District 14
Sherwood helped secure $10 million for affordable housing grants. She also advocated, unsuccessfully, for a bill that would have empowered communities to identify and address abandoned buildings.
Rep. Trey Sherwood (HD-14) walked away from the 2023 General Session of the Wyoming Legislature with some wins for affordable housing, more experience working on the state budget, and no shortage of frustration about various dead and gutted bills.
Between the House and Senate, there were nearly 500 bills filed this session. Many were criticized for addressing national culture war talking points rather than issues facing Wyoming; Sherwood said some of those bills crowded out other bills more worthy of discussion.
“It's not necessarily in rule, but it's practice that committee bills get prioritized,” Sherwood said. “You've had all interim to have public comment, to work out the bugs, and they're ready. And to have committee bills die on the floor for lack of being heard … that's not normal.”
The House of Representatives saw a record number of its own bills — 45 — die by missing the deadline to receive an initial vote. Several more Senate files would go on to die for lack of being heard in the House. Ultimately, more than half of the nearly 500 bills died this session.
Sherwood said she wished the House did a better job of prioritizing bills.
“Is this coming from a constituent? How will this have a positive impact on our communities?” Sherwood said. “And issues that are based on, ‘Well, this worked in another state,’ or ‘I'm afraid this might happen here,’ would get put down further on the list.”
Among the fallen bills were efforts to expand Medicaid, pass a news source shield law and ban classroom discussions about gay and trans people.
The only bill Sherwood sponsored this session also died this way — despite having been endorsed by a committee.
House Bill 135 would have given local communities the authority to designate abandoned and nuisance buildings and would have empowered them to take action to clean up the property. The bill was inspired by Sherwood’s own work with Laramie Main Street Alliance to address what is now the Wyo Theater.
“Right now, local government does not have an ability to flag a building as a public hazard or as abandoned,” she said. “We want the ability to take underutilized buildings and get them back up and running as a home for a new business, and get it back on the tax rolls so it's contributing to property tax.”
It’s not the first time such a bill has been tried. During his own previous tenure in the House, Sen. Dan Furphy (SD-10) brought a similar bill — one that also failed.
Sherwood said she used Furphy’s bill as a starting place, and asked groups like the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association what didn’t work about the old version of the bill.
This session, Sherwood’s bill got a hearing with the House Corporations Committee, which unanimously endorsed it. That would usually put a bill on the House floor for further debate by the entire chamber — but this was as far as Sherwood’s bill got. It was ultimately one of the 45 bills that died when the House missed its deadline to consider them.
It wasn’t all dead bills, however.
Sherwood said she came away from the session with new experience and a handful of wins she hopes to build on in the coming year.
Joining the House Appropriations Committee this year (as its only Albany County representative, its only woman and its only Democrat), Sherwood was able to work closely on the supplemental budget. Lawmakers pass a supplemental budget in the off-years between legislative budget sessions and it determines significant amounts of funding for state agencies such the University of Wyoming.
Sherwood said the committee was very “team-oriented” with each member bringing a different area of focus or expertise.
“We all sort of brought our own talent and interest to those conversations,” she said. “And so it was great to be able to say, ‘Hey, I'm an advocate for economic development, for our creative economy, for the university, for making sure our state employees are well treated.’ And then to have an outlet through that budget-making process to champion those things was really exciting.”
That supplemental budget included $5 million for affordable housing grants — available to cities, towns, counties and tribes by way of the State Loan and Investments Board. Another $5 million set aside in the American Rescue Plan funding bill brings the total for those affordable housing grants to $10 million.
“The governor had requested $15 million,” Sherwood said. “I would have preferred more than that. But we got $10 million and it's a start.”
Once awarded, communities can use the grants to cover infrastructure costs — such as water, sewer and roads — thereby opening up new areas for housing developments. Sherwood said she knows communities will request far more than the available funding, but hopes to gather data on this program to push for greater funding next year during the 2024 Budget Session.
Sherwood said she hopes constituents reach out in the year between now and then.
“We're here to be accessible,” Sherwood said. “So if somebody's got questions about something that happened or didn't happen during the session — or something they'd like to see us work on for next year — it's my job to be accessible to the community.”
Committees:
Management Audit Committee
House Appropriations
Bills Sponsored:
Bills Co-Sponsored:
[Failed] HB110: Juneteenth-state holiday.
[Failed] HB117: Abortion amendments.
[Failed] HB131: State loan and investment board-task force and study.
[Failed] HB138: Suicide prevention.
[Failed] HB202: Pilot student loan payments.
[Failed] HB227: Veterans' property tax exemption-amendments.
Joint Resolutions Sponsored:
[Failed] HJ5: Passenger rail service.