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When lawmakers formed a task force in 2023 to nix red tape in several industries, some hoped bills from the group could address the rising cost of housing. Over two years, the Regulatory Reduction Task Force took a particular interest in Jackson and Teton County, a hotspot of unaffordability. Members took a field trip in May to the region to investigate how rules aimed at controlling growth were helping or hurting housing stock. They came up with four housing-related bills that had county officials and housing advocates worried.
KHOL’s Dante Filpula Ankney spoke with Mike Gierau, a Jackson Democrat and co-chair of the committee, about what the group learned and why it appears those bills will likely fail.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Filpula Ankney: Could tell me what your experience has been on this task force?
Gierau: I think the governor was very interested in this. We were looking at where regulation is hurting business or slowing or stifling or just getting in the way. But a lot of [the conversation] centered around housing, affordable housing or quality housing, or what have you.
Filpula Ankney: Why did the group focus on housing?
Gierau: Depending on where you are in the state of Wyoming, housing is a problem. But it’s just different problems in different areas. In [some areas] it’s about quality housing. There might be some housing stock, but it might be old, outdated. And when you’re trying to get new businesses to come, you’ve got to have a certain quality of housing to try to attract businesses and companies. And [Wyoming] seems kind of wanting in that area. I’m, of course, in Teton County. It’s a little bit different. Some of the challenges there are different.
Filpula Ankney: I wonder if you feel like the Regulatory Reduction Task Force has taken an unfair look at Teton County?
Gierau: I’d never say the work of a task force, especially this task force or my co-chair, was unfair. Some had a fundamental misunderstanding of some of the different issues that Teton County faces, like what may sound onerous in other parts of the state where the land values aren’t quite the same. Over 98% of my Senate district is owned by the federal government, which means less than 2% of my district can be developed for business.
I’m going to be honest with you and the folks at home: I think they’re a little bit focused more in a punitive way against Teton County.
That having been said, doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a good robust discussion.
I think we had robust discussions with Teton County and Jackson Town Council. And you know what? I have a lot of faith in them. I supported a lot of them, and I still do.
Filpula Ankney: Four bills were discussed in your last meeting in November. In that meeting, legislators failed to make a quorum and no official decision was made on those four bills. I wonder, do you think that these four bills should be introduced in the next legislative session?
Gierau: Sometimes the legislators will take that as a personal bill because the committee isn’t just going to meet in time. That’s important for your listeners, because committee bills make it through the Legislature about 70% of the time. An individual bill passes about 20% of the time. That’s just because committee bills are usually worked longer through an interim and we do this back-and-forth.
But as far as what happened at the last meeting, we also kind of ran into another problem, and that is we’re at the end of one session. It’ll be up to the 68th Legislature and the leaders who’ve just been elected to decide if the Regulatory Reduction Task Force will move forward and, if so, what they’re going to discuss and who the membership is going to be.
Here we are in December and near the holidays folks get busy. So they didn’t have a quorum. They talked about some issues. They set a meeting for Dec. 5. Also a terrible time because of holidays. Plus, an extra added issue was we didn’t have the money budgeted from the Management Council of the Legislature to have another meeting.
All of that together, it just kind of got bogged down by its own weight.
Filpula Ankney: You know, I wonder, Mike, personally, what do you think the future of the task force is?
Gierau: I think the Task Force has some merit. It’s not all bad. There’s some good ideas out there. And we might need more time to experiment. One of the things I’ve learned in the Regulatory Reduction Task Force is: Wyoming is pretty good at not over-regulating.
