I would like to thank the constituents of House District 12. I am honored and humbled to be your Representative. This website will continue to be maintained and used to communicate what is happening during each legislative session. Please come back often and see updates, and please email me with any concerns or issues that you feel are important to your family and our district. I want your feedback. Again, thank you.
-Amy Edmonds 
In her own words...
"As your representative, I will fight to limit new and costly government programs. Instead, I will work to enact fresh, innovative and cost-effective programs that empower the private sector to do the work that the state government can not and should not do. Throwing around more government money is a simple answer, but it's not the right one.”
-Amy Edmonds
Open Letter to Constituents of House District 12:
I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on my first legislative session as your Representative.
The 2007 General Session is behind us now, with many exciting pieces of legislation having been completed. Wyoming is in the midst of one of her greatest mineral booms, and with legislation such as Clean Coal Technology and ICCG (Integrated Clean Coal Gasification) development, we plan to add value to our most precious products- our minerals. Wyoming supplies over 40% of the nation’s coal, and while we have dig and ship down cold, we see that the future for our state will be in our ability to keep the coal here and convert it to energy to be exported. Our altitude keeps most of that from happening today, but with a yearly surplus of over $500 million from our mineral severance taxes, we passed legislation to fund the research begin done on coal burning at high altitudes, right here in Wyoming, through our own University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources. We are very close to a break-through in the science and Wyoming plans to lead the charge. As a member of the Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, I am excited to be at the table, working in this field, at this “electrifying” time in Wyoming, and indeed, the world.
As we actively work to expand the uses of our minerals for today, we are using those same minerals to save for tomorrow. The Wyoming Permanent Mineral Trust Fund (PMT) continues to grow and the original goal of $4 billion by 2010 will be realized in 2010. It is my wish, in the 2008 Budget Session, to increase the revenue stream to the PMT. We are currently saving at a steady rate, but we can do better.
Another exciting piece of legislation was our making permanent the Wyoming Tourism Board, and expanding its duties. Wyoming has another precious natural resource and that is our wild places. There is so much beauty in our state, and while the rest of the country is seeing a dramatic decrease in foreign tourism travel, Wyoming’s tourism travel is skyrocketing. While Europeans see the United States as unsafe in many areas, Wyoming is not one of them. Wyoming epitomizes all that is safe and wholesome about America, it is the grand Ole West, the home of Yellowstone, land of bison, moose, elk, deer, antelope, wolves, and every other animal, seen live and wild daily in Wyoming. We want to continue to capitalize on that investment, and so we deposited another $5 million into the Wildlife Trust Fund, to be used to continue to keep our wild, open spaces for future generations to see. Large open expanses and animals seen in the wild are becoming a thing of the past in places all over our globe. We want to ensure that here in Wyoming that never happens, for the sake of our children and our grandchildren.
So much has happened in the past 40 days, I could not possibly tell you everything, but I’ve given you just a taste. I did not touch on the Hathaway Scholarship, which ensures that every academically hard-working Wyoming High School graduate will receive a college degree! We are the envy of the nation.
Nor did I talk about the tightening of our sex offender laws, the increase to our community college teachers and our help in funding the new LCCC Health Sciences building, as well as additional funding for our cities and towns.
I will save all that for my next update!
Representative Amy Edmonds |
