SHOSHONI, Wyo.–Public money can now be deposited in this state’s credit unions after the governor signed a bill the state’s CUs have been backing for more than a decade. 

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed Senate File 143, which is now Senate Enrolled Act 28, which allows the  Town of Shoshoni to utilize its local credit union instead of travelling 20 miles each way to deposit money in a bank in Riverton, Wyo.

Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith had testified in favor of SF 143 during two legislative committee meetings,

CU Supported Measure

Brian Rorhbacher president and CEO of the Atlantic City FCU, which has offices in the Wyoming cites Lander, Riverton, and Shoshoni, had also expressed his support for the change and said the deposits will also allow institutions like his to contribute to local government projects like the Table Mountain assisted living effort in Lander.

When that project began, Rorhbacher said the ACFCU was one of the local financial institutions that helped pay for the initial feasibility study – but once the project progressed “to the next step, we were denied to be able to participate in the funding of it,” due to the state law.

“I’m glad that Mayor Highsmith (was) able to share some of his concerns with the community of Shoshoni,” Rorhbacher told County10.com. “But as you can see, there are many consequences for the communities in Wyoming by not allowing public funds to be accessible to our credit unions.”

Other Obstacles Cited

According to the report, Wyoming Sen. Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne) had relayed Highsmith’s and Rorhbacher’s testimony to her fellow senators when she introduced SF 143 on the Senate Floor in February, adding another anecdote from “the heart of the state where I’m originally from” – referring to Fremont County – about an “ag producers credit union” that “could not administer state farm loan funds for an irrigation project due to a restriction on those state funds.”

Nethercott later presented SF 143 to the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, which also heard testimony from Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, about his involvement in the decade-long effort to pass legislation allowing public money to be deposited in local credit unions, County10.com reported. That effort “always (received) substantial pushback,” Larsen told the news outlet,, so in 2015 he asked the Wyoming Attorney General to draft an opinion on the matter.

County10.com reported that in that opinion, the Attorney General noted that the Wyoming Constitution only requires public funds to be deposited in banks “where practicable,” Larsen told the committee this month, explaining that, “in the early territorial days” when the Constitution was written, not every community had a bank.

Power to ‘Do the Same Thing’

Further, he noted, the legislature passed a law in 1977 allowing public money to be deposited with savings and loans companies, which, like credit unions, “are not banks,” County10 reported.

“This bill … would allow credit unions to do the same thing,” Larsen added. 

He offered a similar explanation when SF 143, noting the Town of Shoshoni must send two people to take cash and deposits the 20 miles to the bank.