Update 10:45am February 13, 2026
Rep Wharff moved to suspend part of the House rules to reconsider the K-12 School Finance Bill. That vote failed 38-22 sealing it's fate. The only remaining school recalibration bill (SF81) still technically alive in the 2026 Budget Session is currently stalled in the Senate.
This vote, without action in the Senate, essentially means that the courts will determine how education is funded in the State. Here's the audio of the vote on Rep Wharff's motion:
Here is the vote total.
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At 10:30pm Thursday night, after a marathon budget session, Representative Bob Wharff notified Speaker Chip Neiman that he intended to move for reconsideration of the failed House School Recalibration bill HB110.
Reconsideration is a peculiar parliamentary procedure move to bring a motion before the body after it has already been decided. It’s a move to take another bite at the proverbial apple. What is peculiar about it is that the person moving for reconsideration must have originally voted on the prevailing side of the motion. The motion must also be brought in the same legislative session. To succeed, reconsideration requires a majority vote, even if the original motion needed 2/3.
In the case of HB110, the person making the motion for reconsideration would have to have originally voted to kill the bill. The Open Range Record previously reported that the K-12 School Finance bill (HB110) was defeated by a vote of 41-21. Rep Wharff was the deciding vote.
The ORR also brought you an explanation as to why legislators often switch their votes when a matter is being decided. If it is evident that a motion is going to fail, a quick-thinking legislator will change his vote to leave open the possibility of bringing the matter up again.
In the case of HB110 there is another hurdle to be cleared. Reconsideration must be done in the same session as the original vote. The bill failed its introductory vote February 9.
Those voting to kill school recalibration were:
Representative(s) Byron, Campbell, E, Chestek, Clouston, Connolly, Davis, Erickson, Harshman, Jarvis, Larsen, L, Larson, JT, Nicholas, Posey, Provenza, Sherwood, Storer, Thayer, Wharff, Williams, Wylie, Yin
When Wharff brought the Reconsideration motion, Rep Steve Harshman objected to the motion with a point of order. He called for a rules committee to discuss whether or not Rep Wharff’s motion was in order. A few minutes later, he withdrew the motion as Rep Wharff was walking to the microphone to clarify for the body what he intended to do.
Because the bill failed on Feb. 9, reconsideration would not be a proper motion. So, Wharff signaled that he would use a different parliamentary maneuver called a suspension of the rules. If all of this sounds confusing, it is. An easy way to look at parliamentary procedure is that in the right circumstances, a legislative body can vote to do anything it wants so long as the prescribed method in Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure is followed.
In this case, the House would have to suspend the rules before bringing Wharff’s motion to reconsider. A suspension of the rules requires a 2/3 majority.
Rep Wharff altered his original motion to reflect that today, Feb 13, he intended to move to suspend the rules and then to bring HB110 up for reconsideration.
The Open Range Record spoke with House Speaker Chip Neiman early this morning about Wharff's motion.
"I was thankful that Rep Wharff brought this motion. This is an important bill that needs to be discussed. The courts are watching what we do with school funding. I think it's awesome that he decided to take another look at this."
As the original introduction vote was a tight 2/3 to 1/3, it is likely that Wharff’s motion this morning will pass.
Should he be successful, HB110 will be assigned to a committee and brought to the House floor for debate.
This is a developing story and will be updated later in the day.