By Noah Zahn
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — The Senate and House of Representatives have both put forth budgets to fund the state of Wyoming over the next two years, and as of Monday, they were $170 million apart.

The Senate worked from Gov. Mark Gordon’s proposal and came up with a $10.12 billion budget, while the House worked a version that was altered by the Joint Appropriations Committee down to $9.65 billion.

Both budgets are less than Gordon’s initial $11.13 billion proposed budget, which he called “The Essentials.” In the House, several state, federal and other funds that were removed — like those for the state’s capital and school construction and the Rural Health Transformation Program — were placed into separate bills.

Tuesday afternoon, Gordon hosted a news conference to share his opinions on the changes, which were the result of an abnormal weekend session in the House following its extensive budget discussions last week that lasted into late hours of the night multiple times.

Gordon said he is “generally encouraged” by the budgets proposed, and that it is nice to see the House “grudgingly come back” on budget items like state employee compensation.

The differences between the House and the Senate follow a year where the two chambers could not agree on a supplemental budget in 2025, which was the only time that has happened in recent memory.

Despite the disagreement last year, Gordon said he is confident the state’s elected representatives and senators will settle on an adequate budget for 2027-28.

“I think it’s exciting, quite frankly, that we are as close as we are,” Gordon said. “There’s still some fundamental differences of opinion that will have to be worked out, and a lot of that’s going to be philosophical. But I do believe that we’ll see some real progress. I’m very hopeful. That’s what the people of Wyoming expect.”

Before the governor’s news conference Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee met to discuss the differences between the two budgets and also presented the differences on the House floor.

At the end of the floor presentation, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, expressed caution about the outlook for the state of Wyoming, saying the state might be in an OK position for the upcoming biennium, but that is uncertain based on the state’s current trajectory.

“We’re not really anticipating big returns like we’ve had the last two years, but we could. We could have a war and the price of oil would take off. That might save us. We could also have a downturn,” he said.

For the next biennium, Bear projects the general fund will be $45.3 million in the hole, with the School Foundation Program facing a $440 million shortfall. By the following biennium, the outlook worsens significantly, according to his figures. He said the School Foundation deficit is expected to reach $1.057 billion, and the rainy-day fund (Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account, or LSRA) would be exhausted, leaving the House version $70 million and the Senate version $250 million in the red. These projections assume a 3% return on investment and emphasize the need to slow government growth. 

Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, pushed back on Bear’s grim outlook, urging lawmakers not to read too much into the six-year outlook Bear presented. He said the figures inevitably show deficits because they only forecast specific income at 2.14% and assume reserve accounts “run dry” by years five and six.

House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, then assigned five members of the House to a conference committee to begin working through the Senate’s proposed budget. He put forth himself; Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette; Bear; Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, and Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan.

On the Senate side, Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, and Sens. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, and Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, have been nominated for the committee. The final two nominees were unknown at the time of publication.

 

University of Wyoming

After initial proposed cuts of $40 million by the JAC, the House voted 32-28 on Saturday for an initial cut of $20 million, rather than $40 million, to the UW block grant. The Senate restored the governor’s full recommendation and deleted House footnotes that prohibited funding for elective abortions and Wyoming Public Media.

In debates over the weekend, Heiner defended cuts to the university, saying the “power of the purse” is the only “real leverage we have.”

“Sometimes it takes a big level to get the attention of someone to be able to negotiate,” he said. “What we had in the budget brought the people to the table.”

In his news conference, Gordon called the university an economic driver for the state, highlighting its status as a research institution.

He contrasted the “linear” path of career and technical education with the advanced modeling and business management skills taught at UW. He used the example of a welder returning to the state to open a shop or a natural resource manager needing to model drainage basins using Python or MATLAB as reasons why the state needs both CTE and a strong university.

While supporting the university, Gordon stated he is not entirely opposed to a “deep dive” into its programs to see if they can work better, though he expressed concern that the House’s cuts and move back from a $40 million to $20 million in cuts has been a “moving target.” Still, he said, the change is a step in the right direction.

“That is still taking $20 million for no reason,” Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, said during debate over the issue Saturday. “I appreciate that (legislative) leadership has had a discussion with the university, but I’ll be honest with you: They don’t speak on my behalf, and they don’t speak on behalf of my constituents.”

 

Wyoming Business Council

The House version of the budget sought to unwind the Wyoming Business Council, the state’s economic development agency, providing only $9.8 million for one year of operation to satisfy statutory obligations. Conversely, the Senate restored the governor’s full recommendation of more than $50 million for the WBC.

During the House Appropriations Committee meeting Tuesday, a discussion centered around a House amendment that moved $54.9 million from the WBC’s Business Ready Community grant program to the Countywide Consensus program administered by the Office of State Lands and Investments. The Senate rejected this move, preferring to keep the funds within the WBC.

In his news conference, Gordon acknowledged that many people in the House had said BRC grant funding must be cut back or should be given instead to communities for infrastructure projects.

“That’s what the consensus revenue grants were able to do in the past,” he said. “Those are valuable because our communities need those improvements.”

Cities like Thermopolis and Glenrock have clay pipes, he said, and Rock Springs needs a new sewer system.

“But (that’s) not economic development. And economic development needs to be a little bit more targeted, needs to be thought through,” Gordon said.

Economic development is not riskfree, he continued, but many people in Wyoming have spoken out about the important role the Business Council serves. Gordon said the House took note, and changed from a position of killing the WBC at the beginning of the session to now funding it for another year.

“(They said) let’s just gut it, completely get rid of it,” Gordon said. “And there was a lot of momentum to do that, but the people of Wyoming responded and said, ‘Look here. Look there. Look everywhere’,” pointing to the effect the WBC has had in their communities.

Gordon called the cut a “clarion call,” saying he saw it as a cut made just to cut something from his proposed budget.

 

Wyoming Department of Health 

The Senate position restored approximately $28 million in general funds and $29 million in federal funds that the House/JAC position had cut from the Wyoming Department of Health budget. This restoration covers critical access hospitals, labor and delivery services and Medicaid home health rates.

Gordon called some of the cuts, like the move to place federal funds for the Rural Health Transformation Program in its own budget bill, a “cut in name only,” as the funds will still likely be allocated to the state, just not in the budget.

However, he expressed disappointment regarding the progress of Sun Bucks, the summer program administered by the Department of Family Services, after it was not approved in the House budget. He called the program a critical piece for Wyoming’s most vulnerable counties.

“What kind of government won’t feed its kids? What kind of people are we if we won’t feed our kids?” he asked.

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