By Joseph Beaudet
The Sheridan Press
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

SHERIDAN — The Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives needed just one amendment to diverge their stances on the supplemental budget bill.

The first proposed amendment in both chambers would reallocate $400,000 from the Wyoming tourism reserve and projects account to the Wyoming Search and Rescue Council to conduct search and rescue operations.

The funding would be used to reimburse counties for costs associated with search and rescue missions or operations.

According to a letter from the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, search and rescue operations are funded by voluntary donations through the sale of various outdoor licenses and registrations, and there “is currently no mechanism to permanently fund the account.”

Donations to the program have decreased from $368,092.30 in 2020 to $250,877.21 in 2024, according to the letter.

“Fortunately, the collections so far have outweighed expenditures in all but one year,” the WASCOP letter reads. “But our counties are only one expansive search away from draining the entire fund.”

Rep. Marilyn Connolly, R-Buffalo, proposed the amendment in the House and shared a similar sentiment.

“In my mind, it is somewhat of an emergency even though there’s funding available to the council right now,” Connolly said. “It would only take one season, and maybe one search, to totally deplete the account where your counties can be made whole.”

Connolly and the Senate amendment’s sponsor Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, said reallocating tourism dollars to fund the operations would still benefit Wyoming’s tourists and an increasing number of search and rescue missions have involved out-of-state residents.

According to Wyoming Office of Homeland Security search and rescue data, 2,801, or 37.1%, of the state’s 7,547 search and rescue subjects were from outside Wyoming. In 2024, 278, or 51.48%, of the state’s 540 search and rescue subjects were from outside Wyoming.

Other lawmakers, though, were split on whether to fund the program with tourism dollars.

“We see more and more people visiting… and as those numbers increase, I just think that these searches are going to increase more,” Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, said.

Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, urged a different funding mechanism for the program because 37.1% of rescues since 2009 does not represent a majority of rescues.

“The letter that we got from (WASCOP) says that 37% of the rescues were done regarding people (from) outside of the state of Wyoming, 37% is not a majority,” Sherwood said. “The challenge I have with this ask is… I don’t agree with it coming out of the tourism account.”

Down the hall, Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, was also critical of utilizing tourism funding for the program, adding he’d be supportive of any other funding mechanism.

The Senate voted 15-12 in favor of the amendment, four senators were excused. The House, meanwhile, killed the second reading amendment voting 38-22 against it; two representatives were excused.

Wyoming’s supplemental budget is intended for emergency and unforeseen expenses. 

Both chambers start with the same bill developed by the Joint Appropriations Committee earlier in the session. Wednesday marked the first time the full bodies could work on and amend the supplemental budget bill. Senators brought 28 amendments to the bill and representatives brought 44.

In crafting spending bills, differences between the two chambers of the Wyoming Legislature are not unusual. By the time both chambers passed their version of the biennial budget during the legislature’s 2024 budget session, a joint conference committee had to negotiate a $1.1 billion gap between the two bodies.

Lawmakers will continue working and potentially amending the supplemental budget bill Friday.