By Carrie Haderlie
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE — After hundreds of proposed amendments and several late nights in the Capitol this session, lawmakers have adopted a compromise 2027-28 biennium budget and sent it to Gov. Mark Gordon.
Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, said that as it stands, the Legislature’s recommendation for state spending is $53 million below the governor’s original recommendation announced in November. In general funds, the budget includes an expenditure of $3.4 billion, and in total funds, the budget includes $9.98 billion, according to Salazar.
“I ask for your ‘aye’ vote,” he said to his colleagues on the Senate floor Monday.
The Senate adopted the joint conference committee’s recommended budget in a 28-3 vote, and the House adopted the recommendation in a 59-1 vote on Monday.
“By your vote you have chosen to adopt — believe it or not — the budget,” Speaker of the House Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said.
A final version of the budget will now be sent to Gordon’s desk, where he will have 72 hours to take action, which can include line-item vetoes. But on Monday, shortly after both chambers voted on the JCC report, he issued a statement praising lawmakers for their action on the spending plan.
“What a win for Wyoming! And what a win for the citizens across the state who got involved with their government, after the Freedom Caucus- controlled Joint Appropriations Committee members made sweeping cuts to an already lean budget, and came forward letting their voices be heard to their representatives,” Gordon said.
A joint conference committee met Friday, and again Monday morning, to work on reconciling the $170 million difference between the House and Senate versions of the biennium budget. Ultimately, the JCC decided to restore three-quarters of the $40 million recommended by Gordon for the University of Wyoming immediately, with an additional $10 million to be allocated in 2027 if UW finds $5 million of its own cost savings and reports that back to the Legislature.
The budget also includes raises for state employees and allocates between $12 million and $14 million in two years of funding for the Wyoming Business Council.
“I believe this body sent a joint conference committee down, one, to make sure the University of Wyoming was fully funded. It is,” Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, said Monday on the Senate floor.
“Two, you asked us to make sure that the employees’ salaries of the state of Wyoming got a raise, as we approved in our budget on this side,” said Crum, who was a member of the budget JCC. “We got the raises just as you guys approved on this side.”
Crum continued that the Senate was “willing to negotiate” on Wyoming Business Council funding during the JCC meeting last week. As its budget bill left the Senate, lawmakers in the upper chamber had restored the governor’s $55 million recommended allocation for the state’s economic development agency, but the House had included only around $11 million for the WBC in its budget bill.
“You said that the Business Council was up for negotiation, and it was (negotiated). The Business Council (funding) was taken down,” Crum said. “There’s some little back and forth with exactly what that number looks like, but it’s between $12 million and $14 million.”
On the House floor Monday, Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, told her colleagues that the JCC’s recommended budget includes $40 million in UW funding, but also “the language that we kept out of the amendment from the House. … all of our recommendations on identifying positions, reorganizations, looking at cost savings.”
At the start of the session, the House position was to revoke all $40 million in UW funding. During a rare Saturday third reading of the House’s budget bill on Feb. 21, representatives voted to allocate $20 million to UW, with the provision that more funding would be allocated after the cost-saving study.
As it stands now, UW will receive $30 million at the start of the biennium, with an additional $10 million in 2027, subject to the receipt of a report identifying at least $5 million in efficiency savings. There was no discussion beyond the budget presentation on the House floor made by Angelos, as well as Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, and Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, on Monday. Pendergraft went over amendments that were deleted entirely from the budget by the JCC, and Bear went over budget amendments like an included $15 million for a tourism project to relocate the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association headquarters and museum to Cheyenne, funding for the Wyoming Community College Commission and developmental disability waiver funding.
“We, in this body, changed the amount that went for the providers versus the amount that went to get people off the waiting list to ensure that funnel wouldn’t jam up, and the Senate accepted that change,” Bear said.
In the Senate, Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said that he would vote yes on the JCC report, but that he’d heard from citizens who were disappointed by the cuts to the Business Council.
“I just have to stand and say that my community is pretty tied in and pretty close with the work of the Wyoming Business Council,” Landen said. “A lot of my young entrepreneurs and business owners around the community have benefited greatly on that front.”
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said the budget does fully fund Manufacturing Works, the Wyoming Small Business Development Center and the Wyoming Women’s Business Center.
“Those are still fully funded for two years and are not part of the cuts the Business Council received,” she said.
The governor said that he extended “gratitude to the members of the House who courageously opposed the proposed cuts and insisted on asking the tough questions, even late into the night. Questions that focused on transparency as well as, critically, the underlying reasons for making those cuts. These questions struck a chord statewide and were powerfully voiced right here in Cheyenne by citizens from across Wyoming.”
He further stated that the “stalwart leadership” of the Senate paved the way for the budget to remain intact.
“The budget passed today restored almost all budget recommendations for the people of Wyoming and, as one senator said, is only $53 million below my overall recommendation. By my back-of-the-napkin calculations, that’s close to 99%,” Gordon said. “Wyoming’s future is indeed bright. We must continue to invest in our potential, grow our industries, preserve our small-town identity, and stand firm against the hysteria of national groups seeking to undermine our state.”
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