Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis says it is highly unlikely that state leaders will be able to recover millions of dollars that were taken away from the state in Abandoned Mine Land funds.
Wyoming’s AML money was capped at 15 million dollars a year. The state had 150 million dollars to spend last year and expects to lose 700 million over the next ten years.
Lummis says a decision by Wyoming legislators to use some of the AML money for the University of Wyoming basketball arena received some national attention. She believes that is what prompted the cut.
“They picked out the one portion that the Wyoming legislature chose to spend on Universty of Wyoming Athletic Facilities and highlighted it as an example of waste,” Lummis says. “So that really, really hurt our argument.”
Lummis says that she is also bothered by the fact that the money was used to pay for other things and not part of budget cutting. But, she, says it’s highly unlikely that the House will restore the cut.