Wyoming lawmakers took their first crack at the state budget this past week. Despite Wyoming’s current surplus of funds, they’re making cuts and limiting growth.
The interim Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) spent many hours marking up Gov. Mark Gordon’s proposals for each agency and state program. Wyoming Public Radio’s state government reporters, Chris Clements and Jordan Uplinger, recapped a busy week with News Director Kamila Kudelska.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Kamila Kudelska: Gordon had proposed an $11 billion budget for the next two years. Chris, briefly remind us [about some of] the main priorities he wanted to fund.
Chris Clements: Gordon wanted to bring state employees’ wages up to current pay tables and stay competitive in the current market. He also wanted to provide some kind of backfill to county and city governments that’ve been hit by reductions in property tax revenue. And he wanted to find funding for workforce development programs.
KK: Jordan, the majority of the people on the committee in charge of marking up Gordon’s proposal are aligned with the further-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus. What are their priorities?
Jordan Uplinger: Members of the caucus have said they want to bring the state budget to pre-COVID levels of spending. For them, that means curbing health department spending and more property tax cuts. Some of them have compared their work to that of DOGE, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
KK: So, conflicting priorities heading into this process.
CC: I want to remind us all that two years ago, when lawmakers were going through this same process, they almost didn’t make it. Passing a budget is the one constitutionally obligated duty of the Legislature this year. But the 2024 budget session was gummed up with leadership disputes, and the committee tasked with reconciling differences between the House and Senate’s different versions of the budget failed to negotiate.
JU: This year, those rifts could be deeper, with the state Freedom Caucus and its allies holding a majority in the House and other allies in the Senate.
KK: Before we go into the details of this past week, just a reminder that this budget markup is the first step of the process. This marked-up budget will go to the House and Senate once the session starts, [and] each chamber will mark it up to their fancy.
Then, a joint conference committee will try to combine the House and Senate versions. Once they agree on a unified budget, that goes to the governor, who has [line-item] veto power. During this process, the public can call and email their lawmakers.
So with that, Chris and Jordan, talk me through the big moments from this first markup.
CC: The committee moved fast, Kamila. Like, they finished early. And they took a big red pen to Gordon’s proposals.
Lawmakers talking
Rep. Trey Sherwood, a Democrat from Laramie, kept pushing for her colleagues to explain their rationale.
Sherwood talking
JU: The standard answer [given for cutting proposed funds] was along the lines of, “We believe they can continue operating with their current funds.”
Bill Allemand: Should they get behind, we'll be there to revisit this.
JU: But sometimes, they didn’t really have an answer.
This committee spent two weeks in December and another in January hearing from every state department and agency about their needs for the next two years. Many said without pay raises, they’ll keep losing employees or not be able to fill positions. Others talked about updating technology and cloud systems. Others said that costs for things like maintaining roads and construction are just higher now because of inflation.
CC: This kind of highlights a fundamental difference in how members of this committee see what they’re doing right now. I’m thinking of Tuesday [morning], during talks about the state health department’s budget.
Rep. Ken Pendergraft of Sheridan, a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, motioned to cut $58 million of funding for tribally-run medical facilities. These are all federal dollars, because the Indian Health Service is a federal agency.
Rep. Sherwood pointed out the $58 million was all federal money, part of an already federally-approved update to Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Trey Sherwood: This is 100% federal funds, and Wyoming Medicaid is legally required to automatically adopt these new federal calculated rates.
CC: Pendergraft said his goal is no additions, period.
Ken Pendergraft: The first thing that needs to be done is to stop the acceleration [of government spending growth].
CC: Committee Chair Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) was trying to keep things snappy, but Rep. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest) chimed in to back up Pendergraft, saying these aren’t cuts.
BA: I just want everybody to remember these are not cuts. We're not cutting anything, we're just not allowing increases to run away.
CC: Democratic Sen. Mike Gierau of Jackson responded.
Mike Gierau: I don't know if anybody's noticed, but costs are increasing. What it costs to go to the hospital today is more than it costs four years ago … I understand the theory about stopping acceleration. Then try to cut the rates of acceleration by [not] making these draconian cuts, but maybe slowdowns in cuts. But what you're doing is, while trying to slow down the train, you're throwing our tribal members under it.
CC: Sen. Ogden Driskill, a Republican from Devils Tower, piled on.
Ogden Driskill: What you're actually doing is denying service to people of Wyoming. And these are tribal members, by the way. This is 100% federal. It's all funded. They're trying to take care of probably our most disadvantaged population we have in the entire state.
CC: Rep. Bear argued that not approving that $58 million is watching out for taxpayers.
John Bear: Anytime you increase spending in government of any type, you are putting a burden on the taxpayer.
CC: I called up Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander) after this meeting. He sat on the JAC for eight years, and his district abuts the Wind River Reservation where these facilities are. He said this might not go the way Bear says. Larsen said these facilities just use the state as a pass through for the federal funds.
Lloyd Larsen: So to accept the $58 million is – there are no state funds involved. And to deny it, I think potentially runs the risk of the state having to make up the difference, because we don't have the federal dollars to pay for it, and the healthcare provider still has the right to charge at the higher rate.
KK: Jordan, what else stuck out to you?
JU: A big one is getting rid of the state’s economic development agency, the Wyoming Business Council. That’d make Wyoming the only state in the country without one. This council is tasked with trying to attract businesses to the state and grow Wyoming’s economy.
The JAC first cut basically all funding for the council, leaving only what’s needed to fulfill existing finances. They also passed a draft bill dividing the council’s responsibilities among other state agencies.
Bear and other Freedom Caucus members say the council hasn’t been effective in the 20-plus years since it was formed. They want to push back on what they call the craziness, saying someone needs to put their foot down.
A representative from Gordon’s office, Randall Luthi, told lawmakers, “This is nuts. This is crazy.” He also said, “This looks bad. It smells bad. It isn't going to look good in the public.”
CC: Going back to the Department of Health for just a minute, outside of IHS federal funding, lawmakers reduced proposed increases for Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health and OB-GYNS, and the community choices waiver program, which is a Medicaid program for long-term care. All of this was meant to help with maternity care and help people age in their homes instead of going to a nursing home or assisted living facility.
But they approved increases for developmental disability support.
JU: In his proposed budget, the governor emphasized the need for higher wages for state employees. And we’ve basically heard every state department, save for a rare few, say they’re losing workers to nearby states, or not able to recruit.
But a majority of the JAC said current pay tables are good enough for now, though they did bump up pay for certain nurses, snow plow drivers and state troopers.
CC: Another area of notable cuts was to the University of Wyoming, more than 12% of what the university asked for. They didn’t approve extra funding requests for athletics, a proposed clinical assistant professorship in family medicine and they pulled all state funding for Wyoming Public Media [the umbrella organization over Wyoming Public Radio]. They also made cuts across all the colleges, except agriculture and education.
KK: Let’s get some outside commentary. I called up WPR’s former news director Bob Beck. He covered the state budget for decades.
He said the JAC has made big cuts before, but those were usually during economic downturns.
Bob Beck: I can recall one in the early ’90s. Lawmakers actually had to pass a sales tax because they were out of money. They cut economic development funding that year. They really wiped out a lot of programs. So making big cuts is not that unusual when you have a boom-bust cycle. I think what makes this one unusual is they have plenty of money.
CC: The state actually has a surplus right now. One of the arguments lawmakers had this week was over where to put $250 million: long-term savings, like the governor wanted? Or somewhere a little more accessible, in case residential property taxes are zeroed out?
KK: Beck added a lot of those cuts in the past were added back in later, when the state was more flush. And one of the knock-on results of those bust periods were the big trust funds [and savings accounts] that are doing so well today.
CC: Exactly. I spoke with a few more moderate Republicans about this. Rep. Larsen told me it’s not unusual to see the JAC make cuts to what the governor proposed.
LL: In fact, it's more the norm that the Appropriations Committee will take the governor's budget and massage it, if you will.
CC: One trend he’s noticing is that when agencies are called up to explain their budgets, lawmakers aren’t asking many questions. But then when lawmakers vote, they cut a part of that agency’s budget. He says that’s not usually how the JAC operates. Usually, the committee asks tough questions and gets answers.
LL: And so I question the rationale behind denying it, if there was no conversation about it in the budget hearing. That gives me pause.
CC: I also talked to Senator Cale Case of Lander. He used to sit on Appropriations. But he says the House side of the committee has turned this session into a political football.
Cale Case: It's going to hurt us. It's set us up for a gridlock in this session, a gridlock where the governor's veto is going to be very important. It's just not good for the state of Wyoming.
JU: I talked to Democratic Rep. Trey Sherwood, the one who’s been asking for explanations for the cuts. She says in the past…
TS: … I experienced a lot more thoughtfulness around, ‘How do we use the budget as a policy document, in terms of improving programs and making sure that our state agencies had the correct resources and tools they need to accomplish their statutory goals?’
JU: And this year the cuts were used…
TS: … As a tool to limit the effectiveness of government.
KK: Well, thanks so much for sharing your reporting on this first round of budget markups.
Lawmakers will convene in Cheyenne on February 9 to start the budget session. The budget will be marked up even more by each chamber, so there will be more changes before things are final.
And our podcast, Cheyenne Roundup, in partnership with WyoFile, will be coming back to help make sense of the session.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
