With the end of the 2025 legislative session in sight, Wyoming lawmakers were hit with a surprise. In an unprecedented move, Senate leadership announced there would be no supplemental budget, upsetting the governor and sending lawmakers scrambling to figure out alternative ways to fund their priorities.

Maggie Mullen: This is the Cheyenne Roundup, a weekly look at Wyoming’s legislative session, from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile. I’m Maggie Mullen, WyoFile's state government and politics reporter, and with me is Jordan Uplinger, Wyoming Public Radio’s digital statehouse reporter.

Jordan Uplinger: Happy to be here at 9 a.m. on February 28, recording in the basement of the Capitol.

MM: There’s just about one week left for lawmakers to pass legislation.

JJ: Time flies when you’re reading bill amendments.

MM: Something like that. This last week was honestly kind of chaotic here at the Capitol. In a surprise move, Senate leadership announced there’s not going to be a supplemental budget bill.

Several longtime lawmakers told me they couldn't remember another time this has happened. By his own account, Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper) told me it may very well be the first time this has happened since the Legislature began crafting supplemental budgets in 1975.

JU: The supplemental is like a mini budget meant to address unforeseen costs between budget sessions, which happen on even years. My colleague, Chris Clements, caught up with Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne). She said it was an appropriate decision and that they're rightsizing state spending, kind of like what the Trump administration is doing at the federal level.

Tara Nethercott: There were really three critical funding needs that were identified in the supplemental budget that have been addressed in different legislation, and so there was – I think for time management and no need to continue to spend, recognizing we'll be back here in 10 months doing another biennium budget, that it just wasn't a critical need at that moment.

MM: Of course, not everyone sees it that way. Gov. Mark Gordon had a strong reaction to the Senate's decision. In a letter he sent out on Thursday morning, Gordon said, "Unfortunately, this legislature has overlooked emergencies and ignored unanticipated expenses in a quest for political talking points. This is what occurs in a no compromise environment." He’s particularly worried about property tax relief, education funding and wildfire recovery dollars.

JU: Remember last season’s dozens of fires? More than 800,000 acres burned, mostly on private and state lands. It totally depleted the state’s firefighting accounts. The money to replenish those accounts was in the supplemental. So lawmakers scrambled on Thursday to amend stand-alone bills to include priority spending. Representative Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander) told Chris:

Lloyd Larsen: Having been here a year or two, you know, you kinda know where to look and you think of ways to do it and sometimes it's not the prettiest thing. It's like putting lipstick on a sow. It still doesn't look very attractive, but if we can get it across the finish line and keep some of these really critical things moving forward, I think we have a responsibility to try.

MM: Trying they are. WyoFile's Andrew Graham reported that a bill creating a wildfire management task force now includes $100 million in loans for ranchers and another $49 million in grants for conservation districts so that both entities can pursue wildfire restoration projects.

But if that money doesn't stick, Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) told me wildfire funding might be something the governor would hold a special session to address. The constitution allows the governor to call for a single-issue session. That said, Rothfuss thought we’d be okay without the supplemental budget.

JU: Another big focal point that the governor mentioned is property tax relief.

MM: Gordon pointed to an existing state program that refunds homeowners. That program has been around for years, but only more recently have lawmakers started funding it. As the name implies, it provides refunds for qualifying homeowners and it’s been really popular. So much so that it’s run out of money.

Gordon asked lawmakers to replenish the account with about $10 million. But that appropriation was in the supplemental budget. There’s at least one amendment out there that would put those dollars into another property tax-related bill. We’ll be keeping our eyes on that.

Then there’s Senate File 69, which has been on quite the journey. So many amendments, so many changes, to the point that when the bill left the House and went back to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber weren’t really sure what they were looking at.

Ultimately here’s what made it into the bill: Unlike the targeted approach of the refund program, SF 69 provides a blanket 25% exemption on the first $1 million of a single-family home’s fair market value. The bill does not have the state reimburse local governments for lost revenue due to the exemption, better known as a backfill.

JU: Lawmakers have been hearing a lot from counties and towns that without a more targeted approach, they’re worried about their ability to provide services as they do now.

MM: The bill also does not include a sunset date. So the exemption would be on the books indefinitely.

JU: SF 69 is on the governor's desk after turbulent debate in the House and Senate, so we'll be watching to see if he goes for an across the board property tax cut this year.

MM: This leads us to another concern of Gordon’s about not having a supplemental budget this year. That’s education funding.

JU: Over the last decade, teacher pay hasn't kept pace with inflation, which advocates say makes it hard to attract and retain educators. The supplemental budget included something called an external cost adjustment, which would help adjust education funding for inflation. Those funds did find a home in House Bill 316 - School finance-model recalibration-2.

MM: Actually, that particular amendment came out ahead of the Senate’s announcement. Hard to say for certain, but it looks like the plan to tank the budget may have been in the works for a minute.

JU: It's also worth mentioning that education funding came into sharp focus Wednesday, when a judge ruled Wyoming has been unconstitutionally underfunding public schools.

MM: That’s right, check out Andrew Graham's reporting on WyoFile.com for more details on that.

JU: Even while lawmakers are hustling to find new vehicles for the governor’s three spending priorities, there was a busload of items to be funded in that supplemental budget still looking for a home. Rep. Larsen talked about his priority.

Lloyd Larsen: Well, I thought about that all night, and … I worry about the things that are in there for the DD providers, the people that take care of the developmentally disabled, the DD preschools. We had some additional funding in the Department of Family Services. We had some stuff for adult protective services, and then we had worked in for a couple of years to get five additional seats at the University of Utah Medical School … and give us more doctors to come back to Wyoming. That was in the budget.

MM: Funding for those five students’ medical education actually got added to a bill that blocks the University of Wyoming from spending money on DEI – that’s diversity, equity and inclusion – programs.

JU: What else have you been hearing from the House side of things, Maggie?

MM: I spoke to House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Bear (R-Gillette) after the announcement was made Wednesday. He didn’t think the sky was falling, but he did say he’d wish the communication had been better and that the House had not been surprised by this so late in the session. He said had they known, the House would have acted accordingly and now it’s a matter of rushing around to get funding for important services into other bills.

I also spoke with Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper) after the announcement Wednesday. He’s among several lawmakers who have raised concerns about the Legislature depleting the state’s savings and education funding. While the move is unusual, Harshman said he thought it might end up being a prudent one.

But all to say, there was a lot of scrambling in the aftermath of the announcement, and I expect we will continue to see [it] in the remaining days of the session.

Worth mentioning that at the time of recording, there were still parts of the supplemental budget falling by the wayside. Funding for behavioral health and maternal health care programs appeared unsure of a new home. Plus, raises for employees at Wyoming’s Office of Tourism.

JU: Something that Rep. Larsen said to my colleague Chris kind of stuck out to me. Chris asked him if he’d ever seen something like this before, and Larsen said a few years back, the House axed a big spending bill for capital construction projects because it couldn’t agree with the Senate.

Lloyd Larsen: It's the only regret in my legislative tenure that I had. I wish I'd had done more to prevent that because it didn't – it was just us beating our chest. And it didn't help the state any. In fact, it cost us because all those projects that was in the capital construction bill still needed to be done. And when they were done a year or two later, there were escalated costs.

MM: It’ll be interesting to see what repercussions of not passing a supplemental budget we may see down the line.

JJ: Amid all of the week’s chaos in the Legislature, it’s also crunch time for Gordon to sign bills into law. We haven’t seen any vetoes as of Friday morning. But Gordon is autographing bills in batches.

So far he’s signed bills requiring clinics that provide procedural abortions to have special licenses that would likely require costly renovations. The one clinic this would impact in the state has said it will challenge the law in court.

One that removes a requirement for families that homeschool their kids to submit their teaching plan to the local school board. One that lays the groundwork for the state to regulate commercially guided fishing boats. And one that removes otters from the state’s list of protected animals.

MM: He’s also let a few bills become law without his signature, like one that bars the state from requiring state employees to use their coworkers’ preferred pronouns. One requiring the state to hold $10 million in gold. And another repealing gun-free zones in government buildings, public schools and parts of the state Capitol.

JJ: There was a bit of civil disobedience at the Capitol in relation to that bill. University of Wyoming students and parents staged a “die in.” About 25 people laid down outside the governor’s office, urging him to veto the bill.

MM: Several lawmakers came out of chambers to watch. Gordon also stepped out of his office and spoke with one of the organizers.

JJ: Protestors were hoping to sway Gordon to veto that bill, which he didn't, but the governor told my colleague Chris there will be vetos coming.

Chris Clements: Are you concerned at all about having to use your veto pen more?

Mark Gordon: Absolutely, absolutely. We'll use our, you know, judicially. We'll be very thoughtful about how we use that.

JU: We’re probably in for a bumpy ride for the next week. Lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn on Thursday. Maggie, in this final week, what are you watching?

MM: I'm really curious to catch up on the election bills. Like I reported earlier in the session, there was a huge volume of bills related to overhauling how Wyoming conducts its elections, so I’m really curious to see what makes it across the finish line and how dramatic those changes are. How about you, Jordan?

JU: I'll be watching the Freedom Caucus as they finish up their first session in power here. I talked to Rep. Haroldson, and they said that they weren’t worried about the Senate or the governor necessarily vetoing or changing their bills too much. But they did say that if they need to override with their own vetoes, they will find a way to do so.

MM: Thanks for listening to the Cheyenne Roundup, your weekly look at what lawmakers are up to during the 2025 legislative session from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile. New episodes drop every Friday throughout the session.

Editing and producing by Tennessee Watson and Nicky Ouellet. Follow our ongoing legislative coverage at wyomingpublicmedia.org and WyoFile.com. And thanks again for listening.

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.