Salt and pepper heads filled a crowded ballroom in Lander to hear Wyoming’s Gov. Mark Gordon speak on Feb. 3. The focus was the upcoming legislative session and the state budget, and it kicked off a series of similar talks over the next month.
After a brief history of the state budget process, Gordon got straight to it.
“I think a lot of people are wondering: So what did the JAC [Joint Appropriations Committee] do?” Gordon said.
He was referring to a legislative committee that has drafted large cuts to Gordon’s budget proposal. Some called the motions from Freedom Caucus lawmakers a ‘blood bath.’ The JAC’s draft budget next heads to the full House and Senate, where it will be further debated and amended.
“This was sort of a game of chicken,” Gordon said. “Who can be leaner? Who can be less profligate with our spending? And I think the target was, ‘Let's figure out how we do a billion dollar reduction.’”
The governor originally laid out a $11 billion proposed budget for the next two years. Gordon noted it was “balanced,” as that’s constitutionally required.
The JAC’s bill has not been drafted yet, but some members of the Freedom Caucus are pushing for the budget to return to a pre-COVID level of spending.’
What JAC cut, Gordon’s critiques
Gordon critiqued the JAC’s cuts, which include slashing $40 million to the University of Wyoming (UW), declining to raise state employee salaries and axing the state’s economic development council, the Wyoming Business Council.
“I think it is valuable at times to say, ‘Let's re-think and examine anything that we're doing in state government,’” he said. “And if that's the case, then you usually do that in a considerate way over time. But that was completely eliminated.”
Gordon told Wyoming Public Radio he’d prefer lawmakers review the Business Council’s duties in the upcoming interim, rather than eliminating it.
“We spend some time and think about, ‘Okay, what are the things that the Business Council actually does?’ Because it's not clear to me that that's fully understood,” Gordon said.
Property taxes
Two other speakers at the event were Fremont County Assessor Tara Berg and Lander Mayor Missy White. Their focus? Property tax cuts.
“None of your property taxes that you pay at the local level go into any of the funds that Governor Gordon just talked about. None of them. They stay local,” said Berg.
The Legislature passed a property tax reduction last session that rippled through the state. Without the revenues, towns are reimagining how they’ll fund everything from fire departments to weed control to public libraries to schools.
“I question you to go through the day and go, ‘What services am I using during the day? Did I flush my toilet today? Where'd that come from?’” Berg said. “You might think that you could do it on your own, but if the water main breaks in the middle of the road, it's up to the city to fix that.”
Mayor White added that Lander took a $170,000 hit to its general fund from the property tax cuts, which is about 12% of its overall general fund.
“There's a lot of talk about, ‘Cut property taxes, cut other things,’ but then what next?” White said. “And that next question is really important, because at some point, that ‘what next’ is going to start hitting each and every person in here.”
Some lawmakers are planning to introduce bills to end property taxes altogether, and alleviate that loss of local revenue with an increased sales tax.
Last thoughts and audience Q&A
The speakers concluded with a few words from Cade Maestas, one of the co-founders of Maven. The outdoor equipment company set up its headquarters in Lander in 2023 after working with the Wyoming Business Council.
“We've let our politicians be entertainers, and now the way they get our attention is through theatrics,” Maestas said.
He spoke more about political civility and the need to invest in one’s community. Maestas quoted comedian Tim Minchin: “Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff.”
After about 45 minutes, several members of the public asked questions ranging from concerns about state budget cuts to government transparency.
A couple people asked about the state’s school recalibration process, which happens every five years. A special committee of lawmakers is proposing large layoffs, increasing class sizes and approving just a minimal increase to school spending compared to what a private consultant group recommended.
“I'm being very straightforward on this,” Gordon said. “I'm not clear they [lawmakers] have an understanding of what they've actually proposed in terms of what the effect is going to be on local school districts.”
One audience member signaled his concern about alcohol abuse and suicide rates in the state.
Another Fremont County resident asked about government spending transparency.
“It's a tough job trying to find out what money's being spent on,” Chris Rodkey said. “We're never going to agree on it all, but when I can't find it, that starts raising a lot of flags.”
Gordon pointed to WyOpen, which is essentially the state online checkbook. But, he added, “We could do better.” Gordon noted that state employee retention issues are part of the core problem with compiling that information.
“If we can't keep quality employees, then we're constantly training new ones, and that's incredibly inefficient,” he said.
In Gordon’s budget request to the Legislature, he asked for salary increases for state employees across government. 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.
Both an audience member and reporter questioned Gordon about election integrity. Specifically, there was an ask about Pres. Trump’s suggestion that elections should be nationalized.
“Constitutionally, that's a big problem for me,” Gordon said. “I believe in our Constitution. I swore to uphold it, and it relegated control of those [elections] to the states, and our state relegated it to the county clerks. And I think that's where the home ought to be.”
According to WyoFile reporting, Secretary of State Chuck Gray gave the federal government private information of every registered voter in Wyoming, including driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers. Wyoming joined at least 10 other states that provided similar information. However, most states have only handed over publicly available information, according to the Brennen Center.
The governor will continue his budget talks across the state on Feb. 13 in Gillette, Feb. 16 in Cody, Feb. 25 in Torrington and March 2 in Rock Springs.
The Legislature convenes for its budget session on Feb. 9. The JAC’s proposed budget still has to go through many legal steps and possible edits in the House and Senate before it lands on the governor’s desk.
