The budget bill lawmakers have sent to the governor includes funding for Wyoming Public Media (WPM), likely closing the door on an uncertainty that has hung over the news outlet and radio station since January.
WPM’s funding was slashed from the budget early in the lawmaking process, ahead of the 2026 Budget Session. While the Senate immediately added those funds back into its own version of the budget bill, the House resisted attempts to do the same.
But when negotiators from both chambers met to work out a deal, they ultimately agreed to include the funding for WPM. On Monday, the full chambers endorsed that agreement when they voted to pass a unified budget bill.
Gov. Mark Gordon praised the quick passage of the budget as “a win for the citizens across the state” who resisted the Freedom Caucus’ “sweeping cuts.” The governor did not mention WPM funding, but praised the restoration of his recommendations, which included funding for WPM.
“I extend my 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,” Gordon wrote in a news release shortly after the bill’s passage. “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. I want to also thank the Senate, whose stalwart leadership paved the way to this amazing victory.”
WPM, which airs Wyoming Public Radio and is headquartered on the University of Wyoming (UW) campus, receives about $800,000 from the university’s annual state aid.
Historically, that distribution has accounted for roughly 17% of the radio station’s operating budget.
WPM General Manager Christina Kuzmych said the inclusion of WPM funding in the unified budget bill has saved the station from making cuts to services it otherwise might have. WPM also houses Classical Wyoming, Wyoming Sounds and Jazz Wyoming.
“Wyoming Public Media is grateful to the House and Senate for their hard work in reconciling and passing the budget,” Kuzmych said in a statement. “Wyoming Public Media had a lot at stake; had the intended cuts gone through, the network would have lost a significant portion of the services we provide to Wyoming residents. In today’s fast-moving news environment, radio service is essential.”
The Joint Appropriations Committee is responsible for crafting the budget bill, which it then passes to the full Wyoming Legislature to work.
Dominated this year by members of the state Freedom Caucus, the committee cut $1.7 million from UW’s block grant — the amount it would typically pass to WPM in a two-year period — and added a footnote to the budget forbidding UW from supporting WPM with state aid.
That $1.7 million was a portion of the nearly $61 million in cuts the committee made to UW’s budget ahead of this year’s session.
The House, which is also dominated by the Freedom Caucus, added some of that funding back in but held the line on the appropriators' cuts.
The Senate, meanwhile, reinstalled the entirety of the $61 million in a sweeping amendment that undid most of the committee’s work and returned the budget bill to that recommended by the governor.
Heading into final budget negotiations, there was a roughly $37 million difference between the House’s vision for UW and the Senate’s. In the end, the Senate’s vision carried the day. The funding was restored and the footnote was erased.
Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Jackson), one of the designated negotiators, told WPR it was “the outcry” from the public, rather than “anything that anyone in the Senate said,” that reversed the defunding of WPM and the other proposed cuts to UW.
