CHEYENNE—A legislative panel on Tuesday advanced the state’s supplemental budget, but not before slashing roughly $235 million from Gov. Mark Gordon’s recommendations via cuts to wildfire recovery, energy projects, emergency funds for local governments and reimbursement rates for maternity and mental health care.
The cuts were mostly unsurprising. Wyoming Freedom Caucus members and their allies now comprise the majority of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee, and the group has long promised to dramatically decrease spending levels. The reductions, however, set the stage for a potential showdown between the legislative and executive branches.
The committee set the tone early, using its first meeting of the 2025 general session to effectively “override” many of Gov. Mark Gordon’s previous line-item vetoes to the existing budget by adding the crossed-out language back into the supplemental fiscal plan.
In even-numbered years, lawmakers craft the state’s upcoming two-year budget, also known as a biennium budget. In odd-numbered years, as they are doing right now, lawmakers work on the supplemental budget — which, as the name implies, supplements the financial plan already in effect.
For both budget processes, lawmakers begin by considering recommendations from the governor. That’s how the committee spent its time last week — and not without hiccups.
In the time since lawmakers adopted the existing budget, the appropriations committee has tilted farther to the right. Many of its members are also new to the work of crafting and amending the state’s budget, particularly on the House side. That was evident when the committee, on more than one occasion, had to reconsider a vote when members voiced confusion over what they had just approved or rejected. At one point, Rep. Bill Allemand, a Midwest Republican, voted both for and against his own motion.
“I voted twice. I’m sorry,” he said.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Tim Salazar — a Riverton Republican with several years of experience on the panel — urged members to get up to speed.
“It’s too important to be voting and not knowing what we are voting on,” Salazar said.
After the committee completed its markups last week, the Legislative Service Office put the budget into bill form. The committee voted Tuesday to unanimously send the budget — totaling about $265.5 million — to both the House and the Senate for floor deliberations.
Lawmakers in both chambers could start budget discussions as soon as Friday.
Don Richards, LSO’s budget and fiscal administrator, also reminded the committee that beyond the budget, bills with their own price tags are still in play. That includes several property tax bills, such as one to use $125 million in General Fund dollars to reimburse local governments for lost revenue.
If all the non-budget bills still in play passed, Richards said, they would appropriate more than what is available in Wyoming’s two primary financial accounts — the General Fund and the Budget Reserve Account.
“You are much better at predicting what’s going to pass,” Richards told lawmakers, before noting that the additional legislation accounted for approximately $413 million.
Social services
Wyoming is facing a significant shortage of obstetric services, as WyoFile’s five-part Delivery Desert series detailed in 2023.
The shortage has forced many families to go to extraordinary lengths to deliver babies, and fixing the problem has proven to be difficult for the state.
After studying the issue over the summer, the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee did not draft any legislation, citing the many complexities of rural health care.
In the meantime, Gordon made a suggestion to lawmakers in his budget recommendations.
“One thing we can do today is increase Medicaid rates for our providers to ensure we can help retain the services in Wyoming, as Medicaid births account for approximately one-third of the deliveries in Wyoming,” Gordon wrote in his budget letter.
The committee, however, voted down the $2.4 million Gordon recommended in the Department of Health’s budget for upping the reimbursement rate.
Gordon had also asked lawmakers to increase the rates for behavioral health providers, but the committee struck that funding as well. Wyoming has long wrestled with one of the nation’s highest suicide rates.
When it came to cuts to the state’s child development centers, most of the committee found itself on the same page as the governor.
The centers act as preschool programs for children up to age 5 who are developmentally delayed or disabled. They provide free screenings and interventions to help prepare Wyoming kids for their K-12 education.
The Department of Health’s supplemental budget request sought $11.7 million for the centers. Of that, $8 million was intended largely to account for a new per-child amount passed by the Legislature last year.
After Gordon denied the proposal in his recommendations, Sen. Mike Gierau, a Jackson Democrat, brought a motion for about $4 million.
Early intervention can save the state money in the long run, Gierau said, since “by the time they get into the K-12 system, their needs are already identified, so they don’t have to spend more money to even just diagnose and then start a training regimen.”
Salazar, who backed the $4 million in funding, reminded members “they were talking about extremely vulnerable children.”
Gierau’s motion failed, and the committee voted 7-5 to back the governor’s denial of funding.
Energy and economic development
The committee took aim at the governor’s Energy Matching Funds, striking about $100 million from the program, which is intended to leverage private and federal funds for energy projects, such as carbon capture.
Last year, the funds landed on the chopping block when lawmakers pushed back on Gordon’s support for energy projects that aim to reduce carbon emissions. Opponents of the governor’s authority to spend the funds deny the scientific consensus that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contribute to the climate crisis. Ultimately, a portion of the funds made it into the final budget bill.
This year, Bear brought the motion to encourage the state to “move away from a carbon-negative position.”
“We should use funds like this . . . to enhance and promote our core industries of coal, oil and gas,” said Bear, whose district includes part of Wyoming’s coal country.
The committee approved Bear’s motion while also voting to exclude funds meant for Wyoming Department of Transportation infrastructure projects.
In his budget request, Gordon asked lawmakers for $5.2 million to fund the third phase of his Wyoming Innovation Partnership — an initiative intended to build workforce resilience and boost the state’s economy.
Last year, lawmakers asked Gordon to request the remainder of WIP funding in this year’s supplemental budget.
Gordon had also asked that some of that funding be earmarked for an efficiency study of higher education.
“This study will assess how these principles can be applied across higher education to enhance efficiencies for the state into the future,” he wrote.
The committee voted to strip $5 million, leaving $200,000 intact for the study.
Bear also brought a successful amendment to cut the Wyoming Business Council’s Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program by about $14 million.
If the state is committed to diversifying the economy and supporting businesses, Gierau said cutting these programs doesn’t make sense.
“I think back to all the projects, all the different times that we’ve tried to do economic development, we’ve had probably more misses than hits, and I’ll admit that freely,” Gierau said. “But actually, in the past couple of years, I think these folks have really, really tried to put it on a good path. I just hate to see us cut this one.”
Emergencies, fires and an arboretum
The state’s Mineral Royalty Grants program awards money to local governments to alleviate emergencies that pose a direct and immediate threat to health, safety or welfare. The dollars can also be used to comply with federal or state mandates, or to provide essential public services.
Gordon asked the Legislature to add approximately $20 million to the fund, which sat at roughly $39.6 million as of last November.
The committee approved the governor’s request, but not before reducing it by about $5 million.
After lawmakers voted earlier in the week to reduce wildfire recovery funds by $30 million and to make the funds available as loans rather than grants, it expanded the program to include any “catastrophic event.”
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, also brought a successful motion for $2.75 million to fund one full-time employee and four seasonal, part-time employees to operate an air tanker during wildfire season.
The committee axed $3.3 million for the High Plains Arboretum, a 62-acre research station west of F.E. Warren Air Force Base. Funding to improve the facility was a sticking point for lawmakers last year who disagreed about what the state’s role should be in the property.
Ultimately, those dollars made it into the 2024 budget, and have since then been partially used to study the cost of getting the facility back into working order. With a $20 million price tag, Bear brought a motion to strike the funding.
“Losing the funding … is very disappointing as it would have been used to protect a piece of the past and also contribute to the state’s future,” Jessica Friis, a horticulturist for the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, said in a press release.
“The funding would also be used to restore a historic greenhouse so we can produce trees collected and grown in Wyoming, important for replanting forests destroyed by fire, beautifying communities for future generations, and providing tough trees for homeowners,” Friss wrote.
Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Nicholas, a Cheyenne Republican, has brought a bill to declare the arboretum as a state historic site.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct Jessica Friis’ last name. —Ed.
When are they going to cut they preform they should be paying us.he most wasteful program there wages.With the quality of work they due they should be paying us.
I am deeply concerned about the state of healthcare—especially maternity and mental health care—in Wyoming. Rural healthcare challenges can be incredibly complex, with limited resources, provider shortages, and funding gaps making it difficult for many residents to access the care they need.
The issue of maternity care is particularly pressing, as rural hospitals across the country have been closing labor and delivery units due to financial struggles. Without adequate maternity care, expecting mothers may have to travel long distances for care, increasing risks for both mother and child. Given that Wyoming values its future generations, as you mentioned, ensuring proper maternal health services seems like a critical priority.
Similarly, Wyoming’s high suicide rate is a stark indicator that mental health services need significant attention. Rural areas often struggle with a shortage of mental health professionals, and limited crisis intervention resources. I hope you or your family never have to endure the lack of services
Very sad to see WY people being duped that they need big cuts and at the same time give big bucks to people for school vouchers (who dont need it if there have their kids in a private school). WY has a good education system (due to funding and great teachers) and should be proud of it, but this will be the down hill slide of education in WY.
I watched this fiasco on YouTube yesterday. I was quite surprised when Scott Smith (R District 5) actually got up and almost fought against the cuts in child services and obstetrics.
It’s always kind of bothered me that this “pro-life” group is so against families after the children are born. I feel that this is neither pro-life or Christian.
They need to back and read their Bibles a bit better.
I did not vote for these people, and if they don’t know what they are doing they should quit. They want to get rid of government and set up a theocracy. Just like what is going on in Washington where they froze funds illegally. They are Christian Nationalists and they are a threat to democracy.
Gotta remember we the people put these yahoos in the seats they occupy! Only voters with conscience can change that.
I am literally speechless.
Thank you Carolynn for the file. I am a retired teacher and it would appear that the Freedom Caucus is desperately trying to run their “Five and Dime Plan” in short order. House Bill 199 is extremely disturbing with its provision of $7,000 for each homeschooled child. In this provision it is duly noted that …”they would not be held to any state or national standardized testing.” I know of several low income families that would jump right on this. Let’s be clear. They have no intention of “homeschooling”. I feel the members of the Freedom Caucus do not have Wyoming as their best interest. I am a four generation Wyoming native. I am sorry it has taken me so long to get involved.
I am hoping you can open this pdf file. It would seem, with 30 billion dollars in portfolio, the legislators shouldn’t be cutting any programs that benefit the people of Wyoming.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:34bcfabb-a0b5-4c2c-915b-33d50c0df1f0
Thanks for showing us the hypocrisy of the state legislature, cutting a few million here and there, but withholding funds actually available that could assist regular citizens. Wyoming families are composed of citizens who need legislative support to safely deliver their children. “Freedom Caucus” members say families are “important” but write off helping those families to have children in Wyoming because finding a solution is “too hard.” We elected those people to SOLVE those problems, not whine about how hard that solution is to determine. Legislators, please get to work instead of playing nickel and dime games with the citizens. If the real work is “too hard” for you, stop running for these offices.