The Wyoming Senate dropped a bombshell Wednesday evening, announcing it will not pass a supplemental budget in this year’s legislative session, something that may be unprecedented for the Legislature.
The Senate leadership “concluded that now is not the time to increase spending needlessly,” according to a joint statement from the Senate announcing the decision.
The Senate said the 2025-2026 biennium budget provides the necessary money to run the state. In eight months, budget discussions for the next biennium will begin.
By adding no money to the supplemental budget, it continues the status quo of funding created in last year’s biennium budget.
“With all the major emergency contingencies taken care of, there’s no reason why after hearing from our members for a couple weeks the current budget we’re under is a good budget, we’re covering the state adequately,” Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, told Cowboy State Daily.
With legislators already deep into efforts to make significant cuts to residential property taxes, also adding hundreds of millions of dollars in a supplemental budget seems counterproductive, the statement says.
“Both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature are working hard to deliver property tax relief, and with that comes serious considerations on what we can afford and how,” Biteman says in the statement. “As fiscal conservatives, we know that spending hundreds of millions of dollars while debating massive tax cuts, is not the conservative thing to do.
“The Senate determined that we need to hold off on the budget until we know what the impact of historic property tax cuts and the successful rightsizing of the federal bureaucracy by the new administration.”
Biteman told Cowboy State Daily that the surprise announcement was not a result of any breakdown in negotiations with the House.
He also stressed in the statement that the decision was not made lightly, but that after speaking with senators, they agreed that making no supplemental budget was the way to go.
Senate Vice President Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, was seen grabbing members five at a time Wednesday throughout the day, which an aide to the leadership confirmed to Cowboy State Daily was to inform them of the proposal and make sure they found it acceptable.
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, told Cowboy State Daily that although he’s not sure if every member of the Senate is enthusiastic about the proposal, he doesn’t believe any members are opposed to either.
A supplemental budget serves as a mechanism to update the biennial budget that’s crafted on even-numbered years.
Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, the longest serving member of the Legislature serving since 1979, said he’s not aware of the time that the Legislature has ever not passed a supplemental budget. Case agreed and said the closest comparison he’s aware of is when the Legislature didn’t pass a capital construction budget about 8-10 years ago. Scott said a similar event occurred with the University of Wyoming budget in the 1970s.
He also said the supplemental budget being proposed was so small that it’s not significantly surprising that it’s not being moved forward. The Senate had added $228 million to its budget since Joint Appropriations Committee negotiations ended last month, putting it around $680 million total.
When asked how the House leadership took the news when it was delivered to them, Biteman said, “You’ll have to ask them.”
House Reaction
Cowboy State Daily informed House Majority Floor Leader Scott Heiner, R-Green River, of the Senate’s announcement.
He had no comment besides saying he’s “speechless.”
Rep. John Bear, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had a more measured response and said he wasn’t upset with the announcement, but he does have some concerns.
“As a conservative, I like the deep cuts this would create, as a part of a body that is now governing, I want to ensure that we provide the governmental services that the people expect,” he said.
Bear said he and others suspected the announcement might be coming when the Senate added the school external cost adjustment to a House bill for a recalibration committee, so the House responded on Wednesday when it added wildfire mitigation for ranchers and homeowners impacted by last summer’s fires into a different bill sponsored by Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette.
Still, he wasn’t completely content with the surprise news.
Senate leadership delivered the information to House leadership without warning at around 6 p.m. Wednesday,
“I would've liked better communication,” Bear said. “However, I do believe in the sovereignty in our God, he saw all this beforehand, so I’m not terribly surprised.”
What It Means
The budget announcement could throw a wrench into the remainder of the 2025 legislative session if enough animosity exists over the Senate’s surprise announcement, which Heiner told Cowboy State Daily he had no idea was coming.
Bear said he’s not concerned about what the remaining eight days of the Legislature could look like between the two chambers.
“They claim they have a high priority for tax relief, and that was clearly in the Five and Dime bills,” he said, referring to the priority legislation proposed by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. “It looks to me like we’re headed in the same direction. If you’re going to provide tax cuts, you should reduce spending.”
Senate leadership said it has taken the appropriate steps to ensure items like external cost adjustments and wildfires are covered in other standalone bills without adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the budget.
“It is important that while the Wyoming state government is debating historic tax cuts and requiring local governments to make difficult decisions, the Wyoming Legislature should do the responsible thing and keep our spending under control as well,” the Senate statement says.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
