Lawmakers at the Wyoming Legislature were still grappling with what it means to have no supplemental budget come out of this year’s legislative session on Thursday, with many looking to salvage portions by adding them to other bills.
Gov. Mark Gordon issued a statement Thursday, voicing his disapproval with the Legislature for foregoing a supplemental budget, which has long been the way the state has handled costs and overruns that the state’s current budget did not plan for.
“Unfortunately, this legislature has overlooked emergencies and ignored unanticipated expenses in a quest for political talking points,” he said. “This is what occurs in a ‘no compromise’ environment.
A supplemental budget serves as a midpoint update to the biennial budget that’s passed during even-numbered years, designed to cover emergency costs and new needs. It may be the first time in Wyoming history that a supplemental budget has not been passed.
The Senate chose to not pass a supplemental on Wednesday night, stating that enough spending is occurring in other standalone bills and that scrapping the budget would be the most efficient use of their remaining time.
Gordon expressed hope that legislators have their constituents' best interests in mind and will refocus their attention on the most important issues in Wyoming, including fire suppression and recovery; funding the state’s property tax relief program; and addressing inflation in school funding.
“It is hard to raise a calf or drill a well on rhetoric alone,” he said.
House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, told Cowboy State Daily that the Legislature is going to need to find a way to make sure necessities are covered in other bills.
“We just got to go through and make sure and pick out the things that are really critical to the people and make sure they try to get them in,” he said. “It’s a little late. We had our budget ready two weeks ago. Quite a transition has happened in the last 48 hours
so we’re trying to figure out where we need to put things.”
Friday is the deadline for bills to be heard for the first time in the House and Senate and the last day to send a bill to the governor and have time to override his veto.
With the budget and all of its associated items gutted, lawmakers started their first attempts at cramming items originally intended to be placed in the budget into standalone bills on Thursday.
“We’re going to have a lot of attempts to shoehorn things in that were in House Bill 1, Senate File 1,” State Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, warned early on in the day.
Still, a lawmaker who wished to remain anonymous confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that a private House caucus meeting held before the afternoon session involved leadership encouraging members to bring amendments sourced from the budget to bills.
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said now everyone is trying to “smush” money into bills as fast as they can.
“It’s understandable,” he said.
Gierau said one of the reasons Senate leadership killed the supplemental budget is that they felt stymied by how long negotiations were taking on the major property tax legislation Senate File 69, losing confidence they’d be able to come to an agreement with the House on the budget before the session was over.
Bill Smushing
Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, said the House must “rectify the carnage” that was caused by scrapping the budget, which he compared to horses getting out of a pen. He brought the first proposal on Thursday, describing it as “one of the horses that got out last night.”
Larsen successfully passed an amendment granting $550,000 for the University of Wyoming to provide medical education and training for 5-12 students a year under an agreement with the University of Utah School of Medicine. Although this funding was approved in the House version of the supplemental budget, the point of some controversy on Thursday was that Larsen attempted to add it to a bill banning diversity, equity and inclusion in all state agencies.
Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedures, which the Wyoming Legislature follows, says that no bill should be amended in a way that changes its original purpose. Bear argued that this already isn’t being followed, pointing out a 2023 bill that originally started as a property tax exemption for the elderly and infirm that eventually became a constitutional amendment to create a separate property tax class.
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, had a self-described “flip-out” about amendments being made to legislation that doesn’t align with a bill’s intended purpose on Wednesday, calling it “crazy” and “insane.” Brown apologized for his actions on Thursday.
“I want to apologize to not only you Mr. Speaker, but also members of staff, public and institution I represent,” Brown said. “What I said, I stand behind. How I said it, I regret. From the bottom of my heart I let this institution down. I hope to earn that trust back from every one of you.”
Brown said although he agreed with the purpose of Larsen’s amendment, he couldn’t support it based on principle.
“This is blatantly unconstitutional to alter this bill beyond its original purpose,” he said.
Although some members of the Freedom Caucus spoke against the amendment, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, spoke in favor of it, saying another state would likely take the opportunity if Wyoming passed it up. Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, agreed and said it could be a benefit for Wyoming to partner with a more conservative state like Utah.
The amendment passed on a 32-27 vote
Later in the day, Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, got in on the action, successfully proposing a $3.8 million amendment that would be matched with federal money that would provide payments to home and community-based service providers within the comprehensive waiver unit in the state’s health care financing program. The amendment was added to a bill
Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, took a similar action in the Senate, proposing $13 million be added to the omnibus water bill for a state shooting complex in Cody.
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, added one of the last ones of the day, successfully smushing in $10.5 million to continue the state’s property tax rebate program into a bill specifying that if multiple property tax exemptions apply to the same property, the Department of Revenue will decide which exemptions they get.
“I find it’s appropriate and germane to place it into this bill to make sure those funds are there for the ongoing property tax refund program,” she said. “It’s an excellent program and it needs the money.”
Rep. J.T. Larson, R-Rock Springs, has proposed a $72 million backfill, in a bill reducing the property tax assessment rate from 9.5% to 8.3%, for a 75% backfill for local governments and special districts in the eight poorest counties that lose revenue as a result of a 25% property tax cut passed earlier in the day. This bill was laid back on third reading Thursday.
Future Outlook
Although there was some chatter on Thursday morning about the budget possibly resurrected, all possibility of that occurring had evaporated by the end of the day, Gierau said.
He said although no one is happy with the current situation, he believes the state needs to get serious about its spending when considering the property tax cut passed and the biennial budget that’s already being used.
Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, said the governor brought up during a meeting Thursday morning the possibility of calling a special session if wildfire funding isn’t passed in any legislation during the session.
Neiman said he would support this move if this need isn’t taken care of before the Legislature adjourns, as he saw the wildfire mitigation money as the cornerstone of the supplemental budget. He mentioned how he was diverted when driving back to Cheyenne through Douglas last weekend due to a wildfire that popped up there.
He also said he’d like to see some mental health funding and state positions get passed.
“We’ll just have to make adjustments accordingly the best we can,” Neiman said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
