While meeting virtually Thursday to spot edit the second draft of Wyoming’s two-year budget, the Joint Appropriations Committee voted to shield two more institutions from its $40 million cut to the University of Wyoming.
Those are the Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute, which feeds the tourism and hospitality industry, and a program that innovates and researches oil and gas industry technologies, held within the High Bay Research Center.
This version of the budget is the second of many drafts. It won’t be final until early March, after the Legislature’s budget-planning session.
The WORTH Institute and the campaign arm of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — some members of which voted to protect the institute — share a financial backer.
That’s John “Jay” Kemmerer and Karen Kemmerer, a couple from Jackson, Wyoming.
The Kemmerers launched the WORTH institute in 2024 with a $5 million gift, matched by $1 million in state money, a University of Wyoming webpage says.
Jay was inducted into the University of Wyoming Business Hall of Fame in November, 2025.
Jay and Karen Kemmerer each gave $5,000 to the WY Freedom PAC, which is the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ campaign arm, in 2025.
The WY Freedom PAC’s expenditure reports distribute mailers attacking some Wyoming Freedom Caucus members’ campaign opponents
Jay Kemmerer gave $2,500 to the same PAC in 2024. The John Kemmerer III primary trust gave $10,000 to the PAC in 2023.
If taken together, the pair’s separate 2025 donations would put them among the PAC’s top donors for that year, says the group’s odd-year campaign report.
Jay and Karen Kemmerer could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Nope, Says Sponsor
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, advanced the budget amendment to shield those two institutions Thursday afternoon, saying they align well with the university’s mission as a land-grant university.
Haroldson last month questioned UW leaders over some of the school’s more socially liberal endeavors.
House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, reiterated those points in a Wednesday guest column for Cowboy State Daily. He also supported Haroldson’s motion Thursday.
Both Bear and Haroldson are Wyoming Freedom Caucus members.
Haroldson told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday interview that he wasn’t aware the WY Freedom PAC shared a benefactor with the WORTH Institute.
“I did not know that was the case,” said Haroldson.
The WY Freedom PAC’s expenditure listings do not show direct contributions to candidates, like Haroldson or Bear but more diffuse expenses like advertising and consulting.
Haroldson reiterated his points from the meeting – that the WORTH Institute feeds Wyoming’s no. 2 revenue-generating industry of tourism (no. 1 is minerals), and that he believes High Bay is consistent with the university’s mission.
Bear echoed both points, calling both schools “practical” and noting that the High Bay “has a little more flow-through on the block grant” from the state. “So we felt it was important to protect that as well.”
Bear said the fact that the WORTH Institute and WY Freedom PAC have shared a benefactor did not drive the shield amendment.
The… Second Cut’s The Deepest
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, blasted the maneuver in a speech to the committee.
“I know we talk a lot about not wanting to pick winners and losers,” said Gierau, adding, “Here we’re picking winners – and penalizing the loser.”
UW’s colleges of education and agriculture are already exempt from the $40 million, or 11% cut to the university’s state-money block grant. That means the other schools were facing more than 15% in cuts, roughly, to make up the difference, according to UW officials.
Shielding two more facilities deepens the cut the other schools would sustain if this budget provision survives, Gierau noted.
“If we cut this $40 (million) and we start adding back the schools we like or the school that’s got the best stroke or the school that has somebody’s phone number to be able to call and say, ‘Put this back’ — this ain’t no way to do this,” he said.
Gierau made a motion to restore the $40 million, and that motion failed.
