Committee sets stage for budget cuts
Committee sets stage for budget cuts
By Tom Coulter
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE — With the Wyoming Legislature set to consider hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to state agencies this year, the legislative committee tasked with overseeing the state’s budget advanced an all-encompassing bill outlining those reductions in a committee meeting Friday.
While several steps remain before the cuts would become final, the Joint Appropriations Committee unanimously advanced a supplemental budget for the 2021-22 biennium during its meeting Friday.
Normally, the supplemental budget, which is approved in the middle of Wyoming’s two-year budget cycle, offers a chance for state agencies to request additional funding for newfound needs.
However, that won’t be the case this year, as long-term declines in the state’s energy sectors, combined with the crippling economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, led Gov. Mark Gordon to initiate a sweeping round of budget cuts and layoffs last summer. Those cuts, along with new ones included in Gordon’s supplemental budget, amount to about a 15% cut to most state agencies, totaling roughly $515 million in reductions.
The Joint Appropriations Committee, the first group of lawmakers possessing the opportunity to tinker with those budget proposals, ultimately advanced a budget largely in line with Gordon’s proposal. Lawmakers agreed to an additional $2.5 million reduction in the state’s general fund, along with a $3.1 million reduction to the state’s school foundation program funds, according to Legislative Service Office budget administrator Don Richards.
Breaking from the governor’s recommendations, the committee also moved to restore 51 positions and much of the funding for the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy in Guernsey, a program for at-risk youth that the governor proposed to eliminate entirely.
However, any final decisions on the fate of programs such as the academy in Guernsey won’t be made until later this spring, as lawmakers on the committee reminded participants during the meeting.
“This budget has a long way to go,” committee co-chair Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper, said. “It’s got to go through more readings on the floor ... there’ll be built ample opportunity for individuals to advocate for additional cuts or for restoration or other acts of spending. (With) what we do today, we’re just at the midpoint.”
During Friday’s meeting, the committee also advanced a capital construction bill that includes roughly $147 million in funding for a wide variety of projects. The legislation contained many of the same projects as last year’s capital construction bill, which failed in the final days of the session due to an impasse between the House and Senate over funding for a new swimming pool at the University of Wyoming.
Like last year’s failed proposal, the capital construction bill this year calls for roughly $20 million for renovation of the Laramie County Community College Recreation and Athletics Complex, known as the “RAC.” Despite being one of the most-used facilities on the LCCC campus, the RAC hasn’t been renovated since the 1980s, and college officials have repeatedly tried to secure funding for it in recent years.
However, the proposal advanced by the committee Friday would require the use of local funding for the renovation, rather than state general funds.
While plans have yet to be finalized, both the budget bill and the capital construction bill will likely be considered during the in-person portion of the Legislature’s session, which is tentatively set to begin March 1. Richards noted any delays to that plan could complicate the appropriations process, with many reductions set to take effect immediately upon final approval of the budget bill.
“If you do not meet in March, this effective date will become an issue the longer you push it out,” Richards said. “Specifically, if you don’t meet until May or June, there may be insufficient time to incorporate these reductions by July 1, in which case we would likely work with the State Auditor’s Office to have some accounting extension for X number of weeks.”
While the legislation advanced Friday reflects cuts in nearly every state agency, it does not address cuts to the state’s K-12 education fund, which remains in a structural funding deficit. Lawmakers will likely begin to address K-12 education cuts during the remainder of this year’s session, with a funding recalibration bill that includes a $100 million cut to the model already having advanced out of committee.