Funds survive as supplemental budget killed — Vets’ Home project delayed again

BUFFALO — Though lawmakers killed a supplemental budget in the waning days of the 2025 Wyoming legislative session, much of the anticipated funding has been allocated through other stand-alone bills.

Senate leaders announced a little more than a week before the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn on March 6 that they believe the budget package passed during the 2024 legislative session, which funds the state for two years, provides the necessary dollars to run the state.

The supplemental budget is passed in the off years between budget negotiations to address unforeseen costs.

“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,” a news release from Senate leadership said.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s recommendations for the supplemental budget released in December included $692 million in requests, $220 million of which was one-time spending allocations. State agencies had requested a total of $805 million in additional money in the supplemental budget, according to previous Bulletin reporting.

Gordon issued a statement after the Senate’s announcement, saying that the Legislature this session has “overlooked emergencies and ignored unanticipated expenses in a quest for political talking points.”

“I would hope that our legislators have their constituents’ best interests in mind, and I remain optimistic that they will refocus their attention to address the most important issues facing Wyoming at this time,” he said in a statement. “These would certainly include fire suppression and recovery; funding the property tax relief program; and addressing inflation in school funding. It is hard to raise a calf or drill a well on rhetoric alone.”

An additional $10.5 million for the state’s existing property tax relief program was appropriated to the Department of Revenue as part of House Bill 279, which specifies how to apply multiple property tax exemptions to one property.

Prior to the Senate announcement, both the House and Senate had deliberated and made changes to Gordon’s recommended supplemental budget, including a program he championed that would fund recovery projects after the state’s unprecedented wildfire season last year.

Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, said in an interview that he was not completely caught off guard by the news.

Early in the session, he and Rep. Marilyn Connolly, R-Buffalo, each filed bills that would fund wildfire recovery programs and construction costs for the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming in Buffalo. None of those bills survived the session. Crago said he filed backstop bills, and encouraged others to do the same, partly in case the Legislature didn’t pass a budget.

“It’s not a decision I would have made, but I stand behind leadership and support their decision to do that,” Crago said in an interview. “We passed a good budget last year that will take care of most things. Those things in the supplemental budget that were emergencies, we took care of in other bills.”

For Crago, the most important programs were the wildfire recovery grant funds and replenishing the Emergency Fire Suppression Account, and the external cost adjustments for Wyoming’s K-12 schools, both of which have been addressed in other bills.

Signed by House and Senate leadership on March 3, Senate File 152, wildfire management- amendments, includes $20 million for the EFSA, and allows the governor to use up to $30 million from the legislative stabilization reserve account, also known as the state’s rainy day fund, in the event it’s needed for fire suppression activities.

The bill also includes almost $50 million in grant funding for conservation and weed and pest districts to fund post-fire restoration projects, in addition to $100 million for loans with a 2% interest rate.

“It’s not exactly what I wanted, but it’s pretty darn close,” Crago said. “We were able to secure most everything except instead of $100 million (in grants), we’re setting aside $50 million. That will get us by until next year.”

The more than 600,000 acres burned in wildfires in northeastern Wyoming included the 175,000 acre House Draw fire in Johnson County.

County Commission Chairman Bill Novotny wrote in an email that he is pleased that some wildfire recovery money is included in other legislation.

“Unfortunately, it will be very competitive for these dollars and certain areas may not be treated,” he said. “With 600,000 acres burned in Northeast Wyoming, you could allocate about $83 per acre which isn’t targeted or effective so we will need to work with all our land partners and the property owners to be very strategic in our applications of treatments for weeds and seeding.”

Crago said that there were other provisions that are important for Wyoming in the budget that did not make it into other bills.

“But, obviously, we’ll be back down here in a few months and we’ll try again,” he said.

Connolly said that she was disappointed that funding for the state’s natural resource litigation account, preschool funding for children with disabilities and $400,000 that would have been appropriated to the state’s search and rescue council were eliminated, along with the supplemental budget.

“That money would’ve been used to purchase equipment, pay for repairs,” she said. “We’re having so many more searches, and the costs of those searches keep getting higher and higher.”

Crago noted that the worry of Senate leadership was that backfills for property tax relief that were included in the House version of the supplemental budget bill would drain the state’s investment accounts.

“They’re going to hold strong and make sure we let our investment accounts remain intact,” he said. “They saw what was coming and they weren’t willing to do that, which is a good reason.”

Vets’ Home, capital construction funding dies

Outside of the supplemental budget, $79 million earmarked for renovations to the aging Veterans’ Home of Wyoming domiciliary unit in Buffalo was killed, along with the state-funded capital construction bill, House Bill 258, that was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee and was not reported on before the deadline. The legislation included $156.6 million for construction projects on state buildings.

“I am very disappointed that the funding for the domiciliary project at the Veterans’ Home has been delayed because of the wrangling between the House and Senate,” Novotny said. “It’s unfortunate that the needs of our veterans are the collateral damage.”

Renovations to the domiciliary, which had its latest additions built in 1973 and 1983, have been in the works for several years. The project has been complicated by stalled federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Connolly said in an interview on Monday that she couldn’t find another place to include Vets’ Home funding this session.

“For all intents and purposes, unless something happens between now and Thursday, that Vets’ Home funding is done for another go around and that makes me really sad,” she said.

Crago said that he was somewhat caught off guard by the capital construction bill’s death in the Senate committee.

“This has been on my list for several years now,” he said. “I’m going to keep attacking at it, and hopefully we can get it done next year. There’s no pushback against that particular project – everyone is in agreement we need to do it. Timing is everything in this business.”

This story was published on March 6, 2025.