By Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — The spending difference between the supplemental budgets in Wyoming’s two legislative chambers is approximately $109 million, according to the Legislative Service Office.

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to pass a supplemental budget that added $119.4 million in appropriations, and lawmakers in the Senate passed a one-year budget adjustment with $228.8 million in appropriations.

This week, LSO staff met with House and Senate appropriators separately to brief them on the opposite chamber’s budget amendments. Lawmakers spent last week bringing second- and third-reading amendments to their versions of the supplemental budget, which is a spending adjustment to the 2025-26 biennium budget that was passed last year.

Legislators passed a total of 47 amendments to the supplemental budget, with 19 in the House and 28 in the Senate. Out of that total, five of them are mirror, or identical amendments. One mirror amendment includes a $4 million appropriation to child development centers in the state.

Mirror amendments are off the table during the upcoming joint conference committee negotiations.

Three high-level spending differences between the two budgets are state backfill to local governments for property tax revenue loss; wildfire grant funding; and energy matching funds, according to LSO Budget and Fiscal Administrator Don Richards.

At the beginning of the session, Gov. Mark Gordon reminded lawmakers the supplemental budget is meant for emergency and unforeseen expenditures only. 

In his own supplemental budget request, Gordon prioritized funding for wildfire recovery grants, increased Medicaid reimbursement rates and litigation funds to defend Wyoming’s core natural industries — just to name a few.

 

Wildfire, property tax, energy 

Gordon asked for $130 million in his supplemental budget proposal for a wildfire grant program to aid recovery efforts for farmers, ranchers and impacted state lands damaged by last summer’s historic wildfire season. House appropriators originally knocked this down to a $100 million loan program, run through the Wyoming Business Council, with a 2% interest rate.

However, Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, successfully added an amendment to create a $40 million grant program for purposes of recovering damaged vegetation from the fires, and reduced the loan program to $60 million. The Senate proposed a $100 million wildfire grant program.

The $60 million funding difference for wildfire grants is on the table during budget negotiations.

As for property tax cuts, the House added a conditional $72 million state backfill to help cover local governments’ revenue loss. This grant would go to the eight counties with the lowest total assessed valuations on condition the grants do not exceed 75% of residential property tax reduction compared to the 2024 tax year.

“This amendment is contingent on passage of at least one of 10 different bills that are all related to property tax,” said LSO Senior Fiscal Analyst Polly Scott, adding that the amendment is set to end in two years.

The Senate provided a $15 million backfill, but only to first-responder and health care special districts. The funding difference between these amendments, as well as the parameters around these backfills, will also be on the table during budget negotiations.

The Senate also adopted an amendment allowing the governor to retain $100 million in large energy matching funds. These funds are used for industrial projects in coal, oil and natural gas. The House chose to adopt the JAC’s position and return that money to the budget reserve account.

 

Word of caution

Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, currently the House’s longest-serving member, has warned lawmakers all session against bills that he said could put the state in a fiscal bind. During Tuesday’s report of the supplemental budget, Harshman repeated his words of caution.

The beginning balance of the state’s Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (also known as the state’s “rainy-day fund”) is $1.869 billion, Harshman said.

“Depending on whether you’re looking at the Senate or the House, we’re about $600 million, $700 million less,” Harshman said, adding he wasn’t sure if this included the $72 million backfill for lost property tax revenue.

State statute requires the LSRA to backstop the School Foundation Program account if it goes below $100 million. For the second time in the state’s history, the School Foundation Program dipped into the LSRA, Harshman said.

“And it’s not the spending as much,” Harshman said. “There’s been some serious revenue reductions and movements, as well.”

Further reductions in property taxes are also expected to impact revenue into the School Foundation Program, which funds inflationary costs for teacher and non-teacher salaries, classroom supplies and energy. 

Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, told the media last week the LSRA is expected to replace lost property tax revenue in funding this account.

However, once the LSRA drops below $500 million, “no more funding for schools,” Harshman said Tuesday.

“I urge caution when we shrink revenue streams. Our revenue streams are pretty tight the way it is,” Harshman said.

House Appropriations Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, reminded lawmakers Gordon’s original supplemental request was $750 million, and the Joint Appropriations Committee cut out $235 million before the current legislative session began.

“What was the real purpose of those cuts? They were to provide tax relief, folks,” Bear said.

He said constituents have pushed for property tax relief, and it was the goal of members of the body to provide those tax cuts. He admitted these cuts are costing the state money from its savings account.

 

Next steps

The Senate president and House speaker each appointed five members from their respective chambers to the Joint Conference Committee. The JCC is responsible for looking at the amendments on the table and negotiating a single version of the supplemental budget before sending it back to the floor of each chamber for a vote.

House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, nominated Reps. Jayme Lien, R-Casper; Chris Knapp, R-Gillette; Scott Heiner, R-Green River, himself and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bear. Bear is the only JCC member who is also a member of the Joint Appropriations Committee.

During a news conference Tuesday, Bear said he wanted to give the other House appropriators “a break.”

“As the chair of Appropriations, I have worked and run my committee about like a bunch of random mules,” Bear said. “They deserve a break for their hard work, and maybe this is one way that they can get a better break.”

The Senate has not yet announced its JCC members.