The Legislature cut funding to many programs, eliminated others entirely and dipped into savings in order for Wyoming to have a balanced budget and to keep the necessary gears turning as the state’s once gushing extraction mineral revenues dwindle to a drip. About $160 million was taken from savings to balance Wyoming’s $3 billion budget for 2017-18 — a drop from the current biennium’s $3.44 billion.

The money taken from savings amounted to nearly 10 percent of the total $1.6 billion in the state’s rainy day account.

“That is not sustainable in the long-term,” said Rep. Sam Krone, R-Cody. “I really think it was a conservative budget, and we are fortunate we had a saving to tap into. But we aren’t going to be able to do this forever. The big savings account will keep dwindling if we do not have significant changes in revenues, mainly in minerals … we can’t keep doing what we did this session.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed Senate File 1, approving the state’s biennium budget and made 30 vetoes along the way.

“Generally, I have eliminated those lines in where the Legislature prohibits agencies from including requests in their standard budget,” Mead wrote in a letter for Wyoming Senate President Phil Nicholas. “The Governor has the constitutional obligation to recommend ‘those measures he deems expedient’ and the Legislature has a constitutional obligation to act or not to act on those recommendations. I believe these provisions blur those independent responsibilities.”

The Legislature overruled quite a few of Mead’s vetoes, said Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, on Friday. 

“The weed and pest one, I fought hard for,” Laursen said, noting that the goal was $700,000 but it ended up around $250,000.

Weed and pest got off lucky; other programs were cut completely. 

“A lot of programs got cut,” Krone said.

The Family Literacy Program was among the programs to lose all state funding. This program did more than just help adults who struggle with reading and writing. It also connected them with possible employment options, helped enroll their children in school and other basic necessities.

“It is a clearing house for people who have trouble getting connected,” Krone said. “There is a decent-size population in Park County who use that program.”

The $3.2 million program was originally cut entirely by the Joint Appropriations Committee. A budget amendment would have given the program $1.6 million for a year, but it was ultimately cut, Krone said.

“It is only going to get worse,” Krone said.

Wyoming’s sales taxes and investment returns are currently doing well, but revenue from minerals are not predicted to increase over the next two years, Krone said.

“Everyone has their own little projects they wanted to stick in there,” Laursen said. “Whatever you cut is going to make someone not happy.”

Medicaid tug-of-war

In his letter, Mead said the Legislature missed a “critical opportunity” by foregoing Medicaid expansion. This move required the Legislature to cut $30 million from the budget.

“Needless to say, I am disappointed in this missed opportunity for Wyoming and Wyoming citizens,” Mead wrote. “I do not agree with other decisions made in this and the other appropriation bills this session, as the Legislature did not agree with many of my recommendations.”

“The overall feel down here is it is the wrong move for Wyoming and the nation, and we are catching heat for sitting on this,” said Sen. Ray Peterson, R-Cowley, noting the Legislature was trying other avenues for healthcare. “We need to look at what the cause is of the high costs. Medicaid has problems of its own; it is a sick program with 50 cents on the dollar. I don’t know what the answers are, but I don’t think throwing more money at Medicaid is the answer.”

With a new president coming in later this year, the future of Medicaid remains uncertain, Peterson said.

Had the Legislature approved Medicaid expansion and then the next president removed it, Wyoming’s estimated 20,000 beneficiaries of the expansion would only see six months of coverage, he said.

“Then that leaves the state holding the bag and it would be terrible,” Peterson said. “The cost would be around $30 million per biennium for the state and it comes from our pockets and budget — where are we going to get that?”

Separation of powers cited in 19 vetoes

Mead provided the reason for each of his vetoes in his letter. He said 19 of the Legislature’s footnotes are contrary to the governor’s recommendation authority under the separation of powers.

Basically, he was saying the Legislature overstepped its authority.

These 19 footnotes instructed agencies to not include one-time requests in standard budgets.

“I do not disagree with the concept, and while the Legislature can address this issue as a part of the budget process — this is not the place,” Mead said.

Many of Mead’s other vetoes were cited as being due to the separation of powers, redundant due to newly passed bills, already being covered in state statutes or because they could be accomplished without a footnote.

“I thought we were telling him if we put it in as part of a department’s budget, we did not want it in the standard budget for the next biennium and he thought we were stepping on his toes,” Laursen said on Friday, adding that he thought the veto would be overridden. “We wanted to make sure they came back and asked for it again instead of automatically being in the next budget.”

The legislators wanted to be involved when money gets moved from one account to another, Laursen said. There was also concern that Mead could take funds from one account and “divy it to smaller projects,” he  said.  

Mead said he vetoed specific language in Section 322 to make sure the state’s Budget Reserve Account will have $104.5 billion on June 30, 2018.

Meanwhile, Section 323 could result in some state agencies “feeling a disproportionate impact,” Mead wrote. A full evaluation of all agencies’ budgets will be necessary, and further reductions may be needed in the future.

“Overall, it is a difficult budget with a lot of cuts to a lot of agencies,” Krone said. “The budget grew from the last biennium, but it had a lot of cuts too.”

Some of Mead’s other vetoes

• Section 45, footnote 4 — This footnote increases the rate charged for travel by the Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“I do not believe there should be a distinction between the public business conducted by these officials and other representatives of state government, such as the Board of Parole, the Department of Transportation or the University of Wyoming,” Mead wrote.

• Section 60, footnote 1 — This footnote notes that $350,000 general fund is appropriated for control and eradication of noxious weeds on state lands and substitutes dollars set aside for the Colorado River Compact litigation account.

“This account is in my view crucial to the long term protection of Wyoming water,” Mead wrote. “This veto continues weed control from general fund and leaves the Colorado River Compact litigation compact account available for its intended purpose.”

• Section 167, footnote 3 — This provision is unrelated to the ordinary expense of state government and could be interpreted to create substantive law. House Bill 85 has passed, making it redundant.

Total appropriations = $8.31 billion from the following funds:

• $2.98 billion from General Fund

• $1.63 billion from federal funds

• $1.82 billion from School Foundation Program account funds

• $131 million from School Capital Construction Account funds

• $1.75 billion from other funds

State Employment

• 90 positions cut: 59 full-time and 31 part-time

• Authorized 7,524 full-time employees

• Authorized 321 part-time employees

General Fund reductions

• Austerity budget reductions — $37.4 million

• Judicial branch — $377,000

• Executive branch — $28.2 million

• In-state and out-of-state travel — $1.1 million;

• Permanently assigned vehicles — $200,000

• Contract professional services — $7.2 million

Department Appropriations

• Department of Transportation (including WyoLink and airport improvements) — $5.7 million

• Department of Health — $2 billion defunded and eliminated the tax refund to elderly program to save $8.2 million. Also cut the Department of Family Services by $7.4 million from General Fund cost for LIEAP/weatherization

• Community colleges — $267.8 million defunded and eliminated the Family Literacy Program (-$3.3M GF)

• State Lands and Investments — $115.1 million

• University of Wyoming — $441.6 million, $8 million for athletic matching funds and $8.3 million for tier-1 engineering college

• Department of Corrections — $291.6 million

• Game and Fish — $11.8 million

• K-12 Foundation Program — $1.79 billion

• State facilities, including schools - major maintenance — $183.5 million

• Various provisions — $17 million from the municipal solid waste landfill remediation account

Bills with appropriations other than the 2016 Budget Bill

• HB 11, Energy producing state coalition extension — $450,000

• HB 31, Uniform Securities Act — $410,000

• HB 19, Statewide student assessment — $80,000

• HB41, Omnibus water bill-construction — $34.1 million

• HB 50, Appropriation for the Legislature — $18.8 million

• HB 51, Local government distributions — $105 million

• HB 52, School facilities appropriations-3 — $96.99 million

• HB 53, Special districts task force — $30,000

• SF 9, Railroad quiet zones — $1.1 million

• SF 11, Youth Challenge Program — $4 million

• SF 31, Omnibus water bill planning — $5.2 million

• SF 32, Alternative school accountability — $10,000

• SF 40, Abandoned mine land funds — $248.9 million

• SF 41, State funded capital construction — $178.6 million from the General Fund with additional future funds appropriated for a tentative total of $236 million.

• SF 53, Large project funding — $1.5 million

• SF 91, State penal facilities review — $70,000

• SF 94, Payment for educational services — $10,000