A chairman’s angst

by Andrew Graham June 23, 2017June 22, 2017

House Revenue Committee Chairman Mike Madden cocks a wary eye at a state fiscal analyst as he receives reports on the deficits in funding for Wyoming’s public education system during a June meeting of the Joint Revenue and Select School Finance Recalibration committees. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile)

The thorniness of Wyoming’s fiscal problems must weigh on House Revenue Committee Chairman Mike Madden judging from this photo from a June 12 committee meeting in Riverton.

Tedium and frustration warred in the room as, not for the first time, lawmakers received a dire report on the growing education-funding crisis from state fiscal analyst Matt Wilmarth.

Wilmarth sits on the right side of this photo. As is usually the case in interim committee meetings, the lawmakers sat in a row, speaking to each other but facing outward to the crowd. The Riverton meeting combined the Joint Revenue Committee and the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration — together including some of the most experienced, and the most influential, lawmakers in Wyoming.

Never miss a Photo — sign up for WyoFile’s free weekly newsletter

That day, Wilmarth informed them that without a solution the state would go in the hole by more than $530 million paying for public education from 2019 to 2020, and that the number would grow by $100 million the biennium following. On top of that were deficits ranging from $195 million to $205 million for school construction and maintenance.

As a crowd of both educators and energy, business and tax lobbyists looked on, the solons’ seats must have felt very hot that day indeed.

Andrew Graham

Andrew Graham covers criminal justice for WyoFile. More by Andrew Graham

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for:

Your real name — first and last.
Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
No more than three comments per story, including replies.

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
Comments that are not directly relevant to the article.
Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know:

Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement.
We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance.
Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you.