President of the Senate Phil Nicholas (R-Laramie) speaks at the podium during a press conference Friday, with Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton), left, and Sen. Tony Ross (R-Cheyenne) looking on. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)

Lawmakers are on track to cut millions out of the $3 billion state budget as they conclude the first half of the four-week 2016 budget session, according to estimates by the Republican majority of the Legislature.

The Senate and House are moving their own budget bills and will begin work next week to combine them into a single measure.

GOP leaders say their current drafts grant “super-flex” powers to the governor allowing state agencies to apply a “penny plan” — a 1 percent cut applied in 2017 and again in 2018 — as they see fit. The cut is on top of agency reductions in Gov. Matt Mead’s proposed budget, which included reductions in travel and contract services. The suite of cuts can be done “without any harm to any services,” Rep. Steve Harshman (R-Casper) said at legislative leadership press conference today.

He said the penny plan savings amount to about $27 million over two years. GOP legislative leaders say the idea is to apply a gradual decrease in appropriations to state agencies rather than allowing their budgets to fall off a cliff in coming years.

There’s no end in sight to the declining mineral market that shoulder’s the state’s budget, according to the state’s revenue forecast. To soften budget cuts for the 2017-18 biennium, lawmakers are dipping into the $1.8 billion Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account, or so-called Rainy Day fund. But the overall changes so far tentatively trim the budget far beyond the state’s own projected revenue. Republicans say that’s because they want to prepare for a continuation of declining revenue beyond the 2017-18 biennium.

“That’s what drives me crazy,” said Rep. James Byrd (D-Cheyenne). He said he wasn’t in favor of the agency cuts submitted to the governor or Mead’s final budget proposal. Further cuts by the JAC were egregious, and now the legislative majority is “being overcome with the impending financial shortfalls, and making draconian cuts,” he told WyoFile earlier this week.

“I really despise the axiom that we’ve got to spread the pain across the board,” Byrd said. “No, no, no. We find the things that aren’t working and get rid of them. Or we find the things we can defer spending on.”

Correction: This story was updated on Feb. 22, 2016 to correct how the 1 percent “penny plan” is applied to state agency budgets. — Ed

Dustin Bleizeffer covers energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for more than 25 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily covering the energy...

Leave a comment

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. 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *