The Battle of the Two Chambers: Hubris an obstacle in budget fight

The Wyoming Legislature is stuck in The Battle of the Two Chambers, as I like to call it, facing a $1.1 billion divide that needs to be closed. Experience, lack of time and some members’ extraordinary amount of hubris this session seem to put the Senate at a slight disadvantage.

If I were a betting woman (spoiler alert, I am not), I would put my very small bet on the House.

In the ensuing days, this $1.1 billion divide will be worked out by the Joint Conference Committee and then taken back to each chamber for their approval. The House wants money put back in the budget that the Senate has taken out. This position is the Senate’s only advantage, but given the fact all budget bills generally start from a much higher figure as a matter of strategy, it’s a small one at that. The amount passed is never the amount proposed going into the budget session. 

The Conference Committee is made up of members appointed from each chamber by their respective leaders, to do the thankless job of “negotiating” the budget differences.

Generally, almost all conference committees are made up of members from the Appropriations Committee.

In an interesting break from that tradition, Senate President Ogden Driskill chose to appoint more than half of the Senate Conference Committee with non-Appropriations members, in an attempt to, as he put it, better represent the current political makeup of the Senate. For those who aren’t aware, the Senate president has been dealing with a run-away soap opera chamber he has described as a “divisive, mean body.”

Here is where my first point about experience comes into play. I believe this break in tradition will not serve the Senate position well because experience is one of the most important factors in these kinds of negotiations. The Senate is at a real disadvantage, and it may or may not be able to overcome this through the sheer, singular skill of its Appropriations Chairman Sen. Dave Kinskey (R-Sheridan).

You see, the state budget is an immense, complicated thing, and like it or not, Appropriations members have the deepest understanding of it because of the amount of time those members have to digest it before the full session.

Having served on the Appropriations Committee, I can say with certainty there is no better experience than learning the nuances of the budget as a member of that panel.

Prior to the session’s start, the Appropriations Committee works through the budget page by page in December and January. They hear first from the governor, who presents his budget to them and gives his top-line agenda items. From there the committee hears testimony from agency after agency, asks countless questions, requests more information and works through an enormous amount of minute details inside the budget. All of this creates a level of understanding and experience that cannot be replicated any other way.

That process is now over.

The budget has been presented to the full Legislature, and it has gone through three readings, hundreds of amendments, long debates and final votes in both the House and Senate. And it has been passed in both chambers.  But “it” isn’t the same anymore. Two very, very different budgets must now be reconciled.

This leads me to time. If the first meetings of the august Conference Committee are any indicator, the citizens of this state will also have a bit of a wait until any final agreements are made on the budget bill as The Battle of the Two Chambers continues.

The Wyoming Constitution defines the number of days a budget session may last. Those days will be depleted by week’s end, though technically lawmakers can also use three days left over from the last session. Still, the need for a special session to extend the budget session is clear now. This will allow the Joint Conference Committee more time to debate and negotiate the chasm they are facing. But time is counting down — leaving the Senate again at a disadvantage. With the cost of each day of a special session at $100,000 a day, the Senate has little room to maneuver.  Time is not on its side.

This brings me, finally, to hubris.

Power is seductive. But it can also humble. And thankfully for the citizens of this state, our system of government means power is limited. There is always that pesky check to the balance.

What the Senate wants, it will not get in full.  

What the House wants, it will not get in full.

Even as the heady power running through those members who have wrestled the Senate president into a corner leaves them believing their wishes will prevail, the House will check them.

This is a good thing for all of us. Perhaps less so for those who have grown drunk on their own power — but I digress.

Hubris. I was talking about hubris.

This entire legislative session has been a master class in the negative excesses of the human condition. Greed, envy, betrayal, anger, revenge, fear, disgust, pride — I could go on.  The Legislature is becoming overrun with people who seem to need to be loved, feared, hated or wanted. Or all of them, all at once.

Which is to say, it’s all just so very, very personal for far too many of the members now. And pride cometh….

Too many self-interested, selfish personalities make for too many bad lawmakers, and while the House has, thanks to the Freedom Caucus, its fair share of them, the Senate seems to be edging them out this session given the number of senators who are running about the halls thirsty for higher office, bigger applause and angrier supporters. This again leaves them at a disadvantage: It’s hard to be a team player when you’re gunning to be governor or president of the Senate or a social media star.

And so, we are facing The Battle of the Two Chambers where there’s just a whole lot of competing self interests all working at cross purposes all the time. I’m giving it to the House by a nose.

For all of us watching, it will definitely be interesting, perhaps entertaining, if we could set aside the fact that this budget affects people all across our state in real and vital ways. This knowledge rapidly removes the entertainment value.

Let’s hope calmer, humbler heads prevail and those power-hungry members walking around the halls of the Capitol can finally separate their self-serving interests from the real work they were sent to Cheyenne to do for their constituents.

Looking to the future, I hope those same constituents take note of those members full of hubris and retire them. We could all do with a lot less angry, prideful people.

Until then, The Battle of the Two Chambers continues! Personally, I’m waiting for Frodo to toss that damned ring into Mount Doom so everyone can just go home.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Sen. Ogden Driskill’s name. —Ed.