Wyoming lawmakers voted Friday night to override four of the governor’s line-item vetoes of the budget bill, all relating to state employees and their salaries.
In his roughly two dozen vetoes of the state’s next two-year spending plan, Gov. Mark Gordon largely focused on separation of powers, as he has in years past.
“In its simplest form, the legislature passes legislation and the executive branch enforces that legislation,” Gordon wrote Thursday in his budget letter.
“Likewise, the legislature appropriates funds for the running of state government. The executive branch sees that those funds are used expeditiously and efficiently,” he continued. “It is not the role (though it may be an understandable temptation) of the legislature to attempt to assume the extent of executive functions such as deciding how many positions, the level of individual pay, or the classification of specific employees of the executive branch.”
Lawmakers pushed back Friday, starting in the Senate, where such motions were required to originate this year. The two chambers alternate having that responsibility every budget session. The Senate voted to override seven of Gordon’s vetoes.
House leadership had indicated an appetite for additional overrides, Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, told the lower chamber Friday night.
“There were many more that were offered,” Neiman said.
The Senate’s budget position — which lawmakers in both chambers largely favored in the final budget bill — aligned more closely with the governor’s recommendations.
“But these seven were the ones chosen by the body to the West of us, and they established this line,” Neiman said.
To override a line-item veto in the budget, two-thirds of elected members in both chambers must approve. Ultimately, the House approved four of the seven veto overrides to the budget bill.
The overrides
While lawmakers approved Gordon’s request to increase state employee pay, both the House and Senate voted to override his decision to strike language to allow the Legislature to specify the “number of employees.”
Gordon argued such a determination is up to the executive branch. Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, disagreed.
“The Legislature has authorized the number of employees since 1971 in its current form and previously did so in a different form,” Hicks said on the Senate floor.
Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, also spoke in favor of the override, but “for slightly different reasons,” he said.
As the longest serving member in the Legislature, Scott said he’s seen that having such language in the budget bill “has been a very effective way for us to control the total size of state government.”
The Senate voted 23-6 with two excused lawmakers to approve the override. With the exception of two lawmakers who were either excused or absent, the House voted unanimously in favor of the motion.
On page 49 of the budget bill, Gordon struck language to reclassify the Wyoming Charter School Authorization Board’s executive director the next time the position is vacant.
Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, said such classification was needed to align the position more closely with other executive-level positions in the department. In the House, Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, said the position’s salary was “considerably more” than those at the same executive level, and it “caused a lot of problems” in the rest of the education agency.
The House voted 57-3 with one lawmaker excused and another absent to approve the veto override. The Senate voted 29-0, with two lawmakers excused, in favor of the motion.
The other two veto overrides adopted by the Legislature specifically related to salary increases.
Gordon had vetoed language to limit the executive branch’s ability to move funds around in the payroll section of the budget to provide salary increases.
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said “governors have vetoed this multiple times” in the past, “and when in session, the Legislature has overridden that veto.”
Such was the case this year, too. Lastly, lawmakers voted to override Gordon’s decision to strike language prohibiting the executive branch from increasing salaries using savings from vacancies.
Meanwhile, the House rejected three veto overrides approved in the Senate. One of those would have overturned Gordon’s decision to strike language requiring the University of Wyoming to identify $5 million in cost savings.
What now?
At publishing time, Gordon had so far vetoed a single piece of legislation from the 2026 session — Senate File 119, “Strategic investments and projects account-repeal-2.”
Lawmakers will have the opportunity to override Gordon’s decision on Wednesday, alongside any other potential vetoes, when the Legislature convenes for its final day of the session.
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