Lawmakers discuss the budget during the 2014 session. The state swept $793 million into savings accounts over the summer, then projected a $4.4 million deficit for the 2015-2016 biennium. (Gregory Nickerson/WyoFile)

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  1. I see the Governor included the PWMTF RA (otherwise known as the PWMTF Spending Policy Reserve Account SPRA) in his calculation of available revenue. That’s a first if I remember correctly, but I wonder how many people, legislators included, know what the original intent of that account was. It was established statutorily while Cynthia Lummis was State Treasurer and it diverts PWMTF investment income from the General Fund into the SPRA to be used to transfer money back to the General Fund whenever the actual investment income from the PWMTF fell short of the projected investment income. It only happened once since inception and the legislature promptly changed the statute to stop the auto transfer. Since then, it has been used as a way to divert General Fund money into the SPRA and ultimately transfer it to the PWMTF. Since CREG (at the insistence of the Treasurer’s office) does not include capital gains in the official revenue projections, they will never have actual revenue fall short of projected revenue, thus there is no need for this account what so ever. It could easily be done away with, or CREG could include some capital gains in its projections and if the actual comes in less, then use the SPRA for what it was originally intended, to make up shortfalls in projected investment income. Just more “budget/revenue gamesmanship”.
    Steve Sommers
    Tie Siding, WY