By:
Senator Tony Ross
Representative Steve Harshman
Senator Tony Ross
Representative Steve Harshman
Co-Chairs of the Joint
Appropriations Committee
Wyoming is consistently ranked one of the best run states in
the nation. Wyomingites are never surprised to hear this fact; the Wyoming way
of life means getting required tasks done, living within our means, and
planning for the future. It’s how Wyoming families operate and it is the way our
state operates. It was with these priorities we set the biennium budget last
year, and it was through this lens we appraised the supplemental budget
requests this year.
Last year we passed a strong 2015/2016 biennium budget that
prioritizes Wyoming needs and invests in Wyoming’s people, jobs, communities,
responsible mineral development and education. We have continued these priorities in a very
modest supplemental budget.
The Joint Appropriations Committee spent over three weeks
evaluating the Governor’s supplemental budget requests, weighing priorities
against available funds, and making the hard decisions. Striking a balance
between saving, investing, and spending is imperative to continuing our
momentum in Wyoming.
Our revenues are closely tied to the value of minerals. Minerals have kept our taxes low and our
services strong. This reliance on
minerals has always made our revenues volatile and with the federal war on coal
and the unpredicted drop in oil and natural gas prices, the January revenue
projections show a $222 million shortfall over October predictions. Thus, it was time to tighten our belts and prioritize
where we should spend and where we could save in order to close the budget gap.
We kept our commitments on the previous
appropriations, we were proactive in finding money, and we were practical in appropriating
funds.
To meet the needs of the Wyoming citizens, we prioritized
funding requests and made the best use of funds available. We placed the
highest priority on the citizens who are the most at risk – appropriating funds
for nursing homes, DD waivers, and preschools. We moved down the list and
prioritized one-time expenses, infrastructure improvements, and programs that
had matching funds available. Finally, we prioritized funds towards different
on-going programs, and placed the monies in the appropriate project and
investment accounts.
Through this supplemental budget we continue to show our
support and stress the importance of investing in education, infrastructure,
and local communities while advancing projects that will grow the state.
Funds are set up to be paid out in three cycles. This plan
helped us to keep Wyoming operating in the black, while closing the $222
million shortfall the CREG is expecting. The highest priority items will be
paid as soon as the bill passes. The next set of priorities will be paid when
the state realizes its capital gains on July 1, 2015. And the final set of
priorities will receive funding from 2016 capital gains.
By using this unique approach in how we appropriate funding,
using currently realized capital gains, we intercept funds scheduled to go into
the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (LSRA) and redirect those monies
for the continuing investment and growth in Wyoming.
The budget bill will now work its way through the
legislative process; but we are confident that as a Legislature we will
continue to make solid fiscal decisions and live within our means. Balancing the blessings we have from mineral
revenues and their volatility with the current needs of the state is of the utmost
importance for the future of Wyoming.
