HB1/SF1, also known as the Supplemental Budget bill, was
approved by the House and the Senate in mirrored sessions today and is now
heading to the Governor’s desk.
The Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) was given an
updated financial forecast in January that showed the state with a deficit of
$222 million through 2016 due to the decrease in oil and natural gas prices.
The JAC balanced the budget requests they received with the reduced amount of
monies available.
“Balancing the task of keeping the budget operating in the black
while still fulfilling the needs of Wyoming citizens required the JAC is carefully
consider what the state’s most pressing priorities were for this supplemental
budget,” said JAC co-chair Representative Steve Harshman. “Balancing the two
was important as we fulfill current needs and invest for the future.”
Some key features from the supplemental budget include:
increased funding for K-12 education, more monies for local government in
addition to the $175 million appropriated last year, and additional funds for
state run health facilities, which will rebuild these facilities to run more efficiently
& better serve patients.
“Our mandate as Legislators is to serve the people of
Wyoming and pass policy that improves their lives and our great state,” Senate
President Phil Nicholas said, “We continue to invest in infrastructure,
education, and local governments and keep Wyoming open for business.”
To provide all the funding that was necessary to meet the
agreed upon budget requests, the JAC redirected capital gains that would have
rolled into the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (LSRA) at the end of
the fiscal year and will now use those monies to fund some of the supplemental
budget items.
“I’m glad we were able to resist reaching into funds
currently in the LSRA,” said Speaker Pro Tempore, Representative Tim Stubson,
who sits on the Appropriations committee. “We did end up diverting funds that
would have entered the fund this year in order to continue to move Wyoming
forward. But even with being faced with a large budget shortfall we were able
to take care of Wyoming’s most vulnerable.”
This year’s budget simply provides supplemental funds, as last year’s Legislative Budget session set the full biennium budget for 2015-2016. The budget passed last year prioritizes Wyoming needs and invests in Wyoming’s people, jobs, communities, responsible mineral development and education.
