March 4, 2024 |
Photo – State Capitol Building – Bigfoot99 file photo
It’s a showdown in Cheyenne. Lawmakers at the Wyoming Legislature must reach a deal today on the state budget. The House and Senate will face off over one-billion dollars in spending differences. Time is tight for the two negotiating teams.
A select few members of the senate and house will meet in a joint Conference Committee hearing. Their job-iron out the one-billion-dollar wrinkle.
Senate President, Ogden Driskill, picked three conservatives to represent the Senate budget. Chairing the senate team is Dave Kinsley of Sheridan. The members of the House team all sit on the Appropriations Committee. The House team knows the numbers better, and the sausage making process.
The big question ahead of the meeting is whether the senate team will hold the bottom line against the spendy House. After receiving the House’s $651 million in proposals, Thursday afternoon, the two sides have not talked officially. They meet today in executive session.
The clock on the wall will play a role in which side – the house or the senate –is willing to make a deal and get back to their chamber with the details. Then the budget goes to Gov. Mark Gordon, who may veto some of parts of it. The dealmakers need to reach a decision sooner rather than later today.
Between them is more than one-billion dollars in spending differences.
The Senate’s final budget sits at $9.7 billion, about $1 billion lower than the House budget, which in at $10.7 billion.
Senator Larry Hicks of Baggs shrugged off the difference last week. He told The Cowboy State Daily, “It’s not what you want, it’s what do you have to have?” Hicks said.
The Senate cut $347 million-dollar in matching funds suggested by the governor for energy programs. The money was meant to fund so-called “transformative” energy projects like carbon capture, hydrogen production and coal refineries.
Senator Driskell, eyeing the political landscape, described the cut to alternative energy “insanity, absolute craziness.”
The senate negotiators may blink and give up the $347 million for other concessions from the House.
Senate cuts to the University of Wyoming’s uber-leftist Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program may be a bargaining chip in today’s discussion. Some, in the more conservative senate, think campus administrators in Laramie, many from other parts of the country, are too “woke” and need a financial “wake up call.”
Others say UW needs them. Their fate may be decided today.
In the tug-of-war on state spending today, lawmakers also will battle over returning more money to taxpayers rather than squirreling it into savings.
The clock is ticking.
