Friday, January 23, 2026 |
Photo – Wyoming State Capitol building – Courtesy WYDOT
The upcoming legislative session is gearing up to be an interesting one with battles over the budget.
Joint Appropriations Committee spent the past week teeing up deep cuts to the state budget for the next two years. On the chopping block are salaries for state employees as well as a 10% cut to block grant funding for the University of Wyoming. Last week the JAC voted to stop funding Wyoming Public Media. The state gives KUWR $800,000 a year, which helps fund its payroll of nearly a dozen people.
Another round of property tax cuts could also be unveiled. The upcoming fight will pitch Democrats against hardline conservatives in the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Governor Mark Gordon wrote an editorial earlier this week decrying what he sees as “cut everything” chainsaw rhetoric. The governor has reason to be concerned. One of his targets, the Wyoming Business Council, is on the chopping block. Last year, state representative Ken Pedergraft called the WBC a “huge flipping waste of money.”
In 2024, The Legislature granted the Wyoming Business Council nearly $87 million in state money for its biennial budget. The council was also budgeted $1.24 million in federal funds, and nearly $6 million in “other” funds.
The free ride for state employees posing as businesspeople could come to an end in this legislative session. Wyoming has spent $370 million from 2015 to 2024 trying to diversify its economy through the Business Council. During the same time period. Real gross domestic product has dropped from $34.8 billion in 2015 to $34.4 billion in 2024, according to numbers provided by the governor’s office.
Wyoming’s GDP has been declining since 2008 even as its population increased with people from well-off states. A dead reckoning is coming.
The upcoming session promises to be a dramatic one. Lawmakers spent December hearing from state agencies, local governments and community organizations across the state about their needs. Then, they proposed cuts for the Governor’s Office, Wyoming Department of Health, Wyoming Business Council, local government distributions and more.
The 2026 Budget session promises dramatic showdowns over money. For instance, earlier this month, House Appropriations Chair referred to past Senate president and majority floor leader Ogden Driskell as a “doofus.” The name-calling started halfway through a four-day budget session last month.
Meanwhile, the knives are out for the lame-duck governor’s 11.1-million-dollar budget proposal.
