March 25, 2024 |
Photo – Wyoming’s Capitol Building – Bigfoot99 file photo
Governor Mark Gordon, after exercising his line-item veto authority, signed the state budget bill passed by the Wyoming Legislature.
In signing the legislation, the governor said, “We are fighting federal overreach, advancing our industries, providing practical property tax relief, ensuring adequate funding for our schools, counties, and communities and providing the services Wyoming residents expect.”
Meanwhile, in a joint letter dated Monday, March 25, 2024, Senate President Ogden Driskell and House Speaker Albert Sommers, said they were “disappointed in the Governor” because of his “liberal use of his veto authority and tone of his veto messages.”
As signed on Friday, the budget moves forward some of the priorities that the Governor outlined in his State of the State speech, including:
- Fulfilling standard budgets and conservative requests from state agencies.
- Funding the 988-suicide prevention hotline as well as text and chat services.
- Investing in programs for workforce development and economic growth.
- Extending energy matching funds to ensure Wyoming’s legacy industries remain competitive and support for carbon dioxide storage programs to counter environmental groups.
- Allocating more than $300 million for the construction of K-12 schools.
- Supporting community mental health centers and youth services mental health providers.
- Directing $20 million for property tax relief for Wyoming homeowners.
- Ensuring safe drinking water and guarding against water pollution.
- Increased Wyoming’s savings to prevent future tax increases.
Governor Gordon issued several line-item vetoes which he said are meant to uphold the constitutionally defined separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
Among the vetoes is one directed at ending grants for the University of Wyoming because of the Laramie institution’s tilt to advance and LGBTQ agenda. The governor said the legislature overshot its mark by ending the grants but expressed his sympathy. “Clearly Wyoming need not pursue any ‘woke’ agenda,” the governor said in the footnote to his veto, “and I have encouraged the University to drop such nonsense.”
State Representative Jeanett Ward of Casper said the university is giving the people of Wyoming “the finger” by finding money in its budget to continue its diversity, equity and inclusion program that the legislature was trying to defund. “Flipping the bird” is the term Ward used to describe UW officials insult to state lawmakers.
The governor suggested that lawmakers are misinterpreting the nature of DEI programs.
Gordon’s line-item veto comes after UW leaders pledged to keep at least some DEI programming in place even if the defunding line passed into law.
The state budget may be signed, but UW’s pursuit of DEI programming over the desires of the Wyoming Legislature promises to play out over the next year until lawmakers are back in session next year.
Meanwhile, one of the big wins for conservative Wyoming lawmakers at the session was Senate File 9, which Governor Gordon signed into law on Friday. The legislation outlaws “gender-reassignment” surgery for children. The law is part of an effort to ban the permanent sterilization, castration and gender mutilation of minors. The governor signed the gender-change prohibition bill into law, while adding “government is straying into the personal affairs of families.”
In their joint letter Monday, Senate President Driskill and House Speaker Sommers dismissed calls for a Special Session, saying the expense to the people of Wyoming outweighs any possible political outcomes. Leadership suggested in their letter that lawmakers begin preparing now for next year’s legislative session.
