CHEYENNE - Wyoming legislative leaders in both the majority and minority parties pronounced the 2009 session a smooth one, relatively free of strife between parties and between chambers, but forecasts of declining revenue cast a shadow over current and planned spending.

As the session progressed, heady talk of property tax relief evaporated, and the supplementary budget bill shrank from $440 million down to $220 million and then to $167 million, most of that one-time construction spending. And the Legislature was counting on the governor to cut executive agency budgets in the interim, to match the state's shrinking income.

As the revenue picture darkened, a pay raise for the top five elected officials dwindled and then disappeared. The pay now is $105,000 for the governor and $92,000 for the state treasurer, auditor, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction. A bill by the Joint Appropriations Committee proposed to raise the salaries to $110,000 and $97,000. The House raised that to $152,934 and $134,000. The Senate adjusted the raises to a token $500 and then just killed the bill on third reading by a vote of 5-25.

Legislators were watching the price of natural gas drop from $3.75 per thousand cubic feet at the Opal Hub to $2.60 at the end of the session. The price had been $8.40 per mcf when the Legislature wrote the biennial budget that is supposed to be good through June 30, 2010, and belts were tightening during the session.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked nicely and then with some impatience for executive agencies to submit to him proposed budgets with cuts of 5 percent and 10 percent. No budget or line item is sacred, he warned. The supplementary budget bill passed in the 2009 session includes language that endorses the governor's authority to cut budgets to ensure the state does not go into the red.



Waiting for stimuli

Capital construction projects in the supplemental budget include $70 million for two new labs in Cheyenne, $42 million for construction and $17 million for staffing of the new prison in Torrington and other construction at the Girls School, the Pioneer Home, the Game and Fish Hatchery at Ten Sleep and the Gateway Center for Casper College.

Expectations of federal economic stimulus funding were in the background during the session, as legislators tried to figure out what they could and should commit from the General Fund now.

In February, a report from the White House estimated the economic recovery bill would create about 8,000 jobs in Wyoming. The governor expected $159 million for the Wyoming Department of Transportation for roadwork, and the federal share of Medicaid funding will increase from 50 cents to 56 cents out of every $1. Beyond that, he and legislative leaders said in post-session interviews, Wyoming will have to calculate the "strings" attached before accepting stimulus dollars.

Legislative leaders indulged in the usual self-congratulations that comes in post-session news conferences. Senate President John Hines of Gillette said the Legislature "did a lot of things for a lot of people." House Speaker Colin Simpson of Cody called it a "difficult year" but said the Legislature had protected the health of the energy industry of Wyoming, including a $3.8 million clean coal task force and $100 million in projects funded by Abandoned Mine Land Funds, including $10 million to the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and $30 million to a clean-coal technologies test project. The Legislature did more work on new carbon sequestration statutes to better define ownership and liability issues.



Energy Symposium funded

Critics of Republican leaders' tight-fistedness during the session raised an eyebrow at a bill introduced by Simpson two weeks into the session spending $250,000 for a Western States Energy Symposium. But the House speaker, reportedly interested in running for governor in 2010, said Western states should come together to define regional energy and environmental issues, and Wyoming could "lead the way."

The budget bill also creates a Task Force on Wind Energy to work during the interim and make recommendations to the 2010 Legislature for regulation and taxation of the wind energy conversion industry, including environmental, zoning and federal pre-emption issues. The task force of legislators, state agencies and the public has $12,500 to complete its work.

Although both majority and minority leaders complimented the genial relations between the chambers, the death of two healthcare-related bills late in the session in the House was a sore point that prompted House Majority Floor Leader Ed Buchanan of Torrington to explain their demise after strong support in the Senate and in House committees.



Healthcare bills fail

Senate File 24 was a demonstration project to get low income residents off Medicaid, into better jobs and into better and cheaper use of health care. Another goal was to increase numbers of primary care doctors in Wyoming.

Senate File 39 would have expanded the State Child Health Insurance Program to include families who are earning 200 percent to 300 percent of federal poverty levels but who can afford to pay only a portion of co-pays and premiums. These children, an additional 3,700 in Wyoming, are not being covered by employer-sponsored policies or any other policies, sponsor Sen. Mike Massie, D-Laramie, said. The bill carried a $90,000 appropriation. Future coverage would depend on future appropriations.

Buchanan told reporters at an end-of-session news conference he was afraid the SCHIP bill would take business away from private insurers, and he was afraid it would encourage use of emergency rooms instead of primary care doctors. He also objected to unreasonable expectations that publicly-funded coverage should include routine, preventive care.

Further, he gave a warning to anyone else who wants to expand government involvement in health care. He said SCHIP expansion proposal was a backdoor move toward "universal health care," and in the future, proponents should "show their true intent."



Wyoming Business Report Correspondent Marguerite Herman can be reached at margherman@bresnan.net