Legislature ready to roll
With economy hurting, local funding issues on center stage
By Martin Reed
Staff Writer

When the Wyoming Legislature’s 2010 budget session begins on Monday, one of the big issues surrounding the state’s upcoming two-year fiscal plan is how much money cities, towns and counties will receive.
“Really the largest issue is how do we help save the towns and how much,” Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said.
The Joint Appropriations Committee is recommending a $20 million boost to funding for local governments for the proposed amount in Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s roughly $3 billion two-year budget.
The funding crisis for Wyoming’s cities and counties come as the state is experiencing decreased revenues due to recession and local governments are seeing lower tax dollars in their coffers.
With the sales tax revenue, “the big hits on those are Natrona County, Campbell County, Sublette County and Sweetwater County,” Rep. Del McOmie, R-Lander, said about significantly lower revenues. “It’s going to be tough for them. From what I’ve seen so far appropriations (committee) is trying to recognize this.”
The questions about funding from the state will result in pressure on local government leaders concerning their budgets.
“This is one of those issues that’s going to be heavily watched and heavily debated,” the former Lander mayor said. “I was mayor in the bust and the boom of the ’70s and ’80s and we had to cut out a lot of the essential services in some of the areas,” McOmie said. “They’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
Case said one potential remedy for funding could arrive in the form of a suggested wind energy tax.
“There’s talk about the wind tax in part used to support local governments,” he said. “There’s even potential talk that the wind tax might be split up with state government and local governments” as well as for environmental purposes such as preserving sage grouse and preventing an endangered species listing, “which would be very detrimental to our energy industry,” he said.
“If a portion of the wind tax could be used to help that purpose, that might be a win-win-win.”
Rep. Patrick Goggles, D-Ethete, supports implementing the wind tax.
“I believe that wind production, like many of our other mineral productions, should pay their fair share. Wind production folks, they need to fit themselves in that category,” he said.
Goggles said local government funding will be a hot topic.
“We will probably have some debate regarding cities, towns and counties, and the amount of distribution we will be providing for them,” he said.

Leave reserves alone
His recommendation for governments at all levels in the state is a conservative one.
“I right now would probably hold the line this year and look at restoring some of that next year, providing revenues rise and we can make those adjustments. But this year we pretty much have to hold the line,” he said.
Goggles is not proposing tapping into state savings for the next fiscal year.
“Those rainy day accounts I’m pretty sure we will be looking at the second year of our biennium,” he said.
Sen. Eli Bebout, R-Riverton, wants to see the Legislature support local governments without using rainy day accounts.
“I’m not going to support using savings. I will support using money out of state government funds to cities, towns and counties,” he said.
“The better money is spent closer to the people, and I would like to see us take more of the state revenue in the sales tax revenue to the cities, towns and counties,” Bebout said.

Energy uncertainty
He is advocating tightening purse strings in the state’s overall budget in light of questions about the Obama Administration’s effect on energy development nationwide and other federal policies.
“That unknown is causing me concern. Just don’t plan on spending reserves at this time, in my opinion,” he said. “I’m going to be very fiscally conservative. That’s what we need to be right now. There are some things we need to do when times are difficult ... to prepare for the future.”
Case agreed that legislators need a big-picture approach to governing. “I think our revenue issues are a long-term problem,” he said, expressing concern about the state’s energy production levels. “It’s not that we’re running out of gas. It’s the opposite.”
The nation is continuing to build its gas reserves while others areas are looking more lucrative for production, such as a shale formation in Pennsylvania, Case said. “That will displace Wyoming gas,” he said.
Case said he does not expect the state’s budget to undergo any substantial changes, but he wants to see it decrease greatly.
“I vote against every budget every time. I think there’s way too much government,” he said, noting the “astronomical growth” at the state level. “Our budget is out of hand. ... Truly state government has grown much more than the general growth in our economy.”