State budget cuts finalized

The specifics of budget cuts that amount to a ten percent reduction in the state’s expenditures have now been formally announced, affecting the state’s agencies, boards and commissions alike. Governor Mark Gordon spoke to the reductions at a press conference last week, commenting that the cuts “are going to be devastating,” but at the same time, “they are necessary.”

The cuts total $250 million, with an additional $80 million in cuts to maintenance of state buildings and those at the university and community colleges. It has taken two to three months to finalize the specifics, said Gordon, because it is, “Important that we’re mindful and thoughtful on how we make those cuts” hence has taken time.

The reductions will impact “absolutely all residents in some way,” Gordon warned.

The five largest agencies took the bulk of the cuts: the Department of Health saw a $90 million reduction, the University of Wyoming took a $42 million cut, community colleges have lost $25.7 million, the Department of Corrections was cut by $23 million and the Department of Family Services has seen reductions of $11.9 million.

A total of 274 positions have been laid off, though the bulk of these are already-vacant positions thanks to the hiring freeze implemented earlier this year.

The cuts to the Department of Health will have a “direct impact for services to low income residents, seniors and those with developmental disabilities,” said Gordon. They will impact programs including vaccinations and early childhood development and education and also include a phased elimination of the Wyoming Home Services program that provided services to individuals at risk of premature institutionalization.

The latter program has been utilized by Crook County Senior Services (CCSS) to provide seniors and people with disabilities services such as medical alert pendants, personal care, skilled nursing and homemaking, says Jenna Ellsbury, Director of CCSS.

“We believe that these services are vital to enable our seniors to age in place. This discontinuation of the program is a detrimental blow to CCSS,” she says. “We feel like this decision to cut the WyHS program will have life and death consequences for our county. These cuts not only affect the seniors and people with disabilities, but entire families and communities.”  

If passed in November, she says, funds will be reallocated from the mill levy and additional grants sought to help supplement the budget and continue to provide these services, she adds.

The University of Wyoming and community college reductions will be implemented by each institution’s board of trustees and have already seen program cuts take place, including athletics in certain colleges. To illustrate his point that the cuts are not political statements but “the cuts that we’ve had to make”, Gordon pointed out that one of the casualties of the cuts is his own Wyoming Works program for adult students to learn skills for secure employment.

“I’m sacrificing a program that I believe deeply in,” he commented.

Cuts to the Department of Corrections will affect programs intended to keep offenders out of prison once released from confinement into communities, said Gordon, as well as programs to keep communities safe. Parole agents will also be required to supervise more offenders.

“Again, not easy and not ones I like,” he said.

Other significant cuts include $2.65 million to the Wyoming Tourism Board, $9.6 million to the Wyoming Department of Enterprise Technology, $4 million to the Wyoming Business Council, $3.3 million to the State Auditor’s Office, $2.9 million each from the Office of the Public Defender and Department of Agriculture and $2.1 million to State Parks.

Gordon stated that he has heard the question asked: why not just cut staff to fix the budget? The trouble is, he said, there are already 10% fewer people working for the state than a decade ago and, today, you could cut every single state employee and it still wouldn’t fix the deficit.

Gordon also noted that cuts have not been made to the K-12 education budget. Due to state statutes, the governor’s authority is different and separate in the case of education than it is for managing the budget in the executive branch.

Given this ambiguity, said Gordon, he feels the best approach is to ask school districts to voluntarily join in with rest of state and start to look at where they can make those cuts.

This will not be the last of the reductions to the state’s budget; in fact, it’s just a third of the total that needs to be cut. Another 10% will be announced in the near future, said Gordon, while the final third, “Is going to come with the work of the Legislature, which is going to need to say: what are the things that we’ve asked you to do that we no longer think you can do?”

The governor commented that he believes, in order to be responsible, the state is going to have to take a look at its revenues. He feels it is not a big surprise that the Legislature’s revenue committee did not take any actions on taxes and revenue at its most recent meeting, suggesting that there still seems to be a feeling we can spend from savings while waiting for the energy industry to rebound.

“I think there’s always that hope that [things] may come back,” he said.

However, Gordon indicated that the rainy day fund will not last past the next couple of years.

“We’re approaching this cliff and we really don’t have a way to effect a slowdown or a pause,” he said, sharing his hope that people will recognize the circumstances are severe and we won’t have to wait until the state runs out of savings completely before revenue is discussed.