Governor urges legislative budget committee to not dip into budget reserves

by Phil Noble, Cowboy State Free Press Bureau Chief

CHEYENNE—Some of the legislature’s constituents will ask them to dip into reserve accounts to fund programs in the 2011-12 state budget, Gov. Dave Freudenthal told the legislature’s Joint Interim Appropriations Committee, but that is an idea that should be resisted, he said.

There is an expectation by many in the public that government has a source of funding outside normal revenues, Freudenthal said, but his budget recommendations to the legislature are “conservative.” He urged the legislators to approach the budget in the same manner.

“I’m not convinced the national economy will have a robust rebound,” Freudenthal said, and reiterated his thought that Wyoming would be “last in and last out” of the economic downturn. “Wyoming is one of only three or four states that still have rising unemployment numbers,” he said.

The Governor told the JAC that if natural gas prices go higher than expected over the next year they could always readjust the budget in the 2011 legislative session, which he pointed out will be only six months into the budget being discussed.

In response to a question from JAC co-chairman Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Albany Co., Freudenthal said the state is “nowhere near” a structural deficit situation, which he described as being a situation in which the state has to cut basic services.

Because the state has lost almost $2 billion in expected revenue over the last year, he said, the public’s expectation of what can be spent in the upcoming budget is inflated. Freudenthal again asked the legislators on the budget committee to resist public pressure to spend more.

“Reconciling expectations to reality is what we’re dealing with here,” he said, noting that even though people have adjusted their personal budgets to reflect the more difficult economic times, they don’t have the same view of what government can spend.

On the other hand, Gov. Freudenthal said again, “these are pretty good times (in Wyoming) by any objective measure,” pointing out the difficulty the legislature will have in reconciling public demands to spend more and current state budget realities.

The JAC will continue its meeting in Cheyenne for the remainder of the week, then return for two weeks after the first of the year, take a week off and finish with a week at the end of January.

The legislature convenes for the Budget Session on February 8th.