Key Issues & Bills

A Joint Conference Committee negotiated a budget! Going into session, and seeing the drastic cuts to the Governor’s budget that came out of the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC), many felt coming to an agreement might need a special session. As a reminder, the House presented over 100 amendments to the budget that came out of the JAC. We’re happy to report no special session was needed and there were some very good things adopted in the budget. There were also a few items we’d hoped would have been adopted.

THE GOOD:

Education: Community Colleges

• $5M block grant (ongoing) for community colleges. The majority of attendees at community colleges are women, and many are single moms.
• $7.5M (ongoing) to community colleges for Career Technical Education (CTE). Childcare certificates fall under this category.

Healthcare

• $1,666,653 to support the Wyoming Home Services program, which helps keep seniors living in their home and saves money. Of that $151,195 will support food costs.
• $11,107,830 to increase Medicaid payments for maternal health. ~33% of Wyoming births are to moms on Medicaid. This is good for moms and supports doctors and hospitals.
• $63,123 for two staff people who will check eligibility for Medicaid long-term care. As WY’s elder population increases, this is becoming more difficult to keep up with and processing times may lengthen
• Other reimbursement increases in behavioral health and long-term care.

Childcare/Healthcare

• $21.3M of funding to child development centers. Child development centers play a big role in childcare, especially for parents whose children have specific, developmental support needs.

Other

• The Wyoming Business Council, who we at the Wyoming Community Foundation have been partnering on for childcare grants, was at risk of being completely cut. The governor vetoed the decision to fund the WBC for only one year and reinstated their funding. The organization’s programming and processing will be evaluated. 
• IT funding was reinstated across agencies. Freedom Caucus members of the JAC had made a 50% cut, across the board, without having talked to any agency regarding the need for IT services. The reinstatement includes $3,145,000 to support the Dept. of Family Services IT platform. Without this increase, the dept would have had to go back to paper processing. In the case of childcare, this would be carbon copy triplicates.
• An additional $123M annually, was created through the recalibration bill. It includes positives like ensuring instructional positions be paid the average salary of $75,863 (up from $63,000); and every elementary school will have counselors and nurses.
• $40M in University of Wyoming funding was reinstated. They will also recieve an additional $10M for grant match funding if they can show $5M in savings.

THE BAD

Income & Asset/Health

• $1,767,024 for Sun Bucks, which is a summer food program for kids, was not reinstated in the budget. The funding covered administrative costs with the feds providing $40/month of food costs to families to supplement meals during the summer. This would allow families to access the grocery store anytime, rather than figuring out how to get their child to a summer feeding site. We anticipate seeing this come up in the supplemental budget or as a bill in the 2027 session.
• $3,473,360 to support SNAP Education, also known as Cent$ible Nutrition was not reinstated. SNAP ED gives our Wyoming neighbors the tools and information to eat healthy on a budget. We anticipate seeing this as a bill next year as well.