Lawmakers Kick off Weeks-Long Fight over How to Spend Wyoming’s Billions

The original story by Maggie Mullen for WyoFile.

The question of how Wyoming will spend its tax dollars over the next two years is officially on the table.

This week marks the start of the Legislature’s budget hearings in Cheyenne, the opening round in crafting the state’s next two-year spending plan, or biennium budget. Over the next four weeks, the Joint Appropriations Committee will listen to state agencies, grill officials on their priorities and start shaping the massive budget bill that lawmakers will debate in the 2026 session.

In a budget year, this isn’t optional — it’s the one thing the Legislature is constitutionally required to do.

While lawmakers get the final say, the process starts with the governor.

In November, Gov. Mark Gordon rolled out a proposed $11.1 billion budget. His plan would:

• Give state workers a pay boost;
• Increase wildfire-fighting capacity;
• Renovate the veterans home in Buffalo;
• Stash $250 million into permanent savings.

“Our job, the job of government, is to provide the essentials that communities, families and citizens cannot provide on their own and be accountable and accessible,” Gordon told the committee Monday.

During hearings, agencies mostly present what’s called a standard budget — essentially the money they say they need to keep doing what they’re already doing at current levels.

If they want anything beyond that — new programs, major equipment, special projects — they have to submit “exception requests” and justify them directly to lawmakers.

That’s where a lot of the real back-and-forth happens.

One big wild card this year: who is sitting on the committee.

Since the last budget session, a new bloc of Republicans has gained serious influence. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus took control of the House in 2024 and now holds all but one House seat on the Appropriations Committee.

The caucus has loudly promised to cut spending, but it’s still unclear exactly where they’ll swing the axe. Some clues may emerge as the committee works through agency budgets or when lawmakers amend the bill on the House and Senate floors.

One area already under extra scrutiny: the Department of Health, which has the largest budget of any state agency. Lawmakers even set up a special subcommittee in the off-season to dig deeper into its spending.

Budget writers aren’t working in a vacuum. They lean heavily on revenue forecasts to figure out what they can afford.

In October, a report showed that Wyoming’s investment portfolio earned a record $1.86 billion, outpacing income from the mineral industry — a big symbolic shift in a state long fueled by coal, oil and gas.

At the same time, some other key revenue streams — like sales and use taxes and state royalties — came in lower than hoped.

The Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG), the team of state forecasters, will bring lawmakers an updated report when the Appropriations Committee reconvenes in January. That update could force changes to the spending plan.

The Appropriations Committee will meet through next week, then again for the first two full weeks in January. No formal votes on the budget happen until the final week of hearings.

That’s when lawmakers “work the bill” — going unit by unit through every agency budget, voting to:

• Approve;
• Deny;
• Or tweak.

each line item. Motion by motion, those votes build the actual budget bill, which staff in the Legislative Service Office then turn into formal legislation.

The process is open to the public:

• Hearings can be attended in person in Cheyenne;
• Or watched remotely on the Legislature’s YouTube page;
• Agendas are posted on the Legislature’s website.

The full Legislature convenes Feb. 9 in Cheyenne, where all of this work will turn into floor debates, amendments and, eventually, a final budget that will determine how Wyoming spends its money for the next two years.