Wyoming balks at filling federal funding hole for PBS, at least for now

The original story by Clair McFarland for Cowboy State Daily.

Wyoming lawmakers aren’t rushing to backfill millions of dollars the federal government just pulled from Wyoming Public Television.

Last week, the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted down a $6.6 million request from Wyoming PBS to replace federal funding that vanished when Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The move isn’t final, but for now it leaves the state’s public TV network staring down possible staff and programming cuts.

The rejected request included $3 million to help keep Wyoming PBS operating and another $3.6 million grant that had been earmarked to upgrade the statewide tower system the station is federally required to maintain. Lawmakers will revisit the issue when all 93 legislators convene for the general session starting Feb. 9.

Without that money, Wyoming PBS CEO Joanna Kail said the station will likely have to make tough choices.

“We’re looking at cuts — either staff, programming, or both,” Kail told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

She added the decision could also affect the station’s ability to stream legislative committee meetings held outside the Capitol.

Still, Kail acknowledged things could be worse.

“Given what other agencies are going through right now, we were thankful at least that our level funding was intact,” she said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. I’m ready for it.”

Unlike Wyoming PBS, Wyoming Public Media is facing a potential elimination of state funding altogether in the current budget draft.

The federal funding loss didn’t come as a complete surprise. As Congress moved over the past few years to dismantle the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Wyoming PBS avoided layoffs by not replacing retiring or departing employees. Even so, staff has shrunk from 22 full-time positions to 17 over the past four or five years.

Congress officially pulled the plug on CPB funding last summer. Wyoming PBS had been counting on about $3 million from that source over the next two-year budget cycle and asked the Legislature to step in.

The station also lost a $3.6 million federal grant it had already won to upgrade its network of 50 broadcast towers. Those towers double as emergency communications backups for FEMA and are required by federal regulators. The grant was later rescinded by the federal government, and the state committee declined to replace it.

Lawmakers did keep Wyoming PBS’s core state funding intact — about $3.5 million — but that money mostly pays salaries. Roughly 90% of it goes directly to staffing, Kail said.

That leaves big questions about how the station will pay to operate and maintain its tower system, which costs about $700,000 a year, or $1.4 million per biennium, separate from any upgrades.

“I would hope it’s important to everyone in Wyoming that people receive lifesaving alerts over broadcast,” Kail said. “That’s something I’ll keep stressing to lawmakers.”

House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, defended the committee’s decision, saying the state has generally refused to assume responsibilities the federal government has dropped.

“If the federal government has decided not to fund something, we don’t think it’s our responsibility,” Bear said.

He added that the tower system itself may be outdated.

“Most people aren’t turning on the TV to get emergency information,” Bear said. “They’re looking at their phones.”

Bear said lawmakers did make accommodations elsewhere. The Legislature’s Management Council recently added two part-time positions and extra funding to the Legislative Service Office so it can handle more livestreaming duties itself. That move was included in the Legislature’s own operating budget, often called the “feed bill.”

Wyoming PBS has been streaming legislative committee meetings since 2018, billing the state up to $50,000 a year but only charging about $85,000 total beyond its regular funding over that time, Kail said. The station covers mileage and hotel costs and uses existing staff — often pulling Emmy-winning producers away from other work.

“We were never offered extra staff for that,” she said.

Another looming issue is national PBS dues, which cost Wyoming PBS about $700,000 a year. Those fees were previously covered by federal funds.

“I don’t know how we’re going to cover that,” Kail said. “There’s not a great alternative for distributing our content outside of PBS. Hopefully that can change.”

For now, the fate of Wyoming PBS funding rests with the full Legislature — and whether lawmakers are willing to reverse course and fill the federal-sized hole left behind.