Greear announces run for re-election, looks back on budget session

WORLAND — State Rep. Mike Greear announced this week that he will be seeking another term as the House District 27 representative.

Greear said that while the State Senate District 20 seat is open with Wyatt Agar (R-Thermopolis) announcing he would not seek another term, he did not consider running for the Senate. He said he likes serving as chairman of the Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. “Plus that’s just too big of an area for me to cover and do a good job,” he said.

In looking back to the recent session that ended March 19, Greear said, “It’s a good budget, as usual there were things in it I didn’t like, but the budget is a grand compromise to keep things moving forward. The problem is the world we live in right now is different than the world that budget was created under.”

He said the assumptions with the revenue in the budget were based on $40 a barrel for crude oil, they were looking at good numbers from the state’s investments and at good sales tax numbers.

“Keep in mind the last quarter of this year is going to change things. It’s too early to panic and to say the sky is falling on it, but quite frankly the budget is going to have to be looked at again,” Greear said.

“When I say this was a good budget it ain’t going to last two years,” Greear said.

He said in 2016, the Legislature passed a bill that contemplated what happens when the Legislature leaves Cheyenne and the revenue picture changes just like what happened this year, with drop in the stock market, including drop in oil prices to just over $20 a barrel, as well as the governor and state health officer closing many businesses around the state to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

The legislation, Senate File 68 – Budget Shortfall Measures, passed in 2016 gives a lot of power over to the governor to keep things balanced and running correctly, Greear said.

According to the Legislative Service Office summary of the bill, over the past 10 to 15 years provisions have been placed in the general appropriations bill providing authority for the governor to address possible budget shortfalls due to revenues being less than anticipated. The legislation codified some of those provisions and added others,

According to the summary, “The bill provides the Governor will notify the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) and the Legislature before cutting authorized expenditures.  The JAC and, if Management Council determines necessary, standing committees will provide recommendations to the Governor regarding actions to address a budget shortfall.

“The bill also explicitly provides for the potential diversion of two revenue streams to address a budget shortfall (the one percent severance tax deposited by statute to the permanent Wyoming mineral trust fund and funds from permanent mineral trust fund investment earnings directed to the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account and the Strategic Investment Projects Account).  These funds may be diverted by a general appropriations bill if the Legislature determines that should be done in any fiscal year.”

One thing tied to the budget was capital construction bill.

He said when he was on the Joint Appropriations Committee in 2015-2016, they separated the capital construction funding from the overall budget bill and made it a separate bill. “That makes it more transparent,” he said. “Ever since then all we do is fight over the cap con bill and that’s the way it was this year.”

This year, he said, a compromise could not be reached, “so we don’t have a cap con bill, $120 million worth of construction is not authorized or spent until we get back to a supplemental budget.” He said this does not include K-12 schools. It does include University of Wyoming and community college projects, state parks facilities, phase 2 level study for a storage shed for the Wyoming Boys School.

He said some senators wanted to pull all funding for UW projects and that was one of the biggest issues.

He said the $120 million would have helped the economy and kept a lot of people working. He said it was a few short years ago the state had a $400 million capital construction bill and that has been pared down to $120 million.

“I hope it doesn’t hurt us,” he said.

More on Greear’s interview regarding the session will be published next week in the Northern Wyoming News.