House bills could gut K-12 public funding by a combined $80M

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — Three proposed bills in the current Wyoming legislative session could gut funding for K-12 public schools by more than $80 million per fiscal year — and that’s not including any additional property tax relief that may be approved.

Wyoming Freedom Caucus member and House Appropriations Chair Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette is the sponsor of two bills that would stash more money away into state savings, resulting in a decrease in funds being added to the School Foundation Program (SFP).

The SFP funds the state’s K-12 public school block grant, which pays for inflationary costs in teaching salaries, non-professional staff salaries, classroom supplies and energy.

House Bills 270 and 271, combined, would drain the SFP by more than $30 million per fiscal year, according to the bills’ fiscal impact notes. Bear told House Appropriations Committee members Monday now is the time to decrease the state’s spending policy in two different accounts — from 5% to 4.5% — and stash it away into savings, where the money could provide a greater return on investment.

“This is an effort to funnel down our spending policy so that we live within our means, put more money into savings, and then allow that interest and dividends from our savings account to give us more money available to spend,” Bear said.

The SFP has several components funneling money into it, including statewide mill levies (property taxes), federal mineral royalties and the Common School Permanent Land Fund.

HB 271 reduces the spending amount out of the CSPLF from 5% to 4.5%, which negatively affects the flow of funds into the SFP, starting at a decrease of $24.7 million for the 2026 fiscal year.

HB 270 makes the same percentage reduction in the spending amount out of the Wyoming Permanent Mineral Trust Fund. This change in spending decreases the flow of funds into the SFP starting at $11.5 million for the 2026 fiscal year.

The Legislature’s Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments sponsored a similar reduced spending policy bill in 2017, HB 55, which passed the Legislature and was signed into law.

However, Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle it was a “mistake.”

“The thing about trust funds is that you’ve got to be careful,” Harshman said. “Because there’s always the debate of today’s people versus tomorrow’s people.”

After the spending policy was adopted, lawmakers quickly worked to undo it amid a revenue crisis in the coal industry, Bear said Monday. But things are different this time around, according to the House Appropriations chairman.

“We don’t have that on the horizon, an expectation that our mineral revenues are going to fall off,” Bear said. “We continue to see our investments perform better and better … and sales tax continues to grow.”

Fight over dollars

Some lawmakers and education stakeholders are hesitant to say now is the right time to cap state spending, with universal private school voucher and property tax relief programs on the table.

Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, was the only “no” vote on both of Bear’s bills during the House Appropriations Committee meeting Monday.

Sherwood told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that while she was in favor of investing more state money, this is a topic best studied during the Legislature’s off-season, formally known as the interim. There are a few bills up for consideration this session that could negatively impact public education funds, she said, such as additional property tax relief and the expanded private school voucher (HB 199).

Wyoming Education Association spokesperson Tate Mullen echoed similar concerns. As currently written, HB 199, the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act, could sap SFP funding by $44.7 million in the 2026 fiscal year as funds that would go toward public education would pay for families to send their kids to private schools instead.

“What we have seen in other states with universal voucher programs is an explosion of cost,” Mullen told the WTE, adding that the $44 million fiscal impact is only the starting point. “Additionally, the property tax relief efforts only compound this problem.”

Property taxes pay into the 12-mill levy that helps fund the SFP. With a few property tax relief programs passed last year, and more being considered this year, it could severely limit funds being put into public education, Mullen said.

The WEA works with a national partner, Regional Economic Modeling Inc., a macro- economics firm, that studies the economic impacts of state policies on local economies. A $5 million statewide cut in public education would result in the loss of 67 teachers, reduce personal income across the state by $4 million and reduce the statewide GDP by $600,000, according to a January REMI analysis.

A $20 million statewide loss to education funding would result in the loss of 267 jobs in education, a reduction of $16.5 million in personal income and cut the statewide GDP by over $25 million, according to the same analysis.

Federal mineral royalties that are being pulled for the voucher program are also used to fund the SFP, Mullen said.

“Cumulatively, this does become problematic,” Mullen said.

These bills have yet to make it all the way through the House, where further debate and possible amendments may take place before passing over to the Senate.

This story was published on January 29, 2025.