Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Rules topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate declines rule to bar divisible budget increases; proposal to require offsets fails
Summary
A proposal to prohibit dividable increases to general‑fund appropriations and require offsets failed after senators raised concerns about flexibility, legal scope and unintended consequences for other funds.
The Wyoming Senate considered, and then rejected, a proposed rule that would have limited members’ ability to increase general‑fund appropriations within the budget bill without an offsetting cut. Sponsors said the rule would force legislators to live within the appropriations recommended by the Joint Appropriations Committee or to run separate bills for additional spending.
Supporters framed the move as fiscal discipline. “Like a family lives on a budget, this rule would make us live within the budget that comes out of the JAC,” the bill’s sponsor said. Supporters also sought to prevent amendments from being artificially divided so opponents could not isolate and defeat parts of an offset.
Opponents said the measure would cede substantial authority to the Appropriations Committee and remove flexibility needed to respond to unforeseen needs, such as emergency spending or technical offsets that shuffle funds between general and other accounts. “If you run a budget amendment … you might want to tell people where that money’s coming from,” a critic said, but argued that existing constitutional and statutory constraints already keep spending in check. Legal and practical concerns about covering many special funds and the effect on other non‑general funds were repeatedly raised.
Roll call: 10 ayes, 17 no, 4 excused; the rule failed to be adopted.
