Joint Appropriations Committee advances budget packages, moves capital projects and adopts timing tweak to LSRA transfers

Cheyenne — The Wyoming Joint Appropriations Committee on [date not specified] advanced a set of budget and capital construction bills and approved several targeted changes intended to align agency funding with the committee’s priorities and cash‑flow projections.

LSO staff told members the committee’s capital construction projects were moved into a separate bill and that $332,141,925 previously identified in a CIP account would be reflected in the general fund for the capital package. "This comes in the amount of $332,141,925," the director said while introducing the capital construction draft, and staff flagged that major maintenance funding of $232,979,000 was relocated into the capital bill.

The committee finalized action on a narrower rural health transformation measure (working draft 0.7). LSO staff said the bill was pared back to focus on the federal Rural Health Transformation Program funds and that one of the larger amendments was "the removal of the telehealth services from the bill," a change that narrowed the short title to the Wyoming Rural Health Transformation Program. The committee took a vote to finalize the draft and left one or two remote votes open briefly for technical reasons before concluding the roll call.

A second major package, the committee’s biennial budget draft (26 LSO 0435, committee formal draft 1.1), reflected substantial net reductions from the governor’s recommendations offset in part by the capital construction bill. LSO staff said the…