By TOM BURKINDINE
The state budget is the topic of the week as the Wyoming Legislature continues its biennial budgetary session. A first reading of the budget went through both the House of Representatives and the Senate on Monday with a second reading planned for Tuesday with any budget amendments being introduced. A third reading is planned for Thursday.
Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, said that Monday’s reading was strictly for the purpose of reading through the budget agency by agency. She said that by Monday evening, amendments to the budget already had started to circulate.
Quarberg is the House Majority Whip and the representative for Hot Springs County, South Big Horn County and Southeast Park County.
“Generally, there will be between 20 and 30 amendments,” Quarberg said. “Tuesday’s reading will take a while.”
Quarberg said that in the six years she has served as a representative she has never seen as much time taken by legislators to fully understand the budget. She attributed this to the funding being limited and legislators expecting constituents to ask tough questions about the process.
“I was really pleased that it took so long to get through it,” Quarberg said. “My colleagues and I are asking a lot of questions and people are really taking an interest in this budget. House members are really engaged.”
Gov. Dave Freudenthal submitted the $2.998 billion budget in December for the 2011-12 period. The proposal would be a $4 million cut from the previous biennial budget.
The budget still places Wyoming in a better position than most states in the union, although it does reflect the decline in revenue seen in recent years. Wyoming expects to receive $350 million less in revenue than during the previous biennial period.
House Bill 113, which is sponsored by Quarberg and would allow Wyoming residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit, continues to receive strong support. Last week, it made it through its third reading in the House with 42 of 60 votes in support of the bill. Quarberg said it received a similar response when she co-sponsored the bill in 2006 when it was carried through the House. She said her main concern is making sure Senate President John Hines has a chance to read it and assign it to committee. Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tony Ross co-sponsored the bill.
“The difficulty is the bill has to be out of committee by Friday. If not, then it is a non-issue for this session,” Quarberg said. “I think (Hines) will have a pretty fair opportunity to get to read it.”
If it passes through the Judiciary Committee, it will begin going through the required three readings in the Senate next week.
Quarberg also sponsored House Bill 126, which would have required “zero-based” budgeting for state organization. That bill was not passed through the Joint Appropriations Committee. She said JAC Chairman Rosie Berger decided not to move the bill forward because it would be too costly to implement the process of building and reviewing agency budgets every 10 years.
“I wanted to have the opportunity to discuss the bill with the JAC. I’m very disappointed not to have that opportunity,” Quarberg said. “I am really interested in finding ways to look back at the standard budget and make sure programs are still viable, otherwise we’re always looking at a growth of government.”