By KARLA POMEROY
Having a tight budget every once in a while is not always a bad thing, Sen. Gerald Geis (R-Worland) said Monday following the completion of the 2010 Legislative Budget Session.
He said the session went smooth and overall the Legislature did some good things, with approval of the new biennium budget the best thing they did this year. He said towns, counties and cities were given additional funding from what had been recommended. Overall, the budget stayed tight and close to what was recommended.
“A tight budget makes you look at what’s necessary and what’s not,” Geis said. “We kept some in the rainy day account in case revenue projection are less than expected this year. I know everybody wasn’t happy but they’ll manage.”
Governor Dave Freudenthal has used his line item veto to clean up some language in the budget bill. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Freudenthal said he vetoed the word “natural” in the section pertaining to funding of the Office of the Governor. He said he vetoed the word “to avoid unnecessarily restricting the funds to just natural disasters. God forbid there be a man-made disaster, but if so, this language leaves the governor no flexibility in this regard.”
He also struck language regarding out-of-state travel “rather than attempt to wordsmith the language included in both Section 338 and 339.” He wrote, “I understand the concerns expressed with respect to expenses associated with out-of-state travel, publications and contractual services — I have some of those same concerns … However, I believe the imposition of the added reporting requirements to be less than a productive exercise. I would point that most, if not all, of these requests for expenditure authority are currently subjected to numerous reviews.”
As for the rest of the session, Geis said the legislators controlled the introduction of bills and things didn’t get overwhelming. He said 47 percent of the bills introduced in the House were approved, 67 percent in the Senate.
Geis said he was not disappointed with the bills that did not make it through the session.
“The main thing is we have a budget. That’s what we went down there for,” Geis said.
Geis said all the bills that the interim ag committee worked on and wanted to pass, did pass, including:
• House Bill 2 — modifying the veterinarian loan repayment program to include schools outside the United States.
• HB46 — The Omnibus Water Bill for planning projects.
• Senate File 3 Apiary. The bill provides for holding and spray yard locations for apiaries to make sure bees returning or coming into the state are not carrying diseases.
• SF7 Rangeland health assessment program.
• SF 13 Economic analysis program.
• SF 37 Omnibus Water Bill for construction projects.
• SF63 that provides the date when special assessments by a water conservancy district are due.
“Overall it was a pretty good session,” Geis said, adding that some bills that were approved he liked more than others.
Geis said some of the bills the committee sponsored need additional work in the interim including House Bill 54, the Wyoming Food Freedom Act. The bill would exempt certain foods from having to be licensed if sold at “traditional community social events such as farmers’ markets.
“This can be serious stuff if food is not processed right,” Geis said, adding that the committee will take a more in depth look at the legislation.
They will also look at options for dealing with stray cats and dogs. “We need to decide what to do with them so our shelters don’t become overloaded.”
He said the ag committee will also be looking at water rights on Forest Service land.