Gordon speaks against proposed budget cuts

‘It will be devastating to the university’

Gov. Mark Gordon didn’t mince words about massive cuts to the bottom line at the University of Wyoming, saying he is worried about the fate of the only four-year public university in the state.

“I don’t think I need to look at a spreadsheet to say that it’s cutting the guts out of our university. I worry tremendously,” he said to a ballroom of more than 150 members of the press during the Wyoming Press Association’s annual convention in Casper.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which has the majority of seats in the House Appropriations Committee, proposed a $40 million cut to Gordon’s budget request of about $484 million for the institution’s biennium budget. The committee also proposed another $21 million in cuts to the Cowboys’ athletic department and to defund Wyoming Public Media.

The cuts represent a total cut of about 12% of the governor’s 2027-2028 proposal. The committee’s proposal is now in the hands of the House and Senate to negotiate and vote on the final funding amount. Gordon proposed an $11.1 billion budget over the two-year period, or about $5.5 billion per year.

There is typically a supplemental budget proposed during the general session, however, all supplemental requests were denied for the 2025-2026 budget, including almost $12 million earmarked for development programs for children with disabilities.

The 2027-2028 budget is the first to be passed by the Appropriations Committee since Freedom Caucus members took control of a majority of House seats in 2024.

Gordon offered a short speech on the economy and education prior to opening the event to an extended question period from the press.

“I’m all ready for your questions, and I got a nice podium I can hide behind,” he said prior to taking the first question of many.

EDUCATION

Gordon touted aligning the Board of Education, Department of Education and governor’s office “from the bottom to the top” in focusing on making sure the K-12 education system is responsive to communities, parents and industries hoping to build and locate in Wyoming while also engaging students with novel programs.

“All of this has been about, how do we make sure kids are engaged? How are they learning better? And what are the ways that we can engage both teachers, students, ... parents and industry leaders in really engaging in that whole education process?” he said.

Gordon said the state needs to be able to have a responsive education system that can meet people as they need it. He has proposed more than $2.2 billion (about 20% of the budget) for 2027-2028 K-12 education.

ECONOMY

“Wyoming has always been, this community here has always been about, how can we be better, how can we be stronger, how can we diversify our economy?” Gordon said.

He pointed to energy development, the top industry in Wyoming, saying the state has been unable to diversify its economy as well as other states that rely on energy for a large portion of their income.

“Texas and Wyoming in the 1970s were about 80% natural resource economies. Texas is (now) about 25%. We’ve moved it a little bit, but we’re still upwards of 70% and we’re still working on that,” he said.

He reminisced about past budget issues, saying that if it weren’t for a Walmart heir and Wyoming resident, there could have been much worse economic woes.

“If it weren’t for a Walton heir passing away, the state would have had a very hard time balancing its budgets,” Gordon said, adding, “The state was nearly broke at the time. And I think it was about $80 ... is what Minnie Mitchell came to Stan Hathaway and said, ‘That’s what we got in our account for the state.’”

Despite recent hardships, like the COVID pandemic, the state has seen a time of plenty since the turn of the century, Gordon said. “We’ve been talking about how we can become more than a one commodity or two commodity economy, how we need to be able to grow and expand our communities,” Gordon said. “This is a long time conversation in Wyoming, and you realize that over the last few years, with the work that you all have done, with the work the Legislature has done and, most especially, entrepreneurs in the state, we have begun to move the needle.”

The Wyoming Constitution requires the governor and Legislature pass a balanced budget. Using several metaphors throughout his speech, Gordon said people in Wyoming grow up knowing “sometimes the weather isn’t all that good, so you want to make sure you have good supplies in place.” The governor has called for $250 million for the state savings account in his budget proposal.

WYOMING PRESS

This is a particularly difficult time for the local press, Gordon said in his speech. At one time last year the state nearly lost newspapers in eight Wyoming cities. However, Robb Hicks and Jen Sieve-Hicks, owners of the Buffalo Bulletin, recently partnered with the former publisher of the regional News Media papers to buy the eight Wyoming papers that had closed. All the staffers laid off due to closings were then offered their jobs back about a week after the newspapers were closed by the Illinois company.

“Thank you for the courage to step up to perhaps one of the most challenging professions that one can have, probably also one of the most rewarding. It is really important that we support our press in the state,” Gordon said.

Each year at the Wyoming Press Association’s opening lunch, the governor is invited to speak with the press attending the event. Gordon, as usual, received a standing ovation when he was introduced to the association.

GORDON’S FUTURE

During the question and answer period of the speech, one reporter asked if Gordon is planning on running for public service after his term as governor. Many wonder if he’s aiming for Rep. Harriet Hageman’s U.S. House seat or the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Cynthia Lummis. Gordon was evasive despite speaking candidly throughout the speech, saying he still has a job to do.

“While everybody else is thinking about running for election and how to do that, we have a budget. We have a serious budget. We have a Legislature that’s weighed in, I think, on one vision of Wyoming, and I think it’s very important to be thoughtful,” he said. “That’s the job I have. That’s what I was elected to do, and I’m not yet ...” he said, never finishing the sentence, but he did offer yet another metaphor. “I always tell this story. So Dad told me to go water the chickens. And so I spent the entire morning figuring out a way I didn’t have to carry the pails of water over to the chickens. And at noon, he said, ‘So did you get the chickens watered?’ And I said, ‘I got this really cool thing, Dad.’ And he said, ‘But I told you, go water the chickens.’ I think I’ve got that job to make sure that we get through this legislative session.”