State Budget Concerns Continue To Worsen

AP 1-15,2016

Budget analysts are warning Wyoming lawmakers that the state faces an increasingly bleak financial future as energy prices continue to fall.

The state’s Consensus Revenue Estimating Group released updated revenue projections on Thursday. The Legislature will convene next month to craft a state budget for the coming two years.

Don Richards is co-chairman of the estimating group.

Richards warned lawmakers that the state’s General Fund revenue is on track to fall from $1.5 billion in the last fiscal year to $1 billion in the current fiscal year that runs through June.

The CREG group also warned that Wyoming likely faces a huge shortfall in school funding in coming years because of falling coal revenues.

Lawmakers say they’re considering how to respond to the prospect of lower revenues.