The Select Committee on Local Government Finance completed its statutory mission at its last meeting, on September 30 in Cheyenne.

After hearing testimony about proposed funding formulas from the Wyoming County Commissioners’ Association and the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, the committee spent some time discussing their mission and passed a motion that set the future course for funding to local governments.

Senator Schiffer suggested that the priority should be to ensure that every county and city can provide the “minimal services they should be providing.”  Those services were not specifically identified.  He then suggested that the funding should be provided for in the budget the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) begins with and the budget proposed by the Governor.

Schiffer said funding could be determined in the same process that’s used for the school funding external cost adjustment (ECA).  In that process, the JAC makes recommendations for the external cost adjustment to the Governor.

Schiffer suggested the same process be set up for local government revenues.

Sen. Nicholas, who also chairs the JAC, said that the distribution model should be the model used in the last budget bill until there’s a reason to change it.  Other committee members agreed.

He then proposed that at the time the Joint Appropriations Committee considers an external cost adjustment, it expand its hearing to take testimony from cities, towns and counties.  The JAC would begin getting facts and holding discussions on a funding amount for local governments, for inclusion in the Governor’s proposed budget.

After the Governor prepares his budget, Nicholas suggested that the JAC should treat local governments as “an agency” with a municipal representative and a county representative presenting a proposed budget to the JAC. 

Schiffer turned those suggestions and proposals into a motion that passed unanimously. 

So, the Select Committee has completed its statutory mission.  The committee recommendation to the Governor and Joint Appropriations Committee will be that the JAC’s process to determine an external cost adjustment be expanded to include a “review and a determination of funding amounts for local governments.”  The findings of that review will be passed to the Governor for inclusion in his budget each year by November 1st.  For budget development purposes, local governments will be treated as an agency. 

The starting point for the distribution model will be last session’s budget bill, with the funding of “basic services” by counties and cities being a “high priority.”