Governor David Freudenthal

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Tuesday proposed major cuts to transportation and local government funding as part of a leaner state budget for the next two years. Freudenthal proposes a $3 billion state General Fund budget for the two-year funding cycle that starts next July. The proposal would cut government spending by $300 million from the current biennium budget to help the state cope with falling energy revenues. Since early summer, state financial experts have lowered their projections of state revenues for the coming biennium by $380 million. Local governments would take a big hit under Freudenthal's budget proposal. They received more than $400 ... Read Full Story

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday that it was deferring the auction of controversial oil and gas leases in the high desert Adobe Town area in southwest Wyoming. The bureau's Wyoming office said that it is seeking guidance from the office in Washington, D.C., on "wilderness issues" and won't offer the 15 parcels at an auction in Cheyenne on Dec. 1. Groups including the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Wyoming Outdoor Council had protested the auctioning of the leases. They pointed out that state and local officials oppose drilling in the Adobe Town area. Mary Wilson, a BLM spokeswoman in Cheyenne, said the ... Read Full Story

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal warned western state lawmakers that despite easy platitudes about working together, competition among the states often blocks interstate cooperation. Representatives from many western states have said they see the need for streamlining the permitting and siting process for construction of new power lines. Building a new line commonly requires years of working through a bewildering array of federal, state and local permits, lawmakers and industry officials said. But despite lawmakers' calls for increased cooperation on transmission lines, Freudenthal warned them that much of what they're asking for cuts across the established grain of interstate politics. "Cooperation is contradictory to the ... Read Full Story

A panel of state financial experts again has trimmed its estimate of revenues the state of Wyoming will receive in the two-year budget cycle that starts next July — this time by more than $380 million. The state's Consensus Revenue Estimating Group on Monday released a new round of budget projections. It calls for a continued drop in state revenues that leaders say mirrors the decline in the state's energy economy. The CREG group in May reduced its forecast of state fund revenues for the coming two-year budget cycle to $3.2 billion from $3.8 billion it had forecast in January. The additional $380 million ... Read Full Story

The head of the Wyoming Republican Party says Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal's decision to list his wife among the names he submitted to the White House for consideration for a federal judgeship doesn't pass the "smell test." Freudenthal in March listed his wife, Nancy Freudenthal, along with District Judge Norman Young of Lander and Rock Springs lawyer Ford Bussart. It will be up to President Barack Obama to nominate someone for the judgeship. Wyoming Republican Party chairman Diana Vaughan issued a statement Friday saying that as an elected official, Freudenthal should have held himself to a higher standard than to list his wife. Freudenthal ... Read Full Story