Falling state revenues from low oil and natural gas prices have prompted Wyoming Governor Matt Mead to implement a state hiring freeze.

"We knew things were going to be tight," said Governor Mead. "They've gotten, I would say, considerably worse over the last month or so in terms of the revenue outlook."

Governor Mead says the state could see a budget shortfall of $200 million by next summer.

"We're not going to have sufficient revenue to cover the appropriations that have been made through the end of this fiscal year," said Governor Mead. "We're going to have to tighten our belts and tighten our belts a lot."

Governor Mead has also asked state agencies to delay buying new computer equipment and vehicles to save money.

"We're going to have to make a lot of tough choices and I don't think there's going to be sufficient pots of money that are just sitting on the side waiting to be expended to cover that," said Governor Mead. "We'll look at seeing if we can make some changes on standard budgets, but we're going to have to have exception requests that are funded and in order to fund exception requests we're going to have to be looking at piles of money that we have, prior to this, not looked at."

Governor Mead says lawmakers will have to consider whether or not to dip into the state's $1.8 billion rainy day fund when they convene in February.

"I think the rainy day fund is appropriate because in my view, and even more so when I talk to counties and towns, it's raining," said Governor Mead. "I also think it's fair to be looking at the statutory diversion into the permanent fund, which is another savings, because I think people will appreciate that we have to tighten our belts, but I don't think they'll appreciate we're going to tighten our belts and at the same time continue to save at a robust rate."

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