2024 Wyoming Legislature Could Be Extended For Budget Agreement

The 2024 budget session of the Wyoming Legislature has a week left before the scheduled end date of March 8 at midnight

A lot will have to be resolved to meet that deadline. But the good news is that lawmakers have an additional three days available to finish the budget without a special session.

The potential holdup is finalizing a budget that both houses can agree on. At the last report, the two houses of the legislature were about $1 billion apart with a Monday deadline looming to submit a spending plan for the 2025-26 biennium. The House is proposing a budget of about $10.8 billion, while the Senate has proposed $9.7 billion

The Monday deadline is to give Gov. Mark Gordon a chance to issue any vetoes regarding the budget with a few days left and allow the legislature to vote on those vetoes. But with such a large difference between the two houses, whether that deadline can be met is very much in question. A joint conference committee made up of five members of each house is trying to hammer out an agreement.

Both houses must sign off on the compromise, which would then be sent to Governor Gordon. He then has 72 hours to issue any vetoes, with lawmakers deciding whether to vote to override any veto.

If the Monday deadline is met, that would give the governor Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to issue vetoes. The legislature could then vote on whether to override on Friday.

So what happens if the House and Senate can't agree by the Monday deadline? The schedule gets moved back, with Governor Gordon having 72 hours to issue vetoes, and lawmakers having a day to vote on overriding those vetoes.

The legislative schedule can be extended by as much as three days without exceeding the limits for the session under state law. That would mean adding Monday and potentially, Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week to the schedule.