Cheyenne Mayor Hoping For More State Money

Cheyenne Mayor Rick Kaysen is hoping the state Legislature will add some money to Governor Matt Mead's proposal for state funding for local governments in the state.

The governor, in his proposed budget, allocated $90 million for 99 cities and towns and the state's 23 county governments.

The mayor says the Wyoming Association of Municipalities [WAM]  and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association [WCCA] are lobbying legislators to increase that amount to $105 million.

Kaysen says the second number would add about $1.2 million in state money to Cheyenne over the next two years, which he says would be significant at a time when local governments across the state are taking in less money.

That's largely because of a statewide slump in the energy sector, with oil and gas companies making fewer purchases leading to lower sales tax revenues.

The mayor has said several times recently that Cheyenne faces a very tight budget for Fiscal year 2017, which begins on July 1, 2016.

The state legislature convened Monday in a budget session with lawmakers facing some tough decisions because of a drop in state revenues. Some projections say Wyoming is likely to take in about $600 million less over the net three years than expected because of declining revenues from state taxes on coal, oil and natural gas.

Wyoming is one of the few states with no state income tax and takes in a large portion of it's funding from taxes on the energy industries.