 - The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted this week to reject the budget increases Wyoming Public Television requested last month to offset federal funding losses and upgrade emergency broadcast equipment.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted this week to reject the budget increases Wyoming Public Television requested last month to offset federal funding losses and upgrade emergency broadcast equipment.
Federal funding
The request from WPTV included a $3 million operations increase intended to cover the loss of federal funding that resulted from the recent closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
When CPB closed, “WPTV lost approximately $3 million in biennial federal support – nearly one-third of the resources required to meet its mission,” according to the budget request narrative.
“State funding is now the main funding source of WPTV operations,” the narrative states.
“Without this funding, core services will be reduced or eliminated, including legislative live streaming, statewide press conference coverage, the emergency alert system as well as the new alert texting system, and the making/acquisition of local/national productions. Staff reductions, and the loss of good-paying Wyoming jobs, would also be unavoidable.”
Broadcast infrastructure
WPTV’s budget request also included a $3.6 million increase intended to help “modernize and repair” its broadcast infrastructure – including the statewide emergency alert system the station is federally mandated to maintain.
The budget request narrative says “much of (the station’s) field equipment, including transmitters, towers, generators, microwave systems, and Emergency Alert System encoders, is 15 to 20 years old and beyond service life.”
“Ten sites lack functioning backup generators, creating risks of service interruptions during outages and reducing the reliability of emergency messaging to communities across the state,” the narrative says. “The dollars to modernize and repair the aging infrastructure is essential. Wyoming citizens may face service interruptions and outages in times of critical need without these upgrades.”
The narrative says the funding would be used to “replace aging equipment to ensure resilient all-hazard warning delivery, transition to a next-generation broadcast standard that allows mobile and geo-targeted alerts, and launch a partnership with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes to pilot emergency communications that improve law enforcement response times and real-time call location, a model that could extend statewide.”
Base budget
The JAC voted to approve WPTV’s base budget of $3.3 million this week.
That’s the amount the station has operated with “for nearly twenty years,” according to the budget request narrative.
“This appropriation has remained flat with little to no increase requests, even as costs have grown and inflation has eroded its value by nearly 30 percent,” the narrative states. “Despite this decline in purchasing power, WPTV has continued to expand services, including live statewide broadcasts from the Governor’s Office and state directors during major crises, live streaming of legislative committee meetings outside Cheyenne, and the creation of one of the largest Native American education libraries in Wyoming to support new state standards.
“Preserving current funding ensures the continuity of these core services, sustains the local jobs and expertise needed to deliver them, and protects the infrastructure that reaches over 90 percent of households over the air and 100 percent through digital platforms.”
Process
The JAC will continue working on state agency budgets through Friday.
Once the committee work is completed, state staffers will prepare two identical budget bills – one for the Senate and one for the House – for introduction during the upcoming legislative session, according to an official overview of Wyoming’s budget process.
“Each bill consists of the JAC’s recommendations as approved by vote of the Committee,” the overview states, noting that, “While there are two identical bills started, only one bill which encompasses the action from both houses is dealt with by conference committee and is passed into law.”
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