 - The budget bill that the Wyoming Senate passed on third reading last week restored the $6.6 million state funding increase that Wyoming Public Television requested this year to offset federal funding losses and upgrade emergency broadcast equipment.){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The budget bill that the Wyoming Senate passed on third reading last week restored the $6.6 million state funding increase that Wyoming Public Television requested this year to offset federal funding losses and upgrade emergency broadcast equipment.
The funding increase does not appear in the budget bill that came out of the Wyoming House, however, despite an attempt by Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, to restore part of WPTV’s request: the $3 million operations increase intended to cover the loss of federal funding that resulted from the recent closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“The (CPB) provided 50 percent of the operations cost for Wyoming Public Television,” Larsen explained when he proposed the amendment on the House Floor this week. “(So) they are now coming to us and asking us to put $3 million into their budget. ..
“I think that this is a reasonable expectation.”
Wyoming Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman, disagreed with that statement, noting that “this is the same money that our national chief executive and Congress has cut.”
“I think that the future of PBS is uncertain, and I can’t see (why) our state should be supplementing Congress,” Webb said.
Later, Larsen clarified that, while “it’s easy to confuse Wyoming Public Television with PBS,” the two entities are “not even related.”
“Wyoming Public Television can request, through an affiliation, to receive programming from PBS, but (they) have no requirements,” he said. “So it’s a little different beast there.”
Larsen’s amendment was defeated last week, with “ay” votes coming from Larsen and Wyoming Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, and “nay” votes coming from Wyoming Reps. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, and John Winter, R-Thermopolis.
“But that’s OK,” WPTV Chief Executive Officer Joanna Kail told the Central Wyoming College Board of Trustees during a regular meeting on Wednesday. “I explained to my staff that there’s like nine lives (in the Legislature, and) we might be at like life six at this point. So I’m staying optimistic.”
Governor’s recommendation
The amendment that restored the WPTV funding in the Senate came from Wyoming Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, whose proposal called for the restoration of the budget recommendation Gov. Mark Gordon initially presented to the Joint Appropriations Committee.
The governor’s recommended budget featured “full funding” for WPTV, Kail said, including the requested $6.6 million increase.
The WPTV section didn’t come up during debate on Driskill’s amendment, which was supported with “ay” votes from Wyoming Sens. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, and a “no” vote from Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, who currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
When he rose to speak in opposition to Driskill’s amendment this week, Salazar thanked the SAC for their work on the budget bill they brought to the legislature.
“Clearly, I see where this (decision) is going,” Salazar said. “I knew from day one that (the) budget bill was going to be changed. … The question is, how much? And so we are going to do that today.”
Driskill, who is a member of the SAC, commended Salazar for supporting his fellow committee members in doing “what we thought was right.”
“That takes a lot,” Driskill said, explaining that, as committee chair, it would be “pretty easy” for Salazar to “put a thumb on us and say, ‘You’re going to stand together and support (the budget bill).’”
The House and Senate versions of the state budget bill will now be considered by a Joint Conference Committee, which will present a combined proposal for final floor action in both houses, according to the Wyoming Legislature.