The 67th Wyoming Legislature's 20-day budget session was convened Thursday, February 8, 2024, for the beginning of its work in Cheyenne. This year, outside of its typical budget work, over 360 bills were brought forward by both legislative committees and individual legislators. These bills ranged from property tax relief to health care. In the end, on Friday March 8th, the final biennial General Fund budget was close to $3.8 billion – up approximately $100 million from the previous biennium. Deep ideological divides within the state's dominant Republican Party drove much debate and show no signs of abating before next year's general session.

What to do with a windfall? That question loomed large in Wyoming’s 2023 general legislative session, after a 2022 budget session focused on revenue shortfalls and budget reductions. As such, Wyoming’s rich history of “boom-and-bust” economics continues, albeit with increasing skepticism among the state’s elected officials. The 2023 legislative session saw notable new spending in areas such as property tax relief and public employee wages but also produced significant financial investment in many of Wyoming’s “rainy day” funds.

Despite $430 million in spending reductions and the loss of 324 state positions, Wyoming’s 2021 supplemental budget reflected an improved pandemic-driven economic climate. Recent budgetary optimism was attributed to increased performance in energy production and pricing, pent up demand for tourism and travel, and higher than expected sales tax revenues. Continued reliance on Wyoming’s Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, and the state’s attachment to the remainder of its boom-and-bust revenue structure, left surprisingly little appetite for discussions of revenue diversificatioan. Instead, “right-sizing” state government to fit the current revenue stream seems more consistent with the spirit of the times.

The Wyoming Legislature concluded its 2018 twenty-day budget session on March 15th, a few days beyond its normally allotted time. The Legislature was able to meet longer than four weeks this year without holding a special session because it had three days left over from last year. In large part, the extended session was the result of the House and Senate’s inability to agree over education and construction spending. The nearly $3 billion general fund biennial budget includes small increases for local governments ($105 million), strengthening cybersecurity ($2.2 million), senior centers ($200 thousand), an allotment to pay off the Capitol Square construction project, and additional funding for community colleges. According to Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, collegiality, something that has long been a hallmark of Wyoming’s Legislature, has significantly diminished this year with important divisiveness within the majority party (Rogers 3/23/18). A major sticking point, the state’s $850 million structural budget deficit, was never fully resolved. Here, the deficit is going to be paid mostly out of savings and unrealized capital gains from the state’s investments in the stock market. The state’s final budget keeps funding levels for most of state government generally stable, with increases in spending on social services that former Govenor Matt Mead argued were hit too hard by cuts passed during the previous legislative session (Rosenfeld 3/10/18). Cuts were felt in many agencies, with some program elimination, but seemingly little disruption to most state services.

Wyoming’s general legislative session concluded March 6, 2015 with the passage of 185 bills and nearly $285 million in new spending.[1] Because this was a general session rather than a budget session, very few budget issues were addressed. However, key budgetary matters this year included: (1) addressing a $222 million shortfall brought about by falling oil prices and (2) several new capital construction projects spread across the state and at the University of Wyoming. Wyoming democrats in the legislature were profoundly disappointed by one financial measure, the failure to pass a Medicaid expansion plan. According to Mary Throne, House Minority Floor Leader, “We had the ability to insure 17,000 people and save the state money. We had the support of business, local governments—certainly the support of my community, the largest city in the state—and yet for completely illogical reasons it was rejected."[1] This legislative session was a “regular” session rather than a “budget” session, meaning that only supplementary budget issues could be considered. Even-numbered years are reserved for budget sessions, while odd-numbered years are reserved for the general session.

In 2017 Wyoming faced one of the most divisive legislative sessions in memory; it was adark fiscal climate driven by lower than expected oil and gas prices. In the midst of decliningstate revenue, lawmakers rejected any new taxes or increases of others, while cutting the statebudget by $400 million. Although revenues appear to be stabilizing, an uncertain fiscal climateremains.

Wyoming’s twenty-day budget session (the Wyoming Constitution allows for twenty days, but it took only nineteen) concluded with a $3.3 billion state biennial budget that some lawmakers called “timid and fearful” while others called it “strategic”. Convened on February 10 and adjourned on March 6, lawmakers passed 132 bills, including the biennial budget where the consensus is that this year’s budget is not much different from the current budget. Indeed, the 2014 session seemed to be dominated more by non-budget items than profound budgetary matters.

The 2013 Wyoming General Legislative Session was a non-budget year. As a result, few budget bills were passed. A small supplemental budget bill was passed that added an additional $78 million to the $3.2 billion budget approved during the regular 2012 budget session. At this time, Wyoming's economic outlook is strong and state revenue projections are higher than expected.

Wyoming's 40-day general session convened on January 8th and passed 206 regular legislative bills as well as a supplemental budget bill, while still adjourning a few days early.This session was marked by a preoccupation with several seemingly off-beat items, such as the repeal of the official duties of one of the state's five elected officials as well as passage of a bill to keep the list of candidates for the University of Wyoming's presidential search a secret or "closed" event, beyond the eyes of the public.This report covers the 2012 legislative session, the state of the economy, and the budgeting process.

As a non-budget year, Wyoming's 2011 biennial legislative session yielded few significant financial decisions.With an approximate $1 billion surplus, Wyoming remains one of three states without a budget shortfall.With the nation's least diversified economy, Wyoming's governor warns state agencies to be prepared for budget cutbacks in the near-term due to a downturn in the extractive industries brought about by a slowing national economy.Our rainy day funds remain intact and conservative financial planning keeps the state oncourse.

The dramatic growth in the incarceration rate since the mid-1970s has unintentionally resulted in massive numbers of people being released from prison each year. Consequently, prisoner reentry initiatives are receiving greater attention than ever before. At this point few studies have looked at public support for reentry initiatives, and the existing ones have taken a rather general and atheoretical approach. The current study explores public opinion toward a wide range of reentry policies and practices through a value conflict framework. Results from a randomly selected, statewide sample in Missouri indicate that people take into account such values as social welfare, retribution, and self-interest when assessing their support for reentry measures. As reentry initiatives may struggle to attain legitimacy and resources without public support, a number of policy implications are discussed. These implications include informing the public of the need for servicing those with prior prison terms and communicating the value of housing assistance during reentry.

Wyoming's twenty-day biennial budget session convened on February 8th, 2010 and on March 5th, 2010 Governor Freudenthal signed into law a $2.9 billion state budget for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.According to the Casper Star Tribune, the "compromise budget sailed through both houses of the Legislature on March 3rd and was sent immediately to the desk of Governor Freudenthal" (3/4/10).In late December 2009 Gov. Freudenthal noted, "We've been living on a champagne budget.Now what we can really afford is soda pop, but that's more than a lot of other states.

Inmates have long been considered one of the most politically disenfranchised groups in the United States. Not surprisingly, the well-being of the incarcerated has rarely been considered a high priority for federal policymakers. The passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), however, reveals that reform through traditional policy making channels is attainable. The passage of PREA has provided reformers with more than optimism. It provides a roadmap for future efforts to transform prison conditions through legislative intervention. This manuscript explores the lessons learned from PREA’s success by identifying the traditional barriers to federal legislative prison reform and examining how PREA was able to navigate these obstacles and secure passage without a single “no” vote in the U.S. Congress. Special attention is given to the important role of evangelicals in the passage of this legislation.

Despite technological and pedagogical improvements, obstacles continue in certain areas of distance education, including a lack of interaction among students and instructors and associated feelings of disconnectedness from the campus community. This article explores the study results of a blended learning, distance education graduate program designed to minimize some of these traditional challenges. Here, among a number of findings, results suggest that a blended learning model can improve perceptions of faculty attention and minimize rifts between on-campus and distance students in the same program.

The new reality of higher education contains a fundamental shift in student demographics. More nontraditional students are seeking educational opportunities and traditional students are seeking out and expecting alternative modes of curriculum delivery. Students, especially older, non-traditional ones seek course delivery through distance education formats such as online or videoconferencing that meet the needs of their lifestyle that includes career, family and other responsibilities. As a result, Universities are moving to meet the needs of this growing contingency of new atypical student populations.

Whether excited by the prospect or not, academics realize that general interest in technology-based distance eduation is rapidly increasing – a fact which is particularly true for public administration and public policy programs (see, for example, Ebdon, 1999). According to the U.S. Department of Education (1997), as of fall 1995, a third of higher education institutions offered distance education and another quarter planned to offer such courses in the next three years (p. iii). In academic year 1994-1995, approximately 753,640 students were enrolled in an estimated 25,730 distance education courses offered by higher education institutions. Of those, public four-year institutions offered 45 percent, public two-year instutitions offered 39 percent, and private four-year instutitions offered 16 percent (pp. iii-iv). Degrees and course offerings range from business, to nursing, to social science. Graduate programs in public administration have not escaped the pressure. Interest among MPA programs in distance education has burgeoned suddenly. This is reflected, for example, in attendance at NASPAA panels on the subject. Just three years ago it was difficult to get more than a dozen participants to such panels. In subsequent years they have seen standingroom-only. Even more noteworthy is the fact that NASPAA has recently adopted new accreditation standards and guidelines addressing distance education (COPRA, 1999, pp. 24-26). NASPAA is, at least in principle, ready to embrace distance education as a legitimate component of MPA programs. Things are moving quickly, and we detect an air of urgency among politicians and administrators to jump on the distance-education bandwagon. Indeed, Rahm and Reed (1997) have conducted surveys that Public Administration & Management: An Interactive Journal 5, 4, 2000, pp. 190-213 The MPA and Distance Education: 191 indicate that these officials are responsible for much of the pressure now put on faculty to offer distance courses. In this context, we offer some insight on the promise and peril of MPA distance education. We must add a caution, however, that we do not present such insight as definitive knowledge about distance learning. Rather, we treat it as “our story” – one through which we may engage readers in the process of exploring distance learning and contributing to its evolution among public administration programs. In this regard, we follow Ralph Hummel (1991) who treats “stories” as a more appropriate and common means of knowledge acquisition in the managerial world (p. 32). Merisotis and Phipps (1999) argue that experimental, descriptive, correlational, and case studies are the only appropriate way to assess the differences between distance and classroom-based learning (p. 13). We do not claim, therefore, to be detached observers, proffering an explanatory theory and presenting “objective” findings. Rather, we wish to contribute to the process of intersubjectively defining distance learning and its emerging problems in the field. We offer our story “as a tool of engagement” for others who are entering the distance-learning world (Hummel, 1991, pp. 3637). We hope, as a result, to provoke discussion and argument about the nature and implications of this new pedagogical frontier. This paper draws on our experience as University of Wyoming MPA faculty in developing and conducting a state-wide, distance-based MPA Program over a ten-year period. In doing so, this paper maintains that programmatic success is the result of a confluence of factors not the least of which include establishing the evidence of “need” for distance education, tailoring individual distance education programs to the uniqueness of the community, providing intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to faculty who participate, establishing upper level administrative support, and encouraging faculty and administrative support mechanisms flexible enough to manage the conflicts in perspective, new bureaucratic routines, and evolving technologies. In addition, a primary theme of this paper is that beyond institutional and organizational support, success relies on building and maintaining student/faculty rapport. We believe that MPA faculty, administrators, and students at other universities will find our experience of some interest. Colleges and Universities worldwide are now confronting the question of how they can use distance education to attract new students, cut costs, or even make money (Rahm & Reed, 1997; Cartwright, 1994), The MPA and Distance Education: 192 and find more productive uses for all the communications technology they are acquiring (Lewington, 1995). Toward this goal we begin with a brief history of UW’s MPA distance program, and then present our thoughts on the pedagogical, organizational, and administrative aspects of our experience. Developing the Distance MPA Program in Wyoming The UW Political Science Department established the on-campus MPA program in 1970. It functioned as a bare-bones operation, averaging only 3-5 graduates each year, until 1983. In that year, the MPA curriculum was revised to conform more closely to NASPAA standards, and expanded in order to offer the entire curriculum at an off-campus location in the state capitol. The MPA class enrollments grew quickly, and the program graduated about a dozen off-campus students each year until 1989. The University of Wyoming is the only four-year and postgraduate institution in the state. The state’s population hovers around 450,000 and is spread out over 100,000 mountainous square miles. Because UW is located in Laramie, near the southeast corner of the state, it is not easily accessible to people in other parts of the state. With UW’s acquisition of teleconferencing technology, pressure grew (from legislators and constituents) to offer more coursework off-campus. The MPA faculty viewed this as an opportunity to reach many isolated professionals working in public management. A series of town meetings held around the state indicated tremendous interest, far more than expected, in the MPA program. The SES Dean then offered to lend two open tenure-track faculty lines to the MPA Program as an incentive to offer the curriculum state-wide. In return, the Political Science Department is obliged to offer a minimum of eight offcampus, on-load courses per year. This turned out to be a very unique arrangement, due mainly to the close relationship with the SES Dean. He was criticized by the central administration for making the deal, and his successors have been less than satisfied with it. Nevertheless, it persists to

Recent research has explored differences in the experiences of women and men public officials. Overlooked in these examinations is the position of city manager—a significant position in terms of local administration and policy development. Current figures indicate that women are underrepresented in the field of city management when compared with their peers in the private sector and federal and state administration—women hold only 11% of city manager positions. In trying to explain women’s apparent underrepresentation, the authors explore the importance of mentoring in the public sector using data gathered from a nationwide study of women and men city managers. Their data suggest that mentoring in the city management profession is characterized by factors that appear to work against women. These factors, which include a vacuum of professional mentoring opportunities, may help explain the slow inclusion of women into the field of city management.

Recent research has explored differences in the experiences of women and men public officials. Overlooked in these examinations is the position of city manager-a significant position in terms of local administration and policy development. Current figures indicate that women are underrepresented in the field of city management when compared with their peers in the private sector and federal and state administration-women hold only 11% of city manager positions. In trying to explain women's apparent under representation, the authors explore the importance of mentoring in the public sector using data gathered from a nationwide study of women and men city managers. Their data suggest that mentoring in the city management profession is characterized by factors that appear to work against women. These factors, which include a vacuum of professional mentoring opportunities, may help explain the slow inclusion of women into the field of city management.