Sen. Kinskey reports on 2022 budget process and mental health funding 

The Wyoming Legislature adopted the budget on March 7. It was signed into law by Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon on March 10.

The Wyoming Legislature convenes a budget session every biennium. This bi-yearly session is only 20 days long. According to District 22 Sen. Dave Kinskey (R), this can be a grueling process when funds are more difficult to come by for lawmakers. But Kinskey told listeners of Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse program this year was much less difficult in regards to the budget process.   

“It helps when you’re not just staring into the abyss fiscally, like prior years,” Kinskey said in regard to former budget sessions where funding was short. 

Although revenue looked much better this year, lawmakers did not treat the budget as if it was funding free for all. Kinskey brought to light the budget trends of recent sessions that legislators have been supporting; reduced spending. 

Cuts to the budget and reduced spending hit the field of mental healthcare hard in recent years. These cuts were so dramatic in fact, that lawmakers took advantage of the opportunity this year offered to appropriate more funds back to the states mental healthcare. 

According to Kinskey, lawmakers had also heard from medical professionals that many hospitals and emergency rooms were not suited and did not have expertise in treating residents experiencing a mental health crisis that required the patient be monitored under Title 25. 

This title permits law enforcement or medical professionals to enforce an emergency hold on an individual who has been determined to be a threat to themselves or others as a result of mental illness.

In many cases the patients were sent to a facility in Capser, which was not only inconvenient but over the years proved to be expensive. 

Sheridan Media will have more from Senator Dave Kinskey’s legislative review in future stories.