News
Kinskey predicts energy industry won’t recover
Published
3 years agoon
By
Pat Blair
Senator Dave Kinskey said he’s seen Wyoming’s energy industry come back many times after a bust – but this time, he doesn’t think that’s going to happen.
Kinskey made the remarks at the opening of Tuesday’s legislative forum. That doesn’t bode well for Wyoming.
The senator, who represents Sheridan and Johnson counties in Wyoming’s Legislature, said 60 percent of Wyoming’s revenue comes from coal, oil, gas and other extractive industries.
Because of that, he said the state’s budget will be down. He said the state’s revenues are down between 25 and 30 percent over the next four to six years.
Kinskey said the state is about $200 million away from balancing the non-K through 12 accounts, but the deficit in the state’s budget for public schools continues to grow. He asked the state’s school districts to be willing to accept budget cuts and that they can find a way to take cuts in revenue without hurting education.
Edward
November 12, 2020 at 5:55 pm
Having spent the majority of my life in Wyoming, I have often thought why have the politicians never prepared for the end of oil and coal as king. From the 1960’s to present there have been many booms and busts. By the time the state realized they needed a rainy day fund, it was too little too late. Now its back to budget cutting. Schools need funding and like it or not, the funding needs to be equal across the board. Not based on tax input. Test results by state show that schools that receive $50k per student don’t to any better than a school that gets $17k per student. It’s the quality of the admin and teachers that make the difference. The same can be said for all govt jobs and Wyoming has roughly 1 in 5 being a taxpayer funded job. In this time of covid, it seems that all govt jobs are essential. Why? Hopefully most of the state representatives have been successful businesses owners and know that when revenue shrinks, tough decisions have to be made and they will make them.