The Legislature adjourned with a budget and over 90 new laws on the books. On this season’s final episode, WyoFile’s Maggie Mullen and Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger recap what passed, back-and-forth between the governor and lawmakers, and what happens next. Download the podcas t episode, watch on YouTube or read the transcript below. Maggie Mullen: This is the Cheyenne Roundup, a weekly look at Wyoming’s legislative session, from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile.   Jordan Uplinger: I’m Jordan Uplinger with Wyoming Public Radio, filling in for my colleague Chris Clements. But you may recognize me from my inspired social media reels. MM: They rock. And I’m Maggie Mullen with WyoFile. The legislative session adjourned Wednesday, and lawmakers filed back to their respective corners of the state. As for me and Jordan, we’re back in windy and dusty Laramie at the Wyoming Public Media studios on Thursday, March 12, at about 1 p.m.  JU: It is extra windy today. We’re going to cover what bills lived and died, and we have a final word from the Legislature on Checkgate, although a criminal investigation remains ongoing. MM: But first: Let’s talk about where the state budget for the next two years finally landed. JU: Drumroll here. Can you give us those final numbers, Maggie? MM: Why, certainly. $10.1 billion, so a bit shy of the governor’s $11 billion recommendation. JU: Gov. Mark Gordon used his veto pen to strike roughly two dozen items and footnotes, largely citing separation of powers concerns. Gov. Mark Gordon talks to members of the press in Lander on Feb. 3, 2026. Gordon kicked off a series of budget town halls at the Inn in Lander that day before a standing-room-only crowd. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile) MM: We talked a bit about this last week, but let’s paint a fuller picture.  One notable item: State employee pay. The Legislature tried to dictate staffing numbers within executive branch agencies. Gordon said it wasn’t the Legislature’s job.  JU: But then, the House and Senate overrode that veto, saying the number of employees in the executive branch has been determined by the Legislature since 1971. MM: Ultimately, this leaves things in the Legislature’s hands. And to be clear, pay raises for state employees made it into the final bill.  JU: Another notable item: A requirement for the University of Wyoming to come up with $5 million in savings by next year, or lose $10 million from its block grant. Gordon said embarking on a study with a predetermined outcome lessens its value, adding [it could lead to] “potentially stepping over dollars to pick up nickels and dimes.” MM: The Legislature also tried to override this veto. This study was part of the budget compromise between the House and the Senate when it came to UW budget cuts. The Senate voted to override this veto. But the House couldn’t muster the two-thirds majority needed. So Gordon’s veto stands, and UW won’t have to come up with that savings plan. JU: A third biggie: The Wyoming Business Council. This is the state’s primary economic development agency. The Legislature guaranteed funding for only one year, and the council was supposed to come back to the Legislature in 2027 and request funding for the second half of the two-year budget. MM: But Gordon vetoed that restriction, too. So now the council is funded for two years. But there’s a real expectation from all parties that the council needs to revamp and improve itself. JU: Gordon also exercised his veto pen on three bills. One would bar public employees from voluntarily deducting their labor organization dues from their paychecks. Gordon said the state should presume that workers know what they are doing when they opt in for automatic withdrawals. An attempt to override this veto failed in the House on Wednesday morning. MM: Another veto: Gordon rejected a bill that would have eliminated one of the state’s several budget coffee cans, also known as SIPA [Strategic Investments and Projects Account], which holds excess revenue from minerals. The bill would have dissolved SIPA, and put its funds elsewhere. Here’s Sen. Larry Hicks of Baggs advocating to get rid of the fund. Larry Hicks: More than anything else it’s transparency and it’s simplification of the budget so you can follow it.  Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, during the first meeting of the House Special Investigative Committee on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) JU: But Gordon basically said this would limit his ability to make budget recommendations, and he vetoed it. MM: An attempt to override this veto failed in the Senate Wednesday morning. JU: A third veto: SAPA, or changes to the Second Amendment Protection Act. This bill would’ve allowed anyone to sue a law enforcement agency that took any actions to take away someone’s guns, including federal enforcement actions. It carried a possible $50,000 penalty. MM: Wyoming’s current SAPA law already bars the state from using public money or personnel to enforce any “unconstitutional” federal government directive that infringes on people’s right to bear arms. Public officers who violate this would face a misdemeanor. The law has not yet been used, law enforcement officials told legislators. JU: To be clear, all 23 county sheriffs opposed this bill, as did ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying it would hamstring the state’s ability to help federal agencies enforce immigration, drug smuggling and human trafficking, which Gordon pointed to in his veto letter. MM: Again, an effort to override this veto failed in the Senate.  In addition to having the ability to veto legislation, the governor can also let a bill become law without his signature. That’s a way of saying, ‘I’m not getting in this bill’s way, but I’m not entirely comfortable with it.’ JU: That’s what Gordon did with the K-12 public school finance bill, also known as recalibration, which he declined to sign on Monday. In a letter to legislative leadership, he expressed concern that the bill disadvantages smaller districts, usurps local authority and fails to address essential operational needs. MM: The governor also had reservations about the Human Heartbeat Act, which he signed on Monday. The act bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks using a transvaginal ultrasound. In his signing letter to Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, Gordon affirmed his pro-life commitment, but cautioned that the bill to restrict abortions would likely end up in court. Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, during the 2026 Wyoming Legislature budget session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) JU: And that’s what happened.  MM: Yep. Late Tuesday afternoon, a group of abortion-rights advocates asked a court to block the new law. That group is already in court trying to stop two other abortion bills passed last year. They say all three laws violate the constitutional guarantee that Wyomingites get to make their own health care decisions.  JU: You can stay tuned to Wyoming Public Media and WyoFile to see what happens there.  MM: Gordon signed over 90 bills into law, including legislation to create Wyoming’s first two modules of professional wildland firefighters.  JU: He also signed the first increase in decades to the Hathaway Scholarship. MM: Plus, new programs and positions aimed at improving childhood literacy. JU: Another bill boosts local governments’ portion of revenue from statewide sales and use taxes. That’s to help make up for dwindling property tax revenue. MM: Gordon also signed a resolution from Sen. Eric Barlow related to “keeping public lands protected and decisions local.”  JU: Something else I’ve been watching is how the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ priority bills fared. This is their first budget session holding a majority of votes in the House, and similar to their “Five and Dime” plan from last year, they kicked off the session by announcing 10 policy priorities.  MM: Those, plus shrinking the budget. Months before the session, the caucus said cuts were coming but wouldn’t say definitively where and how deep they aspired to cut beyond what they described as pre-pandemic spending levels.  JU: The caucus is claiming some wins with the budget. Chair Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams of Cody said at a press conference after the Legislature adjourned for the session that: Rachel Rodriguez-Williams: The governor and his friends were eager to see the biennial budget fail, standing ready with fingers to point at conservatives, but it didn’t. We passed a budget that funds core constitutional functions of government while allowing the growth of government — while slowing the growth of government itself. Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, during the first meeting of the House Special Investigative Committee on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) JU: As for the 10 other priorities, only one was signed into law: a pregnancy resource center protection measure. These centers are often faith-based and provide free pregnancy tests and counseling to pregnant people. They say they provide resources to women to help them keep their babies, as well as adoption information, rather than providing abortions. The law bars governments from regulating them. MM: A lot of the other Freedom Caucus’ priorities failed to get past introduction in the House, where the caucus doesn’t have the two-thirds majority needed to get bills past that initial hurdle.  That included a bill to require all 23 counties to use pen and paper ballots, and one to make court records free and available online outside of public terminals at your local courthouse.  JU: A couple other election bills failed, like banning ballot drop boxes and barring people from collecting and turning in other peoples’ ballots. And a few bills aimed at parental rights, like allowing parents to sue if they feel their parental rights are violated and removing certain books deemed “pornagraphic material” from the children’s section of public libraries. MM: The caucus is now couching its session losses in election terms. For example, at the press conference Wednesday, Rodriguez-Williams said the caucus needs more allies in the House and Senate. RRW:  Regardless of where our priorities failed, it’s clear that we need reinforcements here in Cheyenne in the state capital in both chambers. JU: I heard that same idea from a few other Freedom Caucus members, that they need more people to run in the upcoming midterm elections. But I also heard from Sen. Ogden Driskill of Devils Tower that it could go the other way for the caucus. Ogden Driskill: They went out of their way to cut the budget, and they showed what would happen if they truly got control. When you look at the [Joint] Appropriations Committee, and they cut to the point that it was absolutely unacceptable to almost everyone in the state. They overran their skis pretty hard. JU: He added it’s “critical that the public continues all the way through the election to make it clear what they would like to see.” MM: This brings us to the latest with the controversy that has come to be known as “Checkgate.”  On the final day of the session, we learned that multiple complaints had been filed against Reps. Karlee Provenza and Mike Yin.  JU: Those are the two Democratic lawmakers who brought the checks to the public’s attention.  Reps. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, and Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, discuss reproductive rights during a press conference at the Capitol in Cheyenne during the 2024 Legislative session. (Ashton Hacke/WyoFile) MM: The complaints against them alleged they broke legislative rules by not using an internal, confidential process to address their concerns.  However, House leadership determined that neither lawmaker broke any legislative rule.  JU: They also determined that both Provenza and Yin have a constitutional right to freedom of speech, which trumps any legislative rule.  MM: However, Speaker Pro Tempore Jeremy Haroldson said on the floor that despite that constitutional right, House leadership said Provenza “impugned” the body by going to the press.  But Provenza and Yin say they stand by their decisions, and they pushed back on what they called efforts by other lawmakers to deflect from taking responsibility for their own actions.  JU: While the legislative session is over, lawmakers will kick off the interim session in late April. During this off season, legislative committees meet to take a deeper look at a set of issues facing the state. The topic suggestions come from lawmakers as well as agency heads, lobbyists and private citizens.  MM: Those topics will be finalized by legislative leaders on April 1. Obviously, we will be following what happens with those.  JU: Maggie, it’s hard to believe, but this is our last Cheyenne Roundup of the 2026 session. Time flew by.  MM: It sure did, but we hope to be back next year for the 2027 general session. Thanks, as always, for listening to the Cheyenne Roundup, your weekly look at what lawmakers are up to from Wyoming Public Radio and WyoFile.  JU: Make sure to like this episode and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. MM: Editing and producing by Nicky Ouellet, Anna Rader and Tennessee Watson. JU: Follow our ongoing legislative coverage at wyomingpublicmedia.org and wyofile.com. Thanks for listening. The post Cheyenne Roundup 2026: Episode 6 | The Wyoming budget session is over. What’s next? appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less