Lawmakers voted Tuesday to cut $40 million from the University of Wyoming, or approximately 11% of the block grant for the state’s only four-year public university.  On top of the $40 million cut, the committee voted to defund Wyoming Public Media and to deny funding requests related to UW at hletics, an energy-related initiative, the school’s family medicine residency program and matching dollars intended to incentivize major gifts. That brings the total to nearly $61 million.  The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee is meeting in Cheyenne this week to write a budget bill ahead of next month’s legislative session. That work follows three weeks’ worth of budget hearings and involves the panel voting on Gov. Mark Gordon’s recommendations for every state agency.  Unlike other state agencies, where lawmakers have line-item spending oversight, the Legislature provides UW with a block grant, affording the state’s lone four-year public university a kind of budget flexibility.  When it was time Tuesday for the committee to consider the block grant, Sheridan Republican Rep. Ken Pendergraft brought a motion to reduce it by $40 million.  “There’s some, in my mind, there’s some reshuffling of priorities [on] where the state should actually be spending money,” Pendergraft said at the meeting. “And when I look at the University of Wyoming, I think that that’s a place where we could probably pull in the reins for a little while.” At Pendergraft’s suggestion, the committee also voted to exempt the College of Education and the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources from the cuts.  The Lab School is located in the College of Education building on the University of Wyoming campus. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile) Pendergraft is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — a group of hard-line Republicans who won control of the House in 2024. The upcoming budget session will be the first since the group gained such a foothold and secured a majority of seats on the House Appropriations Committee.  “We are monitoring the situation very closely and acknowledge there are a lot of steps along the way before a final budget is signed into law,” Chad Baldwin, UW spokesperson, told WyoFile.  ‘Crippling amount’ Pendergraft’s motion prompted a heated and emotional debate between committee members.  Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, called the cut “a crippling amount” and the kind of decision that will “haunt the state.” “This is the main university that educates our kids in Wyoming. They don’t have three other choices like they do somewhere else. This is what we have,” Driskill said. “This body is sending the message to the people of Wyoming, our own people, ‘Don’t stay here. Don’t come here.’” Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, speaks on Feb. 14, 2025 in the Senate Chambers at the Wyoming State Capitol Building. Hughes Jr. has backed Driskill’s campaigns. Driskill sees the Hugheses as a counterweight to other political spenders whose views he sees as farther right. (Michael S Smith) Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, spoke in favor of the motion, telling the committee he had concerns that “there are things being taught in our university that don’t align with the way of life.” But cutting $40 million won’t address concerns over curriculum, Driskill said.  Laramie Democratic Rep. Trey Sherwood also spoke against the motion, citing the way it would directly impact her constituents. The university is located in Laramie. “The governor gave us a balanced budget, which he’s required to statutorily. And when we get down to it, we are also required by law to pass a balanced budget. So we’re not in a deficit. There’s no loss of funds,” Sherwood said. “This proposal to remove funds from the University of Wyoming, in my mind, is cutting for cut’s sake.” Morale is “quite low” on campus, Sherwood said, pointing to UW President Ed Seidel’s upcoming departure and Laramie’s high cost of living. “I just want my constituents back home to know that I see that, and I feel the stress that you are under, and I wanted to say publicly, thank you for your service, and know that this is one day, and we will continue to fight for you through the process,” Sherwood said.  The motion was passed on a voice vote, with at least Sherwood and Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, voting against it.  More proposed cuts On top of the $40 million cut, the committee denied a request to fund an assistant professor for UW’s family medicine residency program in Casper, as well as $12.5 million in matching funds intended to boost fundraising.  “This, to me, is the double whammy of this whole deal,” Gierau said. “You cut the block grant and … then you cut ways that they can try to raise money to earn it back.” Lawmakers also voted to trim $450,000 from the governor’s recommendation of $4.5 million for a critical minerals initiative at UW.  “To best serve the state, UW now needs to support interdisciplinary research and education focused on technologies that use Wyoming minerals,” the governor’s budget explanation states. “This requires that UW strengthen its facilities for advanced materials research and develop technologies such as sodium batteries (that will use trona), advanced magnets, and quantum computers and sensors (that will use Wyoming rare earth elements).” Pendergraft brought two additional motions aimed at UW that the committee ultimately adopted — one to cut $6 million from the university’s athletics department, another to prohibit $1.69 million in state dollars from passing through the block grant to fund Wyoming public radio (the station is formally referred to as Wyoming Public Media).  Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, at the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) The $6 million request stems from a landmark NCAA settlement in June that allows colleges to compensate student-athletes for their name, image and likeness.  “The settlement fundamentally reshapes the financial structure of college athletics, requiring institutions to directly support student-athletes through compensation, expanded benefits, and compliance measures,” according to the budget book.  Haroldson, a Freedom Caucus member, pushed back on the motion, arguing it “will have a ripple effect across the state.”  “The University of Wyoming, being a [Division 1] school, it’s the only thing we have. And in my community, I mean, it’s an exodus,” Haroldson said. “If you want to go and see what Highway 34 looks like on game day, it’s pretty impressive.” In his explanation for seeking to cut public funding for Wyoming public radio, Pendergraft said, “it’s not the role of government.” “It is not the concept of government to have an immediate extension like a ‘Pravda,’” he said, referring to the former Soviet Union’s Communist Party newspaper, which served as a government mouthpiece for state propaganda.  Gierau pushed back.  “I understand the concept about using state dollars, but where you lose me is when you say things like ‘Pravda.’ And let me explain why,” Gierau said. “Because then it leaves the impression that what you’re doing is, you’re against it because of what they’re saying, not the fact that they’re saying it. And that is a slippery slope.” While the University of Wyoming holds WPM’s license, the station is editorially independent.  “We were disappointed but not discouraged, and we will continue to advocate our case to legislators,” Christina Kuzmych, Wyoming Public Media general manager, told WyoFile in a statement. “While we respect their positions on public media, we cannot overlook the thousands of listeners our audience tracking systems indicate rely on public media for information, cultural programming, and entertainment.” The cuts will impact eight staff members from news to engineering, according to Kuzmych. “WPM cannot effectively serve a state that spans approximately 97,000 square miles with just two engineers. If these cuts remain in place, something will have to give.” At the end of the debate, some lawmakers who supported the cuts sought to ease tensions with colleagues. “Everybody feels a little bloodied up after those discussions,” House Appropriations Chairman John Bear, R-Gillette, said.  “We’re all friends. We’re all here to do what’s best for the state of Wyoming. So we’ll keep working at it,” he said.  The committee has the rest of the week to finish crafting the budget ahead of the session that begins Feb. 9.  Editor’s note: WyoFile reporter Maggie Mullen worked at Wyoming Public Media four years ago.  The post Lawmakers vote to axe UW’s block grant, defund Wyoming Public Media appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less