A joint conference committee has been formed to work out the differences between the budget bills that passed out of Wyoming’s House and Senate this year.
Only one of those budget bills – the one that came out of the House of Representatives – includes an amendment funding the renovation of a new state office in Riverton, among other items.
Neither budget bill includes funding for a recreation center in Riverton.
Both items were initially included in the state-funded capital construction bill, but that proposal failed introduction in the House on the first day of the session.
Conference committee
Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, and Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, were both appointed as members of the joint conference committee working on the budget bills.
The group held its initial meeting Wednesday, reviewing all of the amendments contained in the Senate and House budget bills.
On Thursday, the House members on the conference committee presented their proposals for the final budget bill, including a motion to adopt the amendment funding the Riverton state office renovation.
The senators on the committee said they would present their proposals next week.
Rec center
Regardless of the state’s decision on funding for a rec center, the Riverton City Council has authorized municipal staff to seek a United States Department of Agricultural Rural Business Development Grant to hire a consultant to perform a feasibility study and establish a business plan for the future construction an annual operation of a multisport recreational facility in town.
“We’ve been talking about this for some time now, (and there’s) a large group of people that are interested and invested in this,” Riverton Mayor Tim Hancock said during a council meeting last month. “It was a little bit of a blow, of course, that the capital construction bill was not approved for consideration by the rest of the state legislature. But it’s good to know that we’re still moving – and I think that’s definitely the feeling here: If we’re going to get funding from the state, great. (If not), we can try again next year. We’ll get it figured out and get things more solidified and go back. … That’s the spirit here.”
For more information, call the City of Riverton at 856-2227.