Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s plan to have the state help with wildfire restoration and recovery might not go the way he envisioned it, reports Sheridan Media.
As part of his supplemental budget proposal, the governor requested $130 million for recovery efforts, but last week, a legislative appropriation committee voted to cut the amount to $100 million and make it a 2% loan, instead of a grant.
Gordon was in Sheridan and Gillette on Monday, Jan. 27, to present the new information at a community forum.
He says turning his idea into a loan might not go over well with those seeking recovery help, and things could get more complicated for those who already have an operating loan.
"The state always has to be in first, so if you’ve got an operating loan, that means you’ve got to go to the bank and say, ‘Ok, I’ve going to pay the state off first, and then I can pay you off afterwards.’ That makes it a little more dicey, a little more complicated and I have a feeling that that’s not going to make the program very useful, so we wanted to come up and explain that, be able to listen to people’s concerns and be able to take that back to Cheyenne,” Gordon said.
The Wyoming Legislature is scheduled to discuss the supplemental budget bill, sometime next week.
