Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 5

A star Legislature Thursday, Feb. 19, 1987 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo A5 Sullivan pushes for committee that will administer economic development funds Anne MacKinnon I Jfy I 1 I sidies will try to exert political pressure to the extent they can, the governor said. A third board "will not change the political aspects of any given decision." By drawing from the EDS and WCDA boards, Sullivan said, "We can use the best of what we have." WCDA Board Chairman Dick Scdar of Casper said such an in gram "to create jobs." EDSB member Dave Freudenthal said the state does not have to choose between involving bankers in theloan program and an a loan committee that integrates the EDSB and WCDA. He noted both existing boards have banker members. Sullivan agreed, saying "I don't think they're mutually exclusive." the governor also hopes to convince the Legislature to restore his original proposal to provide a $21 million amendment 4 loan fund.

Sullivan advocated funding that includes a $5 million apporpria-tion from the Budget Reserve Account and diversion of $16 million in mineral tax revenues before they flow into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund. Pending legislation will establish a $15 million loan fund. EDS board and WCDA board members discussed the loan committee makeup Tuesday night, according to Freudenthal. private sector applications for state funding. The Legislature's proposal will create a "third and separate entity" to deal with amendment 4 funds, the governor said.

Sullivan wants to place three members from the EDS board, two WCDA board members, the governor and the state treasurer on the loan committee. The House changed that formula and Senate mines committee chairman Sen. Diemer True, R-Nalrona, amended it further in committee. As the bill now stands, the committee will include the governor, one member from the WCDA, one EDSB member and four at-large members with extensive experience in business finance. True argued this proposal will help de-politicize loan committee decisions.

But Sullivan told the board "I can't find the logic in that discussion. Politics to some degree are involved." People applying for state sub- By DANIEL H. NEAL Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Gov. Mike Sullivan Wednesday urged members of the Economic Development and Stabilization Board lo lobby the Legislature to back his plans for a comittee administering new state economic development funds. The governor objects to legislative changes made to his proposal structuring the committee that will make loans with state money under constitutional amendment 4.

Sullivan said his original proposal for the committee makeup "was not just a shot in the dark." "We shouldn't just be going off in different directions," the governor told the EDS board Wednesday. The purpose of his proposal is to ensure coordination and communication between EDSB and WCDA, the state's two primary economic development agencies that are already dealing with Interaction on water spending 'Fiscal responsibility spirit' surges out By ANNE MacKlNNON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE A few minutes at the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday highlighted Senate-House interaction on water spending. As a part of its effort to keep down water spending, the committee deleted $75,000 from a bill for pre-construction funding of water projects. Analysis 1 1 tcgrated board will enable the state to "keep accurate track of the things that we handle." "The way you proposed originally is the real answer," he told SKDAK the governor. EDSB Executive Director Bill Budd also argued that the Senate bill largely restricts at-large memberships on the loan committee to bankers who will not recognize the first priority of the economic development loan pro- Slar-TribuneRick Sorenson repair the budget.

Arney said he felt some senators were primarily concerned with appearing to be big spenders at a time when money is scarce. Sen. Win Hickey, D-Laramie, supported the amendment, however, saying the governor will be cut "to his knees" before he can use the $3 million. Arney's amendment passed on a standing vote with 18 members of the Senate voting for it, inluding all 1 1 Democrats. The governor's budget is part of a $40 million general appropriations bill.

When the bill, HB2, comes up for final roll call vote Thursday, Senate Democrats are expected to try to restore $520,000 for devel-opmentally disabled programs in the Department of Health and Social Services. The Senate cut the funds, which include $409,218 in state money, from the department's community programs budget Tuesday. Another move expected Thursday in the Senate is an attempt to restore $130,145 cut from the budget of the University of Wyoming's School of Human Medicine on Tuesday. Also still in the big bill is an amendment to terminate the Cheyenne family practice residency center on June 30, 1988 and transfer residents to the Casper family practice center. The Senate trimmed a total of about $350,000 from the University of Wyoming budget Tuesday, not $500,000 as reported earlier.

The other cuts were in the budgets for intercollegiatic athletics, student scholarships and the American Heritage Center. 1 iff i iMimllMili ii ml JOHN VINICII An 'odd' footnote State airplane shot down by mistake CHEYENNE A Fremont County senator found a mistake in a budget bill Wednesday that could have cost the Aeronautics Commission an airplane. Democrat John Vinich said an "odd" footnote cropped up in an appropriations bill, HB 3, calling for the Aeronautics Commission to sell a Cessna airplane by June 30, 1988. Vinich, however, said the Senate killed that amendment on the floor. "I'm not thinking anybody is doing this on purpose," Vinich said.

"But I wonder if there are more mistakes." Sen. Tom Stroock, R-Natrona, a Joint Appropriations Committee chairman, said the error will not be the first this session, given the "tremendous" number of amendments to the budget bills. Senate President John Turner, R-Teton-Sublette, said the mistake will be corrected. Shoplifting bill bagged in the House CHEYENNE (AP) A bill that would have imposed stiffer penalties on those repeatedly convicted of certain misdemeanor crimes was killed on the House floor after debate. The bill, as it came over to the House, would have made crimes such as shoplifting a felony if three convictions on a similar offenses were obtained in a seven-year period.

The House first voted on Monday to amend the measure to change the time frame for the three convictions from seven to five years. But Rep. Steve Freudenthal, D-Laramie, convinced the House to reject the second part of the amendment, which specified which crimes could be prosecuted as felonies. Freudenthal said that part of the amendment eliminated some of the misdemeanor criminals he believed the bill was designed to target, such as those who switch price codes on two items. After the second half of the amendment failed, Rep.

Hardy Tate, R-Sheridan, argued that the bill as amended included too many crimes besides shoplifting. Rep. Fred Harrison, D-Carbon, objected to the bill on the grounds that it would fill the prisons, taking up room needed for those convicted of violent crimes. The House elected to kill the bill on its first reading. State spending Farm Bureau's top concern CHEYENNE (AP) -Legislative spending has emerged as the top concern of the state's farmers and ranchers, and leaders of the Wyoming Farm Bureau warn that the state's reserve money is to be protected, not spent.

At Tuesday's session of the group's midwinter conference, WFB members selected spending by the Legislature as the most important issue facing ranchers and farmers in the state. "They are heading for a wreck," Larry Bourret, WFB executive vice president, said. "They are pulling money from the reserves. Once that goes, what are they going to do?" Bourret suggested that lawmakers could eliminate arguments about special expenditures by passing an across-the-board cut. Carleton Perry of Sheridan, a member of the WyFB's tax committee, said the Legislature has committed $22 million of the state's reserves.

"The Legislature is not listening to us when we say we are concerned about their spending," he said. "Who are they listening too? They are going to have to vote 'no' on something in order to balance the budget." Hex Arney said past budget cuts are unconstitutional Sullivan gets contingency fund to aid state agencies $3 million put in governor's budget Capitol Briefs Another $4.5 million cut from water funds CHEYENNE The Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday cut about $4.5 million from pre-construction funding for a number of water projects. The committee's cuts included $1 million intended for land acquisition for the proposed Sandstone dam in Carbon County up for construction funding this year. The committee also cut $1.4 million intended for an cn-vironemntal impact statement on the Stage HI trans-basin diversion to the North Platte, on which construction is not expected for 25 to 30 years. The committee left in place nearly $450,000 for state-federal environmental consultation water officials consider crucial to retaining the state's right to build the project eventually.

On the Sandstone dam, the committee decided Wednesday to leave in place over $6 million approved by previous legislatures for pre-construction design and permitting work. Other cuts the committee made in pre-construction water funding Wednesday included a cut of $300,000 from archaeological work on the Middle Fork dam near Kaycee. Other committee cuts eliminated remaining funding for a number of projects already put "on hold" by the water commission, including the controversial Blue Holes project on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Eagle capture bill killed in committee CHEYENNE The House Travel and Wildlife Committee Tuesday killed a bill that would allow the possession of golden eagles for falconry in Wyoming. The bill failed on an 8-to-2 vote in committee after Audubon Society representatives Dr.

Oliver Scott and Lois Layton of Casper said the bill threatened eagle populations in the state. Comp fraud law modified for some CHEYENNE (AP) Those accused of defrauding the Worker's Compensation Division for more than $500 should not have to face felony charges until their third offense, Rep. Scott Ratliff told the House on Wednesday. "We are trying to bring forward the question of whether we want to truly ruin this person," said Ratliff, D-Fremont. "Let's make the punishment fit the crime.

We're saying this person has demonstrated he cannot fit in society. The second time, the (punishment) is increased and the third time, partner, you're gone." Ratliff was partially successful in his arguments for an amendment to the bill, which would make it a felony to defraud the division of $500 or more, as representatives passed the bill itself during its second reading. But the amendment, calling for the first two offenses to be misdemeanors and the third to be a felony, was divided and only the section applying to attorneys in worker's compensation cases was adopted. Other sections applying the san standards to employees, employer-and health care providers failed gain approval. DHSS bill killed in committee Reorganization was supported by Gov.

Sullivan By ERICH KIRSHNER tar-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE-A bill eliminating the huge Department of Health and Social Service and creating four smaller departments in its place was killed in committee Wednesday. The measure sponsored by Sen. Win Hickey, D-Laramie was strongly endorsed by Gov. Mike Sullivan during his state-of-the-state speech in January. But the governor's endorsement apparently carried little weight with the committee which voted 2-5 against the bill.

Hickey told the committee meeting early Wednesday her bill would save the state about $260,000 yearly by eliminating an unnecessary layer of administration at the department. But this contention was disputed by bill opponents. Hickey's bill created four departmenis from the four divisions of the current Department of Health and Social Services public assistance and social services, community programs, health and medical services, and vocational rehabilitation. The bill eliminated six of the 24 positions which now exist within the department's administration. The other 18 positions were transferred to the newly created departments.

"The department level is largely unnecessary," Hickey told the House labor committee chaired by Rep. Nyla Murphy, R-Natrona. But Hickey's bill was strongly opposed by Secretary of State Kathy Karpan. In a letter to Sen. Don Cundall, R-Platte, Karpan said her figures showed only a $51,673 savings through passage of Hickey's bill.

Karpan said Hickey's figures were in error because about 60 percent of the department's administration funds come from the federal government. She also said the creation of ffour new departments would add to state auditing costs. Karpan said Hickey was pro KARPAN posing a major change, in state government without enough study. "I don't believe there is enough thought that has gone into it," Karpan said of Hickey's bill. Hickey responded that she has studied the issue enough to know that her plan is a needed "first step" toward making state government more efficient.

Besides Hickey, Dave Ferrari, deputy under former Auditor Jim Griffith, and Gary Throgmorton, chief financial officer for the Division of Public Assistance and Social Services, spoke in favor of the department break-up. v- The money was intended for a study on how the city of Douglas could use a well drilled by the state for city water use. Pump tests have already shown the well could affect neighboring ranch water rights, and the $75,000 was proposed to prepare a plan for mitigating those effects so the city could use the well. Rep. William A.

"Rory" Cross, R-Converse, majority floor leader and a leading supporter of the water program on the House floor, surprised the committee by testifying that the money for his county's project could be cut. Cross said he CROSS felt the study could be done for less, and the city may not now need the water. The committee accordingly cut the $75,000. Sen. Win Hickey, D-Laramie, said she had worked to support the water program because Cross had "the idea we were out tokill water (projects)" but she would delete the Douglas money on Cross' recommendation Hickey spon HICKEY sored a bill sought by Gov.

Mike Sullivan to divert tax revenues away from the water funds, and Cross told the appropriations committee last week he was keeping the bill from House consideration until he saw Senate action on the water bills. Cross commented later that he recommended cutting the $75,000 for the Douglas study "in the spirit of fiscal responsibility. I wanted to show them we're not just diving into this thing and building projects we really could get along without for a while." He reiterated, however, his strong opposition to seeing any money diverted from the water funds, as Sullivan has proposed and the Senate has approved. Cross also noted that on the Douglas issue he had heard primarily from ranchers concerned about the effect on their water. Meyer says PAC may get another chance CHEYENNE (AP) Professional Appraisal Co.

officials likely will receive one more chance to satisfactorily complete a massive reappraisal of Wyoming property, Attorney General Joe Meyer said Wednesday. Meyer and Gov. Mike Sullivan met Wednesday morning with representatives of the surety companies that have guaranteed PAC's performance to discuss the company's financial problems. Last week PAC officials asked Sullivan if the state would advance them $456,000 to enable them to continue work on the project for four months. The money would have come from the "retainage," a percentage of money the state holds back from its regular payments to PAC.

Meyer said under PAC's contract with the state, a total of $578,000 would be held back through the retainage provision to ensure that the work is completed. Once the state is satisfied with the work, the retainage would be turned over to PAC, he said. By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE The Senate Wednesday gave Gov. Mike Sullivan a $3 million contingency fund to help state agencies crippled by budget cuts. Sen.

Rex Arney, R-Sheridan, offered the amendment saying it allows the governor to use the money as he sees fit without declaring an emergency. Arney has contended that the 1986 law cited by former Gov. Ed Herschler when he ordered nearly $63 million in budget cuts in May is unconstitutional because setting state budgets is a legislative responsibility. The law allowed Herschler to make the cuts when spending exceeded revenue estimates. The House had approved $1 million in borrowing authority for the governor to use if budget cuts seriously impair the performances of some state agencies.

Sen. Tom Stroock, R-Natrona, argued the additional $2 million was too much to put in the governor's budget. Also opposed was Sen. Charles Scott, R-Natrona, who wanted to leave the 1986 law unchanged. "What we're doing here is repealing a statute that Gov.

Herschler used to save our lunch last spring," Scott said. If Herschler had not used the law to stop spending, the Legislature would be facing even a worse budget deficit now, Scott said. Stroock also said that if Sullivan needs $3 million to bail out agencies, a special legislative session probably will be needed anyway to.