Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 4

star Legislature A4 Star-Tribune. Casper, Wyo, Saturday, February 24, 1 990 Hathaway calk for optimism about Wyoming's future A 1 A 'V ''Ill TR tcrJ .1 Al hii if (f I i Jl: djL iiu A L- mi Hansen quoted from an author who wrote, "There's no place to hide in state government and that is its strength." Hansen, a Republican, served as governor from 1963 to 1967 followed by two terms in the U.S. Senate. Gov. Mike Sullivan said his grandfather served in the Legislature from 1913-1917; an uncle from 1947 to 1958 and his brother, Dan, is now a member of the Wyoming Senate.

The fact his brother is a Republican is a "small cloud," the Democratic governor said. Sullivan said, as he looked around the auditorium at the former governors, members of the congressional delegation, judges and other elected officials, "I see heroes." "They represent the best we have," Sullivan The only other living former governor is Milward Simpson, now in his 90s and living in Arizona. The speakers mentioned the late former Gov. Ed Herschler who died Feb. 5 of cancer.

Sen. Win Hickey, D-Laramie, said Herschler, a Democrat who served three terms, was one of the state's best governors. Hathaway, who mentioned Herschler's "tragic illness and death," said he and Herschler served in the governor's office for 20 percent of the state's 100-year history. Senate President Russ Zimmer, R-Goshen-Niobrara, gavelled the special joint legislative session to order. House Speaker Bill Mcllvain, R-Laramie, read from Cheyenne newspaper accounts of the 1890 legislative session.

One article said there were no lawyers in the Legislature so a local attorney offered his services free of charge. Mcllvain read one editorial that described the legislators as "nice clean men" but said none was willing to donate his legislative salary to the state. After the joint session, there was a ceremony for the First Day of Issue of Wyoming's Centennial Stamp followed by a reception in the rotunda of the Capitol Building. By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Wyoming residents need to be more upbeat about the state's future, former Gov. Stan Hathaway said Friday.

"We're down on ourselves with five years of a little bad luck" that began when the oil market fell, the former two-term Republican chief executive and former Interior secretary told a joint Centennial legislative session at the Civic Center, i Hathaway reminded the group, which included present and former legislators, governors, other elected officials and judges, that the state has seen worse times. He cited the administration of the late Democratic Gov. Leslie Miller who led Wyoming through the years of the Great Depression of the 1930s and whose last budget was only $6 million. At that time, all agencies of state government, including the Game and Fish and Highway departments, were housed in the Capitol Building, he said. Wyoming has reason for optimism because it has the greatest natural resources in the world, Hathaway said.

He noted Wyoming has enough coal for 200 years; natural gas for 100 years, ample supplies of trona and bentonite and is the second largest source of uranium in the nation. He predicted development of new, safer nuclear power which will revive the uranium market. Hathaway, who served as governor from 1967 to 1975, said the state must realize the importance of the private sector. The public sector in Wyoming represents one-fourth of the state gross product but doesn't pay taxes while the private sector produces the wealth and the jobs, he said. Cliff Hansen, former governor and U.S.

senator, recalled how governors petitioned the federal government in the 1960s and 1970s for more federal money and flexibility in spending it. The governors, Hansen' said, were wrong to ask for the federal money because too many citizens think federal funds are free and they have no concern about how much is spent or where. Zbigniew BzdakStar-Tribune State stamp Jack Rosenthal of Casper, a member of the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee, helps 2 Gov. Mike Sullivan unveil the design of the new stamp celebrating Wyoming's 100th anni- versary of statehood. Behind Sullivan, Congressman Craig Thomas and U.S.

Sen. Alan Simpson look on during Friday's ceremonies. Staff forgot to include $1.3 million request ByTOMREA Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Failure to include $1.3 million in the community colleges' budget to deal with increasing enrollments was "just an oversight" by the Wyoming Community College Commission staff, the commission's executive director said Friday. The House of Representatives Thursday voted on first reading to increase community college funding by about $2 million, about $1.3 million of which was money reportedly left out of the commission's budget request by mistake, according to The Associated Press. That vote was contrary to recom-mmendations made by the Joint Appropriations Committee.

Commission Director Jim Meznek explained Friday that his staff had assumed that $1.3 million approved a year ago in a supplemental budget had been "bien-nialized," built into the funding base so that it would automatically extend for a second year. Meznek said he has been on the job only since late October, about the time his staff finished its budget request. But the omission was not caught by the Department of Administration and Fiscal Control, the governor's office, or the Joint Appropriations Committee before the legislative session began, Meznek said. Included in the governor's budget request, however, was about $1.5 million for enrollment increases this year, an amount the JAC recommended be cut in half. But House members Thursday voted to restore that cut, making up the balance of the total $2 million they voted to add to the community college budget.

Joint Appropriations Committee member Rep. Rory Cross, R-Converse, said Friday that the committee might have backed the $1.3 million for enrollment impact if the governor had included it in his budget request. But the gov Panel OKs funding hike for 2 projects Senate restores some budget cuts ernor's failure to do so "makes us look like big spenders," Cross said. But a Sullivan spokesman said late Friday that the governor was working with the figures he had and made recommendations he thought were reasonable. And Meznek said "There was an understanding on the part of the (commission) staff here that (the $1.3 million) would be put into the base.

"We finally caught it. I don't think there was any bad faith," Meznek said. The colleges also need the money cut from the governor's recommendation by the JAC "to accommodate new enrollment" at the colleges in the current school year, he said. Cross said he was upset that the JAC had not been informed of the oversight. "All I've heard is hearsay about a mistake over in DAFC (the Department of Adminstration and Fiscal Control)," Cross said.

"It seems if there was a mistake gram. "Further analysis of that (the water quality cuts) found we would jeopardize some federal funding," said Mader. However, the loss of eight jobs from the non-coal program was opposed by Sens. John Fanos, D-Uinta, and John Vinich, D-Fremont. Both worried the underground storage tank program was being made whole at a cost to the non-coal program.

"What are we doing said Vinich. "It seems to me we're taking the problem from one area and dumping it on another." In other work Friday the Senate adopted an amendment to DEQ's Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation program calling for $17.9 million in unused reclamation funds to pay for a new geology building at the University of Wyoming. The senators also agreed welfare workers whose Aid to Families with Dependent Children clients stay off welfare for 15 months should receive a $750 bonuses. of a postage stamp in honor of the state's centennial. Before adjourning, representatives introduced several measures, including one formally establishing the state Department of Employment, one of the new departments to be created under state government reorganization plans.

Also introduced was a measure that would create a "mineral tax amnesty" program under which some of the penalties and interest on unpaid mineral taxes could be waived by the state Board of Equalization if a company pays the taxes. the governor should have taken the responsibility of sending a letter eF. ther to the committee or the whole body" of the House, he said. Not to do so "just wasn't responsible," Cross said. "If he could have pointed out to me there was an error, we could re-prioritize," he said.

As a result, he said, the budget is' now "in trouble" because spending' wil be too high. Sullivan spokesman Scott Farris said Friday that DAFC did not call the oversight to the attention of the Community College Commission -staff because "past practice has been that enrollment impacts were notbiennialized." Sullivan talked with legislators-this week and told them he would support reinstatement of the JAC-' recommended cut to bring the-budget back up to his recommenda-' tion, but nothing more, Farris said. "Rory's just wrong" to say Sullivan had any intention of making the House look bad, Farris" said. No vote yet on triple trailers CHEYENNE There was no vote Friday in the Wyoming Senate on introduction of a bill to allow a two-year test of triple trailers on Wyoming interstate highways. Sen.

Boyd Eddins, R-Lincoln, said Thursday he was advised he-lacked one vote of the needed 20 to get the bill considered in the budget session. Eddins also said that he will wait no later than Monday to try to troduce the bill because any further delay would severely hamper its'' chances of getting through both houses during the 20-day short ses-', sion. Pam Taylor, representing Drivers Against Triple Trailers, said Friday that support for the bill is weaken-" ing in the Senate. Exotic game ranch ban fails in Senate CHEYENNE (AP) A measure designed to keep a Crook County man from building an exotic game farm failed in the state Senate on Friday. Proposed by Sen.

Guy Cameron, D-Laramie, the specifically prohibits the private ownership of exotic animals. John Dorrance III, heir to the1 Campbell Soup fortune, is trying toJi get a Game and Fish Department' permit to open a game farm. Cameron, however, said he fears 1 exotic animals could bring disease to the state and also cross-breed with Wyoming's wildlife if they'? escaped. "I think that game ranching is threat to our existing wildlife and livestock and 1 think it's difficult to manage," the senator said. However, he fell two votes short of getting the measure introduced.

the Senate's Appropriations Committee, sponsored the funding restoration amendment to the massive $470.7 million appropriations bill that covers Health and Social Services, Revenue and Taxation, Environmental Quality, and the new Audit Department. Mader, who helped make the cuts during the JAC's budget meetings, said new information from Health and Social Services officials indicate federal funding would be jeopardized by the cuts in family health services. However, he said, no damage would be incurred by the state's Medicaid program by taking $1.9 million from the medical assistance program. Mader and Geringer also sponsored an amendment, which the Senate adopted, that restored six positions to the DEQ's underground storage tank program in the Water Quality Division. To make those additions the amendment also called for the removal of eight positions from the Land Quality Division's non-coal pro By PAUL KRZA Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE A House committee Friday approved amendments to an overall water appropriations bill to allow increased spending on the Shoshone Pipeline and Cheyenne Stage II water projects! Most members of the House Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resource Committee voted to give Shoshone sponsors another $3.5 trillion and allowed spending of $3 million in unspent money on Stage II.

The two projects are both aimed at improving water supplies for municipalities. But two committee members opposed the Shoshone and another Jmaller request from Gillette, saying that the time may have come to put a limit on state water development fund allocations for communities that may endanger larger planned water storage projects. "We've come to the point in water development where we need to start making some choices about what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate," Rep. Pat O'Toole, D-Carbon, said. O'Toole, a member of the Legislature's Select Water Committee, said that committee has debated the question, and is worried that if water development spending on cities and towns isn't curbed, "there will be no more effective water development program." Water Development Commission Administrator Mike Purcell said the original authorization for the Shoshone Pipeline project called for an allocation of S36.75 million from state water development funds to pay for pipe and a $15 million low-interest loan from the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund to finance construction of a water treatment plant.

The project will provide drinkable water for Cody, Powell and four other small Park and Big Horn county towns. But Purcell said bids for the two project elements totalled $3.5 million more than authorized, prompting the request for more money. Cody Mayor Dorse Miller said the state Farm Loan Board had granted a $3.5 million loan to project sponsors. But he said because the loan was at 8'4 percent interest, the pipeline sponsors decided to seek a $3.5 million water development loan at 4 percent from the legislature to minimize impact on water users. Rep.

John DeWitt, R-Park, said the amount requested was about the same figure as was originally sought but was trimmed by Tom Stroock, former Natrona County senator and Appropriations Committee chairman who thought a lesser amount might spur lower construction bids. Appearing to argue the spending case for Cheyenne Stage II project administrators was Sen. James Applegate, D-Laramie, who also serves as president of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities. Applegate said the city was enmeshed in a legal battle with its contractor over "defective work" on Stage II, which diverts water from the Little Snake River drainage on the west slope to Cheyenne on the eastern side of the continental divide. The case went to arbitration, and the city ended up needing about $6 million to settle claims, he said.

The BPU "dug into its own reserves" to pay $2 million, he said. Now, "to take us off the hook and give us help with our interest problems," the agency was asking that the state release $3 million committed earlier to one element of the water project but not spent, Applegate said. BPU Director Herman Noe said unresolved disputes involve another maximum $7 million in claims. Committee Chairman Rep. Marlene Simons, R-Crook, said she was worried about the BPU asking for money to pay for legal expenses but Applegate assured her that would not be the case.

The committee, without dissent, approved the Cheyenne request, but O'Toole balked when the Shoshone project addition was proposed. O'Toole was supported by absent Rep. Dave Dunham, R-Washakie, who before he left the committee room said he was also opposed to municipal water spending. Dunham, serving his first term, admitted a lack of knowledge about state involvement in water projects but said it appeared to him spending was skewed toward municipal aid rather than irrigation. At some point, the Legislature must say to local governments, "Hey, you've got to tax yourself and pay for it," he said.

By KURT J. REPANSHEK Associated Press writer CHEYENNE Some spending cuts made in the 1991-92 budget proposal by the Joint Appropriations Committee were restored Friday by the Senate, but the chamber was not interested in finding new ways for the state to make money. Working just half a day to allow time to celebrate the U.S. Postal Service's issuance of a stamp honoring Wyoming's centennial, the senators introduced a handful of bills and restored funding to the Health and Social Services budget and jobs to the Department of Environmental Quality's underground storage tank program. Roughly $1.45 million was restored to Health and Social Service's family health services program and $480,348 went back to the community services section, but at a cost of $1.9 million in cut medical assistance funding.

Sens. Kelly Mader, Jim Geringer and Gail Zimmerman, who sit on House revives, By JIM ANGELL Associated Press writer CHEYENNE The state's capital construction budget was saved Friday as representatives gave it final approval after killing it just one day earlier. The capital construction budget, when federal funds of about $17.9 million are included, stands at about $27.4 million. The House, in a 39-24 vote, approved the measure, providing about $556,000 in General Fund money with no debate. The measure had been killed in a 30-34 vote in its thud and final reading Thursday, but lawmakers OKs capital construction budget agreed to reconsider their action Friday.

The bill provides, among other things, $1.5 million for a regional state museum in Buffalo, almost $1.6 million for an expansion of the Women's Center at Lusk and $50,000 in planning funds for a proposed medium-security prison. Debate over both measures had dominated floor action Thursday morning before representatives killed it. The reconsideration vote wl the first action of the House's short day, which was called an end at about 11:30 a.m. to allow representatives to attend the dedication.