CHEYENNE - A growing amount of money that will flow into the $4 billion Wyoming Permanent Mineral Trust Fund under current policy could be shifted for other purposes, Treasurer Joe Meyer says.

In a letter last week to the heads of the Legislature's Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments and the co-chairmen of the Joint Appropriations Committee, Meyer said $165 million in additional dollars is destined to be moved from the state's General Fund to the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund under the Legislature's spending policy.

For fiscal year 2008, an additional $560 million will go into the trust fund corpus, compared with $355.9 million last year.

The corpus has increased by 450 percent since fiscal year 2002, Meyer reported.

"Given current difficulties in funding increasing costs of maintaining county roads and state highways, some of the general fund earmarking to corpus could easily be shifted to the state highway and county road funds to address those problems if only the current operation of the spending policy reserve account were made more transparent and consciously," Meyer wrote.

In an interview, he said the state has $102 million in a reserve fund that the Legislature probably no longer needs.

Meyer noted the difficulty in projecting income.

In January, the treasurer's office projected the amount of General Fund dollars going into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund corpus would be $122 million. As of June 13, the amount appears to be $165.6 million.

Reaction was mixed to Meyer's suggestion.

Senate President John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, and Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, said they could support spending some of the money rather than moving it into the inviolate Permanent Mineral Trust Fund.

Senate Majority Leader John Hines, R-Gillette, and Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie, a co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee, opposed any deviation from the Legislature's spending policy.

Schiffer said that since the money came from one-time capital gains, it should be spent on one-time needs.

"One that comes to mind is the wildlife trust fund, to help bring it closer to the goal of $200 million, he said.

The state could use the income from the fund to offset the impact of mineral development on wildlife, including sage grouse.

Road repair, on the other hand, is going to be an ongoing expense.

Schiffer also pointed out that the $200 million the Legislature allocated this year for highways is now a permanent part of the Wyoming Department of Transportation's standard budget.

Schiffer said his other preference would be to add another $5 million to the Wyoming Military Department's military assistance fund to help families of National Guard and active military.

Mockler noted that when the state was poor, legislators promised the people they would fix the state social systems and infrastructure when the money came in.

She said she is in favor of repairing the infrastructure today with the additional money rather than using it to grow the fund faster for a better return.

Nicholas said this is the second or third time Meyer has pointed out the amount of the spillover and the need to spend money on highways.

But with 80 percent of the state budget paid from mineral industry revenues, the only way to protect the state from a downturn is to grow the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, Nicholas said.

The state is a long way off from the day when income from the fund can be enough to make up for lost mineral revenue, he added.

"There's really no reason to revisit the spending policy we set in statute,' Nicholas said. "I think most people, and I'm one of them, are resistant to diverting from our long-term plan.

State General Fund spending, he said, is growing at a faster rate than the growth of the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund.

Nicholas said he doesn't even like Meyer's idea of changing the date the money is credited to the corpus of the fund from July to January.

Meyer said the move would allow everyone involved to be aware of the revenues in conjunction with budget requests and revenue estimates.

Nicholas said he believes the legislators understood this is what was going to happen with the corpus of the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund.

Contact Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244.

* Last we knew: The Legislature in recent years has increased the volume of state revenue flowing into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund.

* The latest: State Treasurer Joe Meyer suggests some money be directed to highways or other needs.

* What's next: It would be up to the Legislature to change its spending and saving policy.

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