Gov. Mead Prepares To Release His Budget

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Gov. Matt Mead plans to announce whether he will recommend that Wyoming accept a federal offer to expand the rolls of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Mead has called a press conference for Friday morning in Cheyenne to announce his supplemental budget recommendations. The Legislature will consider his proposals in its general session that starts in January.

Mead and some senior lawmakers have expressed concerns about the cost of possibly adding as many as 30,000 more people to the state's current Medicaid population of 77,000. The federal government has pledged to pay most of the expansion cost.

Mead has called on state agencies to prepare for 8-percent budget cuts. His supplemental budget recommendations will affect the current two-year, $3.2-billion state funds budget that lawmakers approved earlier this year.