Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed the state’s two-year budget bill Friday, one day after announcing he will not run for a third term.
Freudenthal, a rare Democrat in a Republican-dominated state, said he wanted to step down and allow for fresh ideas, despite remaining popular across the state.
“I think that we all have our season,” he said. “And unless something really irritates me, really bad, which has been known to happen, I think the right thing is to simply say, 'I have had my season, we have had our time, and now it is [time] for someone else.’ ”
The budget bill appropriates $2.86 billion in general fund spending over the next two years. It was the primary product of the state’s recently concluded legislative session, and the GOP-controlled Legislature did not make major changes to the budget Freudenthal proposed in December.
