CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Gov. Dave Freudenthal has joked for years at his press conferences that he's committed to "truth, beauty, justice and the American way." And every time he's said it, he's rebuked reporters for failing to write it up.
On Thursday, at the last scheduled press conference of his eight years in office, Freudenthal gave his old joke one last run. Yet with only a few weeks left to serve, he largely resisted speaking about what he sees as his accomplishments in office.
"I keep telling people, 'I ain't dead,'" Freudenthal said. "I'm quite frankly quite proud of the last eight years. But there are lots of people who participated in it."
Freudenthal, a Democrat, has had the good fortune to serve as governor during flush times in Wyoming. For most of his tenure, the state's energy industry has been booming.
The state's Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, which holds tax revenue from mineral production, rose from about $2 billion when Freudenthal took office in early 2003 up to roughly $4.7 billion today. And the state has billions more tucked into other funds.
In addition to squirreling away money during Freudenthal's tenure, Wyoming also has undertaken a massive school construction program and put hundreds of millions into permanent endowments such as the Hathaway Scholarship Program — which pays tuition for qualifying students at the University of Wyoming and community colleges — and the state's Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
And while other states around the country are facing desperate financial straits, Wyoming remains a fat-and-happy exception.
In South Carolina this week, for example, that state's welfare agency announced it will cut monthly payments to the state's poorest parents by 20 percent as it grapples with its budget deficit.
And in Ohio, Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich said this week he wants to balance that state's budget by eliminating union-scale wages on public construction jobs and revisiting laws that send nonviolent offenders to prison.
Meanwhile, the toughest issue facing the Wyoming Legislature when it convenes next month will be where to park an estimated $1.2 billion in surplus money the state is projected to receive by the end of the budget cycle that runs through June 2012.
Wyoming's contrasting good fortune is almost embarrassing compared to other states.
Freudenthal said he kept his mouth shut at last week's meeting of the Western Governors Association in Las Vegas when talk among other governors turned to their budget woes.
"I was pretty quiet on budget. We're in pretty good shape," Freudenthal said. "I tried to sympathize. You don't want to look at them and say, 'Boy, that's too bad, I've only got a $1 billion surplus, I don't know what to do.' That's kind of tacky."
While Freudenthal deflected questions about sizing up his own accomplishments, he said he was proud that the state took advantage of its good fortune during his term.
"The thing that I'm most proud of is that, collectively, I was able to be part of a process by which we took the opportunities that we were presented," Freudenthal said. "And by and large, I think that we were able to save a lot of money. We were able to do a lot of things, and try to do them responsibly, and by and large in a cooperative basis."
Freudenthal also said he's generally satisfied with how his administration has walked the line between energy and mineral production and protection of the state's environment.
"I believe that what we have created is the notion that balance is institutionalized — in everything from the wildlife trust fund to expecting industries to contribute," Freudenthal said.
"Now, is that balance precisely accurate, on every project? You know, we did the best we could at the time," Freudenthal said.
"In retrospect, you think, 'Well, I may have left a little money on the table. Maybe I should have fought a little more,'" Freudenthal said. "For instance, I should have thought about sage grouse earlier."
Experts say it would harm Wyoming's energy industry if the federal government lists sage grouse as an endangered species. Freudenthal's administration has set up a system of restricting development in critical areas for the bird.
Freudenthal said he believes Wyoming is handling the prospect of a major oil play in eastern Wyoming better than it did the coal-bed methane boom that lasted through much of his time in office.
"I leave comfortable that I think by virtue of the people I was able to work with in the Legislature and bring into the administration that the state is a little bit better at the end of eight years than it was at the beginning," Freudenthal said. "And I think that's all that you can ask."