Poor Gillette obviously is in the doldrums from mines closing. Poor Casper with all the downturns in the energy industry, is certainly lagging, right?
Not necessarily.
If you go by taxable retail sales, the conventional wisdom that Wyoming, as an entire state, is hurting just is not true.
The map showing the ups and downs of taxable sales for the first three months of 2019, compared to 2018, shows a far different story than what folks around Wyoming seem to believe.
Douglas and Converse County sales tax collections have increased by 64 percent, year-over-year.
Rawlins and Carbon County collections are up 31.7 percent, followed by Buffalo and Johnson County with gains of 31.1 percent and Rock Springs and Sweetwater County with an increase of 30.8 percent.
Cheyenne and Laramie County collections were up by 16.4 percent.
Gillette, with all its woes, saw collections increase by 12.7 percent in 2019 over 2018. And if those two mines are bought and the workers go back to work, things are going to be just fine in Campbell County.
Casper and Natrona County tax collections increased by 14.2 percent in 2019 over 2018.
So if all these places are doing so well, who is not showing an increase?
Pinedale and Sublette County have seen the steepest decline in tax collections, down 25.5 percent, which echoes the current slide in the natural gas production.
Lander and Riverton in Fremont County saw a collections decline of 7 percent.
Big Horn County (Greybull, Basin, Lovell) saw tax income drop by 6.4 percent and Thermopolis and Hot Springs County declined by 3.5 percent.
Laramie and Albany County are holding their own, down just 0.3 percent from 2018 and Lusk and Niobrara County are down by 1.5 percent.
