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[{"type":"text","text":"The different types of dogs at daycare....."}]

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 4, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The different types of dogs at daycare.....

Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

 The different types of dogs at daycare.....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

Wyoming doesn’t charge sales taxes on large data center equipment purchases because lawmakers in 2010 wanted to compete with Texas to attract a major tech company’s project, legislative debates show. 

Eleven years and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in unrealized sales tax revenues later in 2021, a Republican state representative from Rock Springs, Clark Stith, tried to undo the state’s sales tax exemption.

Advocates of the energy, steel and tech industries opposed Stith. So did many of his Republican colleagues, Cheyenne-area local government leaders, and economic development groups.

[{"type":"text","text":"The exemption remains today. "}]

Many data center companies over the years have ignored the Wyoming Department of Revenue’s requests to report how much they’ve saved in sales taxes. The ones that have reported have logged more than $166 million in tax savings.

[{"type":"text","text":"But sales tax exemptions aren’t the whole revenue picture:"}]

Advocates of the exemption have argued for nearly two decades that the law incentivizes data centers to build in Wyoming; and those facilities then pay significant property and electricity taxes, generate jobs, and boost the economy. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Winners And Losers"}]

the Feb. 17, 2010, debate in the Wyoming House of Representatives have echoed into 2026.

Some lawmakers wanted to craft business incentives in state law to attract companies and jobs to Wyoming and compete with other states.

Others said it’s not right for the government to be selective about business and “pick the winners and losers.”

The economic development proponents won the data centers argument in 2010.

Then-Rep. Peter Illoway, R-Cheyenne, proposed House Bill 67 to exempt data centers that buy or rent more than $2 million in computing equipment in a year from paying sales taxes for that year. The centers hoping to qualify for that exemption were also required to:

[{"type":"text","text":"• Have a physical location in Wyoming."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Spend at least $5 million in capital costs on their facility."}]

• Receive certification from the Wyoming Business Council — which is the state’s economic development agency — that they’d create an “appropriate” number of jobs in Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"• Keep adequate documentation of these proofs. "}]

Then-Rep. James Byrd, D-Cheyenne, cosponsored the bill. He also proposed the “appropriate” jobs requirement as an amendment, and the House majority approved.

Byrd is now campaigning in the Democratic primary election to become a U.S. senator for Wyoming. His campaign team did not respond to a Thursday voicemail request for comment.

Illoway told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that as he recalls it, Wyoming was only courting one data center at the time. The economic development group Cheyenne LEADS was pushing for the sales tax exemption law. The governor’s office was also involved, he recalled.

Illoway told his House colleagues during the Feb. 17, 2010, debate that Texas was vying for a data center, and “my understanding is, Wyoming and Texas are in competition,” according to 

Rep. Jack Landon, R-Sheridan, derided the bill as government intrusion and criticized its favor toward larger projects over smaller ones.

“I know I must be a minority voice in opposing these,” he said, “but I think it’s important that the people of Wyoming know that we all don’t think alike. And there is a way to have a government that is more even-handed, and that we don’t have to come down here and pick the winners and losers.”

Both Landon and Illoway had leadership status, as they were both committee chairs at that time.

Rep. Michael Madden, R-Buffalo, had cosponsored the bill. But he ultimately voted against it and voiced disappointment that the House wouldn’t put a sunset, or expiration date, on the exemption.

“You’re really making a stab in the dark,” said Madden. “The people that sponsor this say they don’t want a sunset date. Well I don’t like to have a gun held to my head.”

Illoway countered, saying businesses like to have stable policy environments.

“Generally the power rates are provided for over 20 years,” Illoway said, adding that the data center hoped to build an “enormous building, very expensive.”

He said he doubted whether the business would want to settle in Wyoming when facing a sunset date on the sales tax exemption.

Byrd agreed. He pointed to Wyoming’s reliable power sourcing and other data-center-friendly attributes.

Landon seized on the notion. He rattled off features like Wyoming’s low taxes, low crime rates, ready supply of electricity, livable communities and lack of income tax.

 “If we can’t attract businesses with those types of assets, I just can’t imagine why we’d want to add this to it,” he said.

Madden and Landon were part of a tiny minority. Only one more House lawmaker, Gillette-based Republican Rep. Sue Wallis, voted against the exemption.

On the Senate side, the bill garnered 23 aye-votes and seven all-Republican nay-votes.

Two of those nays remain in the chamber today: Sens. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Dan Dockstader, R-Afton.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed the bill into law March 5, 2010."}]

As the administration shifted from Freudenthal, a Democrate, to his Republican successor Gov. Matt Mead, the industry momentum continued. The Legislature in 2011 expanded the exemption to include uninterrupted power, heating, cooling, and air quality equipment as well.

[{"type":"text","text":"Mead signed that expansion into law Feb. 18, 2011."}]

By 2021, Stith and the rest of the Legislature faced looming budget cuts and the COVID-19 policy whirlwind.

Gov. Mark Gordon had proposed both likely and worst-case scenario budget cut choices to the Legislature. The latter category included a potential $2.7 million cut of the public funds marked to help pay for home care for elderly people, Stith noted.

By then, data centers had saved at least $124.3 million in sales taxes from the exemption, according to 

That figure appears significantly underreported: the Wyoming Department of Revenue requested tax savings numbers from 10 data centers in early 2021, and only heard back from three of those, the department’s report says.

Stith presented his bill to repeal the sales tax exemption 

He called it unfair that small businesses pay sales taxes when they replace their computers, but huge data centers don’t.

“I don’t see that there’s a reason, really, that we should discriminate against small businesses, in favor of large businesses,” he said. “The biggest beneficiaries of the sales tax exemption tend to be … very, very large companies.”

Roughly the same arguments legislators bandied in 2010 recurred in that committee meeting.

Independent Rep. Jim Roscoe, of Wilson, noted that data centers benefitted from Wyoming’s low-tax environment already. Rep. Tim Hallinan, R-Gillette, noted that by settling in Wyoming, they’re paying significant property taxes into local government coffers.

Stith rebutted the idea that the sales tax exemption incentivizes the companies to settle in Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"California had several data centers but lacked that exemption, he noted."}]

 between friendly policy environments and data center establishment across states.

On the other hand, Wyoming’s cooler weather and ample energy product offer non-policy-related incentives to the centers, for which internal cooling and power available are vital.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Stith had few allies in that meeting."}]

Cheyenne’s new Mayor Patrick Collins opposed the repeal. So did Laramie County Commission Chair Gunnar Malm, economic development group Cheyenne LEADS, and the state’s economic development agency: the Wyoming Business Council.

[{"type":"text","text":"Energy, tech, and raw materials sector advocates also opposed Stith."}]

His one ally in the public comment segment of that meeting was an environmental group, the Powder River Basin Resource Council. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming hosted around four data centers at that time."}]

 31 data centers, including 27 in the Cheyenne area.

Cheyenne LEADS disputes the figure, listing 24 in the Cheyenne area, including those in construction and planning phases.

Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell did not respond by publication to an email requesting the exact number of data centers in the state.

Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, proposed an amendment at the 2021 meeting to shift any tax revenues from Stith’s exemption repeal into a safety net fund for shortfalls in K-12 education. His amendment failed.

Then, Gray and Hallinan voted with three other Republicans and the committee’s lone Democrat, Rep. Mike Yin of Jackson, to kill the bill and keep the sales tax exemption on the books.

Roscoe and two Republicans — Committee Chair Steve Harshman (Casper) and Rep. Mark Baker, (Rock Springs) — voted on the losing side in favor of Stith’s repeal.  

[{"type":"text","text":"But Then, Artificial Intelligence"}]

Gray, who later became Secretary of State and is now campaigning for U.S. House, now vocally opposes data centers.

But, he said in a Thursday text message, “In 2021, no one had any idea where the AI (artificial intelligence) revolution was heading or the massive demands it would place on our power grid and water resources.”

Wyoming families are “right to be concerned about the real impacts on our infrastructure, our way of life, and our rural communities,” he said.

Gray also criticized one of his nine opponents in the race for the Republican nomination, Reid Rasner, for Rasner’s pro-data center stance, which he called "totally reckless." 

 that he’s “100% pro-business” and believes local governments, not federal decisionmakers, should decide whether to accept data centers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Data center policy is a wedge in the Republican party."}]

President Donald Trump is calling for data center construction to help feed AI development and beat China in the technology race. 

, conversely, for a slow-down or moratorium on data center approvals. They’re in 

 Congressional delegates like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

 that data centers paid $10.37 million to the Laramie County community in property taxes from 2012-2015. They've also contributed $111.8 million in other sales and use taxes overall, including an estimated $27 million in sales tax on power from 2018-2024.

[{"type":"text","text":"Research And Wind"}]

Seth Carson, who had cosponsored the tax exemption bill in 2010 when he served as a Democratic state House representative, voiced mild surprise Thursday at how much the issue, and the industry, have exploded.

“To be completely honest with you, I wonder if I’d do the same thing now, knowing what’s happened,” he said.

In 2010, every voting Democrat in the Wyoming Legislature voted in favor of the sales tax exemption.

“My big focus was to make sure we were thoughtful about wind energy development,” Carson recalled. Also, he added, “We were thinking about the supercomputing thing the University of Wyoming signed on to.”

In partnership with the University of Wyoming, the National Center for Atmospheric Research Wyoming Supercomputing Center opened its doors in Cheyenne in 2012.

It helped pave the way for the subsequent Microsoft datacenter — a development then-Gov. Matt Mead sought and lauded as badly — needed diversity in the state’s economy.

The state had offered nearly $11 million in incentives to Microsoft, Mead 

Today, Trump and other leading Republicans see data centers as part of a 

[{"type":"text","text":"That wasn’t Carson’s intent, he said."}]

“I’d much rather we were powering a data center with wind energy than firing up a coal mine … if we’re all going to need computers, which we do,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Why We Don’t Get Reports Lately"}]

The Wyoming Business Council still has a role in certifying data centers that seek tax exemption.

Wyoming had a law on the books for roughly a decade directing its Department of Revenue to compile reports on the unrealized sales taxes data centers would have paid without the exemption.

But the law didn’t have “teeth” punishing data centers that didn’t respond to the department’s inquiries, Department of Revenue Director Brett Fanning said in a Friday phone interview.

Numerous data centers did not respond to the department’s inquiries and didn’t report their tax savings.

The Legislature repealed the ineffective reporting requirement, and the department issued its last 

But lawmakers voiced a thought process at the time that they’d enact a tougher reporting requirement in place of the ineffective law, Fanning recalled.

“And to be fair,” said Fanning, “when this was a growing industry, and there were only a handful of data centers, folks said, ‘We were nervous about reporting to you, because if we were the only ones, everyone would know that’s us.’”

Competing companies could scrutinize their foes’ expenditures that way, Fanning related from the data centers’ voiced concerns at the time.

That’s become less of an issue as the sector has grown, and the department could now aggregate that data, Fanning said.

He said members of the Joint Revenue Committee have voiced an interest in studying the tax reporting issue this year at the committee's August meeting. 

Data center at night 6 12 26

<title>Here's Why Wyoming Gives Tax Breaks To Huge Data Centers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Pro-economic development legislators pushed through a popular tax break for huge data centers in 2010. A rogue Republican tried to undo it in 2021, but his GOP colleagues, industry advocates, and economic development agencies opposed him.

Here's Why Wyoming Gives Tax Breaks To Huge Data Centers

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Greybull woman accused of siphoning more than $155,000 from her elderly parents over the course of a decade is headed to felony-level District Court.

Following a preliminary hearing Wednesday afternoon, a criminal case against 52-year-old Samantha Cook was bound over to Big Horn County District Court.

Circuit Court Judge Edward G. Luhm signed an order Thursday transferring four felony charges, including two counts of felony theft and two counts of exploiting a vulnerable adult. 

Court records show Cook posted a $3,500 cash bond in May, which was exonerated on Thursday. She is represented by attorney Brigita Krisjansons.

If convicted on all four charges and ordered to serve consecutive sentences, Cook could face up to 40 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Trust"}]

first surfaced in April, when investigators accused Cook of systematically draining money from accounts belonging to her parents, both in their 80s.

The case centers on what authorities describe as a decade-long pattern of unauthorized spending that began after Cook's mother suffered a serious injury and the couple needed help managing their finances.

What started as assistance with paying bills allegedly evolved into Cook using her parents' debit cards, checking accounts and credit accounts for personal purchases, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in her case. 

Investigators allege Cook's spending went far beyond everyday purchases, including Venmo payments to multiple people, gifts to relatives and mounting credit card balances.

[{"type":"text","text":"The alleged losses eventually exceeded $155,000."}]

When confronted about how she managed the accounts, Cook admitted to investigators that she had "exclusive access" to her parents' accounts and did spend their money on "personal things," the affidavit says. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Small Charges, Big Total"}]

The alleged spending ranged from relatively small purchases to major expenses spread across many years.

Investigators cited a refrigerator bought through a store credit account that eventually carried a balance of more than $8,000.

The affidavit further alleges Cook convinced her parents to cash out several certificates of deposit because they were running short on money, including a larger CD worth more than $24,000 that her father said was reserved exclusively for funeral and burial expenses.

The scheme began to unravel in March 2025 after Cook's father learned how to access his financial accounts online and started noticing charges he didn't recognize.

His suspicions deepened when the bank contacted him about a $300 bad check Cook had allegedly written on the account for pellet stove repairs.

After she admitted taking the money without permission and promised to repay it, the couple closed their accounts and opened new ones she could no longer access, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"District Court Next"}]

The preliminary hearing did not determine guilt or innocence. Instead, the court's role was to decide whether prosecutors presented enough evidence to move the case forward.

Judge Luhm ultimately found probable cause on all four felony counts and ordered the matter transferred to District Court.

Cook's next appearance will be an arraignment in Big Horn County District Court, where she will be asked to enter pleas to the charges.

Big Horn County Sheriff and green sign 4 10 26

<title>Case Advances Against Greybull Woman Charged With Taking $155K From Elderly Parents | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Greybull woman accused of siphoning more than $155,000 from her elderly parents over the course of a decade advanced Wednesday to felony-level District Court. She could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Case Advances Against Greybull Woman Charged With Taking $155K From Elderly Parents

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 felony charges in Wyoming after state investigators uncovered what they describe as a trail of forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Court records show Scott Keith Pryor, owner of The Good Car Dealer in Salt Lake City, has been charged with 15 counts of falsification, alteration, forgery or counterfeiting of vehicle title documents.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A Laramie County judge found probable cause June 4 to support an arrest warrant, and as of Friday afternoon, the warrant hand’t been served on Pryor.

The investigation centers on 15 hail-damaged Wyoming vehicles, but Wyoming Department of Transportation investigator Shane Fox wrote in an affidavit that Pryor bought 292 vehicles worth nearly $2 million through Copart auctions during the previous 12 months.

At the center of the case is an investigation by Fox, a senior investigator with WYDOT's Compliance and Investigation Section.

Fox wrote that the case began after employees in the Laramie County Clerk's Office noticed more than a dozen duplicate title applications they described as "very odd" and suspicious.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hailstorm Cars And Missing Titles"}]

The vehicles all trace back to a massive August 2025 Cheyenne hailstorm that caused widespread damage. 

Fox wrote that Pryor bought 15 Wyoming vehicles through Copart auctions in Colorado after insurance companies took possession of them following hail-damage claims.

Many of the vehicles were sold as "parts only," meaning they came with bills of sale rather than traditional titles.

Vehicles sold as parts-only units typically bring far less money than vehicles carrying clear titles. A clean title can dramatically increase a vehicle's resale value, the affidavit says.

Fox wrote that Pryor later submitted duplicate title applications through Laramie County in an attempt to obtain Wyoming titles for the vehicles.

[{"type":"text","text":"The applications all claimed the original titles had been lost."}]

Cheyenne auto dealer Dallas Tyrrell said dealers across southeast Wyoming are still dealing with the aftermath of the historic hailstorm.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Dead Woman"}]

One of Pryor's applications involved a Wyoming woman who died July 12, 2025, nearly three weeks before the Aug. 1 storm.

"It would have been impossible for (the woman) to sign the duplicate title application," Fox wrote.

The duplicate title application bearing her signature was dated March 5, 2026.

The investigator tracked down notaries and vehicle owners, the affidavit says. Several notaries allegedly told investigators the stamps were not theirs, the signatures were not theirs and they had never signed the documents in question.

Several vehicle owners also told investigators they never signed duplicate title applications.

In one case, Fox wrote that he met personally with a U.S. Air Force member stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

The service member reviewed the paperwork and said he had never signed the application. The same pattern appears again and again, documented throughout an 11-page criminal affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Facebook Connection"}]

As investigators dug deeper, the trail led to a company called Tennessee Titles, the affidavit says.

Pryor allegedly told investigators he found the company through Facebook and paid about $150 per title application, Fox wrote.

The people he dealt with were identified only as "Rashard" and "Miss Catherine," and primarily communicated through Facebook Messenger.

When Fox asked to see proof, Pryor reportedly said the computer used for those messages had been replaced, and the records were no longer accessible.

Pryor could not provide documentation establishing the legitimacy of the company or proof of payment.

He did acknowledge obtaining lien releases from financial institutions and completing money orders that were mailed to the Laramie County Clerk's Office along with the duplicate title applications, the affidavit says.

By then, investigators had begun contacting vehicle owners scattered across multiple states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Forged Names, Forged Stamps"}]

Fox wrote that one Colorado notary employed by Copart reviewed paperwork bearing her name and told investigators neither the stamp nor signature were hers. A Utah notary allegedly said the same thing.

Another notary denied notarizing multiple applications tied to the investigation, Fox wrote in the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Several vehicle owners denied authorizing the documents."}]

One business executive told investigators a person listed on a title application had no affiliation with the company and no authority to sign documents on its behalf.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fox wrote that he became convinced numerous signatures had been forged."}]

The affidavit details vehicle after vehicle, owner after owner and notary after notary, each producing similar results, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Titles Matter"}]

The allegations may sound like little more than paperwork fraud, but Tyrrell said vehicle titles can dramatically affect a vehicle's value and whether buyers can insure, finance or legally operate it.

A clean title is every bit as important as what's under the hood, he confirmed. 

Tyrrell said reputable dealers carefully examine a vehicle's title history before offering it for sale.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We see victims to scams like this all the time,\" he said."}]

Tyrrell said consumers should work with licensed, reputable dealers and pay close attention to a vehicle's title history before making a purchase.

"It's so important to use somebody that has a license and is reputable," he said, adding that often these scamsters don't get prosecuted at all because the schemes are comlex. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long Road Ahead"}]

Fox believes the duplicate title applications allowed vehicles that had moved through the insurance and salvage system to re-enter the marketplace with Wyoming titles.

He wrote that some of the vehicles had previously been sold through Copart as salvage or parts-only units.

The affidavit alleges Pryor later sold the vehicles to buyers in Utah with unbranded titles, and at a "nice profit." 

Fox declined to answer questions about the case and did not respond to additional requests for comment.

Good car dealer 6 12 26

<title>Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Utah car dealer is facing 15 Wyoming felony charges for the alleged attempted illegal resale of nearly $2 million worth of hail-damaged vehicles. Investigators describe a trail of alleged forged signatures, fake notary stamps and dead vehicle owners.

Car Dealer Faces 15 Felonies In Alleged $2 Million Resale Of Hail-Damaged Cars

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

A Carbon County Sheriff’s Office deputy remains in critical condition in a Colorado hospital days after taking bullets to the neck, arm and hip from an armed man in Baggs, Wyoming, who would later die in a shootout with law enforcement.

That Sgt. Zach Burns is alive at all is a miracle, said Baggs Mayor Matthew Howell, who lives next door to the apartment building Burns was responding to when he was shot Monday.

A deputy being shot, coupled with a high-speed chase and shootout with the suspect, is enough to make Monday one of the darkest days in the 116-year history of the tiny town of 411 people.

The way local residents rushed to save Burns’ life and maintain their composure during a daylong manhunt on lockdown also was one of the town’s best days, Howell said.

Sgt. Zach Burns remains in critical condition after being shot multiple times by a gunman in Baggs on Monday. “It wasn’t a good thing that happened, but it was a great thing” in how people reacted, the mayor said, which was “like heroes.”

Daily Smile: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

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