State Treasurer Curt Meier has an innovative plan to help the Cowboy State’s economy.
“I think opportunity and necessity is the mother of expansion,” he said.
Meier told Cowboy State Daily he plans to use $1 billion to $1.5 billion of the state’s investment earnings to help bring more manufacturing and economic opportunities to Wyoming.
Tariff-Inspired
The timing of this proposal, Meier said, is in direct alignment with President Donald Trump’s ongoing tariff war. Trump has waged this war, in part, as a way to reshape the American economy and empower domestic assembly line production in order to protect the country’s independence and national security.
Meier said he recently thought to himself, “how can Wyoming be part of this?”
“Giving us the possibility of onshoring different types of things that might work in Wyoming in light of the tariffs situation,” Meier explained. “Making this country more stable and more resilient, with higher paying jobs. Why not take a shot for Wyoming?”
Specifically, Meier wants to expand the state’s manufacturing capacity and base of strategic materials. In an event where the American supply chains get interrupted, Meier wants Wyoming to be a strong resource for the rest of the country.
Growing Wyoming’s manufacturing sector is seen by many as a great way to diversify the state’s economy. The industry has shown modest growth over the last decade. Currently, manufacturing contributes $2.3 billion to the state economy and provides nearly 11,000 jobs. Nearly half of that comes from the petroleum and coal sector, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
Natural Resources
Meier sees mineral production as a particular area where Wyoming could have a real competitive advantage in curbing the market.
In recent years Wyoming has become a domestic leader in the production of rare earth minerals, hosting one of the few natural deposits in the country where commercial mining plans are underway.
Meier is interested in a possible collaboration with the state’s trona industry. Green River is home to the world’s largest known deposit of trona.
“We could look at leveraging some value-add in that industry,” Meier said.
He also wants to pursue similar opportunities in gypsum, one of the key materials used to make wallboard in homes and other buildings. Between 2004 and 2007, an estimated 100,000 homes in more than 20 states were built with toxic drywall imported from China.
Pharmaceuticals
Similar problems have been identified about pharmaceuticals coming from China, a particular target of the Trump administration that hasn’t taken kindly to the tariff war.
A large percentage of the world’s pharmaceuticals are made overseas, a sector Meier believes Wyoming could also target. The potential is there as pharmaceutical business Cody Laboratories operated for nearly two decades in Cody before shutting down in 2019.
“Whether it’s tariffs or whether it’s other political strife that comes with the interruption of pharmaceuticals … we’re at risk strategically as far as national security and as far as the general health of the public of not having those on-shore and made in America,” Meier said.
Meier wants to team up with the Wyoming Business Council on these types of efforts and to facilitate them through partnerships with private equity sources.
He expects other states to implement similar measures in light of Trump’s focus on growing America’s domestic economy.
“Hopefully the competition that we’re going to be entering into is going to lead to some of these things actually occurring in Wyoming rather than other states,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
