Nine of Wyoming’s top legislators advanced a bid Tuesday to dismantle the Wyoming Business Council, a publicly-funded agency that gives grants and loans to businesses and communities around the state.
If the state Legislature approves the action the Joint Appropriations Committee advanced Tuesday on a 9-3 vote, it would slash the Wyoming Business Council’s two-year budget from about $94.2 million to $2 million — just enough to close the agency.
Multiple members of the committee, meeting Tuesday at the state Capitol in Cheyenne, confirmed that one or more of them are crafting a standalone bill to delete the agency from state law. That would give the budget cut more permanence.
The Wyoming Business Council and some of its programs are referenced in the state’s law books.
Proponents of the cut said it’s time to get government out of the free market in Wyoming.
Opponents of what one lawmaker called the “decapitation” of the agency urged a more measured approach of reorienting it around its most effective programs.
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, was one of the three lawmakers who derided the cut.
“We have to look carefully, beyond the wave of the moment and frankly, the bloodlust of cutting budgets for cutting’s sake, (to) the overall ramifications,” said Gierau. “This is a total decapitation of this outfit.
"I know — I can see with the head-shaking going on, that’s exactly what you want.”
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, echoed Gierau’s comments and said it would be more responsible to evaluate and reform the agency.
“You want a tax base in Wyoming? You get it by saying you’re open for businesses and want businesses to come here,” he said. "We’re doing just the opposite.
"We’ve openly come out and said we’re anti-wind, anti-solar, anti-carbon capture, anti-this, anti-that. Name me, around this table, what you’re for — and how do you want taxes paid in Wyoming?”
Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, the third nay-vote on the cut, offered a tongue-in-cheek provision of $200,000 to erect signs saying Wyoming is closed for business.
Agency Not ‘Effective'
Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, who proposed the cut, said with a wry chuckle that he didn’t consider that a friendly amendment.
House Appropriations Committee Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, answered Driskill’s lament.
“I am for free markets. Capitalism,” he said.
And to comments in which Sherwood said the majority were not working to solve problems, Bear said, “I agree we need to problem-solve.
“But I’m here to tell you,” he continued, “I don’t believe government is the solution to most of our problems. I don’t believe this agency has been effective. I don’t think they’re going to be effective.”
That’s not a unique refrain.
Though he’s not on the Appropriations Committee, state Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, has been urging the dismantling of the Wyoming Business Council for several weeks, both on social media and on his joint podcast "Wide Right Turn."
He declined in a Tuesday phone interview to back the committee’s action specifically, saying he’d have to see it first, but that, “I do support cutting funds for entities like the Wyoming Business Council."
“While (such agencies) may have intentions that are noble, they typically just distort the market and make it an unfair playing field for businesses in Wyoming,” said Kelly, referencing the agency’s competitive economic development grant awards.
In combatting commentary like that, WBC Chief Executive Officer Josh Dorrell has emphasized to lawmakers the agency’s work to help small towns and communities improve their infrastructure and to attract businesses.
“There are already entities in Wyoming for promoting infrastructure,” said Kelly, adding that WBC’s efforts to support the housing markets have taken the agency “way outside their lane.”
Head-Scratching Over Here
Gov. Mark Gordon, a proponent of government-backed economic development, cast the committee’s move as almost incomprehensible.
“I’m searching for a coherent line of reasoning for the cuts executed today by the JAC,” said Gordon in a Tuesday email to Cowboy State Daily. “Today’s round of recommended cuts seemingly weaponizes the narrative out of Washington, D.C., to lure people into believing we have run-away spending.
"Anyone who would do so has zero knowledge of our budget and zero regard for the future of Wyoming.”
WBC for the upcoming two-year budget cycle had requested $111.77 million, while Gordon recommended it receive about half that, $54.62 million.
He indicated last month that he bisected the agency’s proposed budget because of his duty to advance a balanced spending plan to the Legislature — not out of any ideological disagreement with the agency’s function.
But the Legislature could exceed his recommendation, he noted at the time.
Tuesday, the legislative committee did the opposite.
“Economic development is a vital effort our communities have been engaged in for decades,” said Gordon in his email. “If this shallow and shortsighted move today by JAC stands, it leaves Wyoming with a ‘closed for business’ sign out.
“Thankfully, this action is preliminary and can be reversed during the full Legislative session.”
Indeed, all 93 state legislators can attempt to undo, pass, or alter the dismantling effort after the budget session opens in Cheyenne on Feb. 9.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
