Members of the Freedom Caucus are publicly questioning a plan that calls for spending $15 million of state lodging tax revenue on a bid to lure the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to Wyoming.
The line item, requested by Gov. Mark Gordon, was unanimously approved by the Joint Appropriations Committee for inclusion in the state’s draft budget bill, which lawmakers will take up when the four-week legislative session begins Feb. 9.
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, however, told the Associated Press that Wyoming might love its rodeo, but it doesn’t love handouts to multimillion dollar corporations.
“We’re happy to welcome the PRCA to the Cowboy State but would hope they’d come the cowboy way — on their own dime,” she said.
Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, meanwhile, said he would welcome the PRCA with “open arms,” but that they should pay their own way.
“Business and industry should be able to stand on their own,” he said. “If they have a valid reason to come to Wyoming and have the means to do that, I welcome them with open arms.”
Cowboy State Daily reached out to both Heiner and Williams, but neither had responded at the time this story was posted.
Follow The Money
The $15 million from Wyoming would be taken from lodging tax revenues, which are levied on hotel rooms and are earmarked for tourism development.
The money is one-half of an overall $30 million bid to lure the PRCA away from its long-time home in Colorado Springs and move the organization to Cheyenne.
The other half comes from Cheyenne LEADS, a private nonprofit devoted to economic development.
Cheyenne LEADS has outlined a vision that would place the PRCA’s new headquarters and Hall of Fame on a 35-acre location near Interstates 80 and 25, a busy national crossroad, in a state that loves rodeo so much it has a bucking horse on every license plate.
According to an economic development study commissioned by Cheyenne LEADS, Wyoming’s overall $30 million investment in the PRCA move would bring a return of $253 million in economic impact for Wyoming businesses over a 10-year period.
That’s not money that flows to the PRCA, but rather it’s money that flows to Wyoming businesses as a result of the PRCA’s presence.
The study looked at job numbers for the PRCA, as well as additional foot traffic from visitors, to project how much the PRCA’s move would bring to the Cowboy State.
On The Fence, For Now
Former Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, meanwhile told Cowboy State Daily that he had moved the $15 million expenditure from Wyoming’s state lodging tax revenues forward during the Joint Appropriations Committee meetings because he thinks that it is the right use for tourism dollars.
However, his position is not yet locked in stone.
“I can’t speak for the Freedom Caucus (as a whole),” he said. “There are Freedom Caucus members who feel differently ... and they may be able to persuade me over time.”
Bear said right now he’s just trying to understand all of the issues better.
“I don’t know that it’s the proper role of government to do this, but we’ve got this tourism tax that we tax ourselves to try to grow this major industry of ours,” he said. "So, I’m skeptical, but right now, I’m approving of it.”
Bear said he’s also asking questions about the PRCA’s finances as well.
“Really, what all I’m doing is trying to figure out is this really something that needs to be done and is it the right thing to do?” Bear said. “Those are my two questions.”
Playing The Long Game
The ProRodeo Hall of Fame & Museum of the American Cowboy has called Colorado home for 46 years, and wasn’t necessarily actively looking for a new home, PRCA Chief Marketing Officer Paul Woody has told Cowboy State Daily.
But after an offer was put on the table, the organization’s leaders decided it was something they should evaluate in terms of long-term value to the organization.
That touched off a bidding war, with communities like Cody expressing interest. Woody said the PRCA had close to a dozen offers of varying levels of seriousness, and that those conversations and bids included interest from Texas.
After a two-day meeting to examine the offers it had received, the PRCA ultimately voted to stick with Cheyenne’s bid, and said it would “seriously consider” a move to Cheyenne.
“If it does make sense, that will be something that is hard for employees and membership,” Woody said. “But sometimes leadership has to make difficult decisions for the long-term gain of membership.”
Cheyenne LEADS has painted an attractive vision for the PRCA, with a 35-acre campus that would serve as the “anchor” of a new western-themed entertainment, cultural and shopping district.
But what was even more attractive, Woody said, is Wyoming’s commitment to the sport of rodeo.
The Cowboy State is the only state in the nation with a state-sponsored professional rodeo team.
Wyoming’s tourism pays for that, helping to send Wyoming’s up and coming rodeo athletes to national competitions like College National Finals Rodeo (CFNR) in Casper and the National High School Finals Rodeo, which is also often in Wyoming.
“(That) speaks for itself,” Woody said. “When they’re investing in college rodeo and not just professional rodeo. It’s a testament to where rodeo ranks and the priorities of the state of Wyoming.”
PRCA Would Be A Boon For Wyoming
Wyoming tourism and rodeo leaders see a PRCA move as a game changer for the state on multiple levels.
Wyoming Office of Tourism Director Domenic Bravo told Cowboy State Daily it has the potential to rewrite Wyoming’s tourism playbook for the entire state.
“I mean we’re the Cowboy State,” he said. “We’re a rodeo state. Rodeo is at our core. This is one of those things that aligns so well with the brand of the state of Wyoming and all of the amazing communities, big and small, that have rodeos that go on every year.”
Cheyenne Frontier Days President and CEO Tom Hirsig called it a “golden” ticket for Wyoming, the equivalent of “bringing the NFL headquarters to Texas,” while President of the Mountain States Circuit of the PRCA Guy Warpness said it is a rising tide that should lift all boats in Wyoming’s rodeo world.
“If every rodeo in the state is not excited about this, there’s something wrong,” he said. “For Laramie, it gives us just one more thing to help promote our rodeo. It gives every rodeo in the state more opportunity to promote their rodeos.”
Deal Contingent On State Funding
But the deal is contingent on funding from the Wyoming legislature, as well as the $15 million in private funds pledged by Cheyenne LEADS.
“This really boils down to far more than the PRCA,” Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, told Cowboy State Daily. “If you take an honest look at what they’ve done to the Business Council and what they’re doing to UW, it really boils down to does Wyoming want to be open for business or don’t they?”
The PRCA will bring 85 or so good-paying jobs to Wyoming, Driskill said, and, for a $30 million upfront investment, bring an economic return to the state of $253 million.
“The thing has a fairly quick payback because of the economic impacts of it,” he said. “And it’s one of our diversifications. Tourism is our No. 2 (industry) and it’s going to help anchor Cheyenne as a tourism spot not just for Frontier Days but all the time. It’s a year-round destination for people traveling up and down I-25 and I-80.”
LEADS has plans to develop more businesses alongside it, Driskill added, meaning the short-term win is something that Wyoming can build on for years to come.
“It’s a classic case. It’s a given, if we don’t give the money to the PRCA, we don’t get 80 jobs and we don’t get the economic impact,” Driskill said. “It’s a 100% chance of that. This isn’t even a theoretical, it’s just a flat fact.”
Party Of ‘No'
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, meanwhile, who has frequently been a member of the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee, cast the Freedom Caucus as anti-economic development and said he’d never seen more flip flopping since the days of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Kerry.
“As if we haven’t seen enough of their anti-economic development behavior with the knifing of the Business Council like a bar room fight,” he said. “I guess they found out it was economic development to have the PRCA moved to Cheyenne so now they’re against it. So now the flip-flopping, anti-business Freedom Caucus is showing their true colors.”
Gierau also pointed out that the money the state is designating for the PRCA move comes from the statewide lodging tax, levied on hotel room stays as a revenue stream for tourism development.
It can’t legally be spent elsewhere for other purposes as some have suggested.
It is earmarked for tourism development and can’t be arbitrarily redirected to anything else.
“No wonder the Freedom Caucus is totally against it. It’s against business,” Gierau said. "It’s against people earning good wages. It’s against the people of Wyoming. I don’t know why they call themselves the Freedom Caucus.
"I guess it’s the freedom to be poor, the freedom to not have a job, the freedom not to have anything. That’s what these folks want, and so far, they’re doing a very good job.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
