A bill to send $15 million from the Wyoming tourism reserve and projects account to attract the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum to the state cleared the state Senate by a 24-7 vote Friday.
The next stop for Senate File 124 is the Wyoming House of Representatives, which can adopt, change or reject the bill.
No debate surfaced Friday on the bill’s final Senate reading. But state senators debated Wednesday on whether luring a business to Cheyenne with state money is good economic policy or a deviation from the cowboy way.
The concept, said Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, “aligns with my values as much as anybody in both chambers.”
He said he was a PRCA member in his 20s and 30s and “rodeoed with a lot of those guys.”
“They were a lot better than I was — that’s why I’m here today,” said Ide, drawing laughter from his colleagues.
But, he continued, “I just think this should be done through the private sector, not through forced coercion from the taxpayer.”
Ide said Wyoming is still open for business, but not business fueled with taxpayer money.
“We should do it the cowboy way, where you do it voluntarily,” Ide said. “I think that’s the most honest way to do it.”
Ide said he’d donate privately to getting the PRCA to move its headquarters to the Cowboy State.
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, championed the bill that day on the Senate floor this week before it went to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which it cleared with only Sen. Tim French, R-Ralson, voting against.
“We’ve had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Driskill told the committee, adding that the project would bring “probably” more than 140 jobs.
It’ll be the envy of Texas, Driskill added on the Senate floor Wednesday.
He also said the project will have a “less-than-10-year payback to make that $15 million back.”
“Or we can say no and read in the paper where another business moved to another state,” said Driskill. “It’s black and white, folks.”
Though the bill talks about soliciting bids and vaguely references “a rodeo and cowboy museum” to maintain impartiality across potential businesses, the PRCA proposal has garnered significant attention across Wyoming in recent months.
PRCA voted last month to move the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy from its home of nearly 50 years in Colorado Springs to Cheyenne.
Onward
It’s unclear if the $15 million proposal will move as smoothly through the state House as it did through the Senate.
House Appropriations Chair John Bear, R-Gillette, told Cowboy State Daily’s Jake Nichols on Friday that he hopes Wyoming will wean itself from giving taxpayer money to private ventures, though he doubts the state can do a “180” right away.
Rather the solution, said Bear, is to make Wyoming a low-tax, low-regulation place to do business.
The PRCA money and a $16 million, state-backed loan for a rare-earths project remain in a budget draft as of Friday, Bear said. The rare earths bill passed the Senate later Friday.
“I see there’s efforts from (Wyoming) Freedom Caucus members and allies to remove both of those,” he said.
Removing those from the budget, however, would send House members into “negotiations with the Senate.”
Both chambers are preparing to enter budget negotiations next week with the House’s budget draft around $370 million lower than the Senate’s, Bear noted.
About This Bill
If the bill becomes law, the state would dole out the $15 million in different phases until next July, and condition each dollar upon an equal match from a “nonstate source.”
The arrangement would include a repayment provision if PRCA couldn’t complete the project by June 30, 2030. The attorney general would review the contract, and the governor approve it if it would “result in a substantial benefit to the public.”
Also, the office of tourism would report its expenditures on the project to the legislative Joint Appropriations Committee through Nov. 1, 2036.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
