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Despite lobbying, Revenue Committee presses tax ideas
With the specter of education’s funding deficit looming over them, lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Committee voted 11-3 to consider a gross receipts tax on businesses, despite heavy opposition from...
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Teton park traffic letters revealed
WyoFile today publishes 995 pages of public comments on a controversial plan to limit traffic on a sensitive byway in Grand Teton National Park, comments that until now the National Park Service has...
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New-carbon jobs may not rescue state’s coffers
For a state wanting to diversify its economy to reduce dependence on the energy industry, any venture that would bring new jobs seems like a good thing. But whether new jobs help or hurt Wyoming’s...
View ArticleDespite revenue crunch, state clings to sales tax exemptions
Wyoming’s sales tax exemptions are costing the state revenue without achieving the goal of attracting significant new businesses, a prominent lawmaker says. Many exemptions aren’t having their desired...
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Experts: Zinke’s sage grouse review plan a flop
Prominent greater sage grouse conservationists say Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plan to consider captive breeding of the bird would meet a dead end. In announcing a review of federal West-wide...
View ArticleHope Wyo legislators can better Alaska’s on taxes
(Opinion) — Wyoming has an opportunity to learn several lessons from a state that tried to experiment and go in a dramatically different direction with its tax policies this year. What’s happened in...
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Budd-Falen, potential BLM pick, has fought for ranchers
Originally published by E&E news Karen Budd-Falen, a Wyoming-based property rights attorney and member of the Trump administration’s transition team at the Interior Department, is in the running to...
View ArticleIncreased ICE activity spurs worries in Wyoming farm country
ALBIN — Rosie and Martín Aguilar returned home from work one day this month to the sight of their five-year-old son fearfully peeking out through cracked blinds, afraid to open the door even for his...
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Outdoor rec panel eyes trail funding, new department
Does Wyoming need a Department of Recreation? How should the state pay for trail maintenance and development? These and other questions are addressed in a draft report recently completed by the...
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Mistrust, immigrant concerns mark Mexican consul visit
Wyoming Latino community leaders voiced their concerns to a Mexican consul general last week about aggressive new Trump administration deportation policies. Consul General Berenice Rendón visited...
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Convicts celebrate a graduation amid looming challenges for correctional system
RAWLINS — Thirteen men in orange jumpsuits are escorted into a room. For the next hour, they’ll hide those jumpsuits beneath black gowns and black tasseled caps, and participate in a ritual many of...
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Lawmakers choose waiting game for penitentiary
A single room in the Wyoming State Penitentiary controls the facility’s entire electrical system. Shifting soils beneath the prison’s foundations have at times made its roof leak. “If we ever get any...
View ArticleZinke review team calls for big changes to Obama era-plans
Originally published by E&E News A team of federal researchers directed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review Obama-era greater sage grouse conservation plans is recommending potentially...
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Revenue committee advances tax-increase bills
Lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Committee last week in Thermopolis continued pushing Wyoming’s Legislature toward considering tax increases. The committee requested six tax-related bill drafts from the...
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Lottery payment to state down, salaries up
The Wyoming Lottery Corporation transferred substantially less revenue back to the state in July than in past quarters. In April the lottery transferred a little more than $1 million. But in July, the...
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Poll: Voters favor new taxes to boost shrinking school funds
More than two thirds of Wyoming’s registered voters are willing to pay more in taxes to fund K-12 public education, according to a Republican polling firm contracted by the Wyoming Education...
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Wyoming DACA recipient’s response to Trump goes viral
Shortly after President Trump announced Tuesday that he would phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program over six months, 18-year-old Wyoming resident and DACA recipient Jicell...
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Lawmakers skip revenue meeting for Phoenix convention
Three lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Committee missed a committee meeting about new options for the state’s fiscal situation in Buffalo in order to attend a convention on changing the U.S. Constitution...
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Analysis: Tourism industry wants to pay its own way
Members of the Joint Revenue Committee faced an unusual phenomenon at their meeting last week in Buffalo: Representatives of an industry appearing in unison to request a tax hike. Various...
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In restoring buffalo, tribes seek to restore communities
Part of a series on bison, cattle, brucellosis, and the national parks, researched and written with National Parks Traveler — Ed. FORT WASHAKIE — When Jason Baldes became the first tribal member to see...
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