by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Every time I open the Casper Star Tribune I feel the urge to write another "set the record straight" piece. Just last week I had to correct the Tribune's account on the corporate income tax; this week's exhibit of biased reporting is their July 21 story on government spending reform. The article gives the reader a fir...

When politicians justify handing out public dollars for private benefit, they use the word investment to spin this spending into something more palatable to voters. However, state directed spending in the economy is nothing more than economic central planning in disguise. To stop the growth in central planning in Wyoming, we must bring the state's ...

During Governor Mead's Business Forum in Cheyenne in November 2015, Dr. Robert Behn from Harvard University presented his theory on the budget cut challenge in the lead up to a discussion by a panel of legislators. Wyoming legislators must decide how to deal with a 25 percent reduction in revenue, a $155 million deficit in the education account for...

When the Wyoming Business Council proposes a handout for a private business, the focus is on the positive—jobs, economic diversification, the flag and apple pie. When it brings these proposals before the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB), the costs of these handouts—wasted resources, cronyism and the damage to unsubsidized competition—go unmen...

Maureen Bader and Glenn Woods talk about Wyoming Business Council's funneling of public money for private benefit and in Gillette and other Wyoming communities. 

Wyoming faces a multi-million dollar deficit in the 2017-18 biennium and the specter of plummeting revenue looms large on the horizon. Why then, is the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) about to rubber stamp funding to help lift a new $18 million terminal off the ground at an airport that just last year lost 50 percent of its customer seating ...

Wyoming's Legislative Service Office (LSO) released a report evaluating Public Purpose Investments (PPI), the use of the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund (PWMTF) to subsidize loans in the state. The report found that PPIs returned less financially than the Treasurer's regular portfolio. This is important because no matter how politicians try to...

A favorite corporate welfare scheme in Wyoming uses tax dollars to attract private companies to the state. One headline-grabbing scheme involves tax breaks and grants for data center attraction. When spinning the benefits of these subsidies, politicians make effusive claims to taxpayers, raving on about diversifying the economy, creating jobs, boos...

As the minerals boom turned to bust, so did the revenue supporting big government in Wyoming. Now our politicians have a choice. Should they: cut spending back to a level Wyoming taxpayers can afford;use revenues hoarded in savings accounts to continue spending at ever higher levels until savings run out, or;give money to private companies to magic...

Wyoming Voters Say Individuals Make Better Spending Decisions than Government Introduction The Wyoming government depends overwhelmingly on the minerals industry to fund its activities. The minerals industry, however, is a source of cyclical revenue; when revenues rise, so does government spending and hording. When revenues fall, politicians look t...