by Philip Baron In 2017 Wyoming had 292 state and local government employees per 1,000 people working in the private sector (according to employment data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics). The state government made up 5.4%1 of the employment in the state in 2017. Local government made up 16.7% of the state's employment for the same year. Wha...

Boyd Wiggam and Gary Freeman discuss opportunities for state and local governments to expand economic opportunity and limit taxation including "Special Districts" reform legislation, the Transportation Network Companies bill, and a local government's Fight the Blight Task Force. 

Boyd Wiggam and Glenn Woods discuss Special Districts, local property taxes and special district reform bills pending before the Wyoming Legislature. 

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff We have discussed how Wyoming's alcohol regulatory system limits new small business opportunities without effectively deterring destructive behavior attributable to alcohol. The state rankings of alcohol abuse measured by DUI arrests per capita and binge drinking rate highlight some similar rural states that have comb...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Wyoming's disturbing rate of alcohol-related calamity is no secret. Two ways to measure alcohol abuse among adults are to look at DUI arrests per capita and binge drinking rate. These measures show Wyoming leads the nation in DUI arrests per capita and is in the CDC's second tier of states (out of three tiers) for bin...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff James Madison warned us in Federalist #10 of the violence "a number citizens who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens" can do to liberty. 3,368 voters in Casper just illustrated his point by neglecting to perform their civic duty to stand up for ...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff On November 10th in a Special Election Cheyenne's voters will decide whether to transfer executive power from their elected mayor to an administrator working for the City Council. Beyond the details of the proposal, Cheyenne voters must answer a bigger question: Do voters believe that elections work? This question is about ...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff Core property rights principles can help resolve Casper's ongoing debate about smoking in bars better than some one-size-fits-all regulatory regime. The right to exclude others can empower individual bar owners to sort out how much or little smoking occurs in bars across Casper. Therefore, Casper does not need a citywide ba...

by Wyoming Liberty Staff Our founding Fathers understood the importance of an independent executive branch of government. The Cheyenne City Council however, is preparing to ask citizens to vote on a City Charter amendment that would create an appointed administrator to replace the independent, strong mayor for most executive functions. The appointe...

A quick look at price trends for goods and services reveals a head scratcher. While prices in the private sector tend to fall, prices in government-regulated industries, much like the cost of government itself, tend to rise. Why might that be? Perhaps because in the private sector, the profit motive drives entrepreneurs to find ways such as technol...