Wyoming Economy One of the Nation’s Weakest

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff

The Wyoming legislature killed every major proposal for higher taxes, from a sales tax on services and higher property taxes to new special districts with taxation powers and a corporate income tax.

This is good news for two reasons, the first being that we may now see a shift in the public conversation about ways to address the state's budget deficit. Since this was the second session in a row with major tax-hike proposals, hopefully the spotlight will now shift toward measures to make our state government fiscally sustainable.

The second reason why it is good news that the tax proposals died, is the tepid performance of the Wyoming economy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has just released state GDP numbers for the third quarter of 2018 (delayed due to the government shutdown), and it is not a pleasant reading for us in the Cowboy state. Adjusted for inflation,

The Wyoming GDP grew at 0.46 percent annually, compared to three percent for the U.S. as a whole;

Only three states did worse: West Virginia (0.37 percent), Delaware (-0.3) and Alaska (-0.59);

Our neighbors handily outperformed us, with Nebraska being the weakest at 1.47 percent, in other words three times our growth rate.

Here is the full story:

Figure 1

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Utah steamrolled us, growing almost ten times faster at 4.35 percent. Idaho was close behind at 3.95 percent while Montana mustered 3.2 percent. Colorado, which has not yet suffered the effects of its turn toward bigger government, managed to eke out 3.04 percent growth. South Dakota has seen a slowdown recently but still grew at 1.81 percent.

If we isolate the private sector, things do not look much better for Wyoming. We still rank fourth from the bottom, with the same states doing worse. The parity to our neighbors was not quite as bad, but art 0.97 percent we were still a almost one full percentage point behind Nebraska, the weakest among them, and 3.6 percentage points behind Utah.

Wyoming has a history of volatility in economic growth, but the long-term trend is persistently weak. It is time for us to shift focus away from measures that will harm the private sector – such as tax hikes – and start putting the growth of the private sector in focus.