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Wyoming business leaders and residents urge clearer mission and ROI for Wyoming Business Council
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Summary
Public commenters and business groups told a legislative interim committee the Wyoming Business Council still matters but needs clearer goals, better metrics and tighter coordination with local governments to address workforce, housing and health-care challenges that drive residents away.
Public comment at a joint legislative interim session on April 28 focused on whether the Wyoming Business Council is delivering clear value for taxpayers and how the state should support local economic development.
Ross Triffman, a Casper insurance agent who submitted written testimony, said the council’s cumulative appropriations exceed $1.5 billion and asked lawmakers to weigh that cost against measurable returns to state revenue and to consider whether some programs compete with private firms. “What is a return on investment?” Triffman asked, urging the committee to ensure taxpayer dollars do not duplicate private services.
Several other speakers pressed related points. Neil Jeske cited staff compensation, noting “the CEO of the Business Council makes $285,000 per year,” and warned against the council “picking winners and losers” with public subsidies. By contrast, Joel Highsmith, mayor of Shoshone, described projects the council helped advance locally — water projects, sewer work tied to workforce housing and a rail-car repair employer that has grown rapidly — and said the council has shown useful flexibility.
Members of the business community, including Renny McKay of the Wyoming Business Alliance, and Justin Farley of Advanced Casper, said the state needs a sustained economic-development entity and clearer direction from the governor about which industries to recruit. McKay said businesses’ top priority is workforce and recommended stronger metrics and a public dashboard to show program outcomes.
Speakers repeatedly connected workforce shortages, housing and health care as the core barriers to retaining graduates and growing local employment. Mark Christensen, a former county commissioner and Business Council board appointee, said Wyoming risks having a large sovereign wealth fund without people if policymakers do not address jobs, affordable housing and health-care access.
The committee signaled it will press for more information and options. The chair asked the Legislative Service Office to prepare a white paper comparing other states’ economic-development structures and directed the Business Council to supply a chart of every program, its appropriation, statutory authority and use. Lawmakers voted to request a bill draft to place consensus grant session law into statute and to seek stakeholder proposals for statutory changes, a motion the committee approved by voice vote.
The committee’s next steps include a focused review of programs identified as low-effectiveness, recommendations from the governor’s office and a follow-up packet from the council showing program dashboards, spending and beneficiaries. The committee said it wants to identify which programs are core to economic development and which could be changed, improved or sun-setted.
The interim review will continue at the panel’s next scheduled meeting; no policy changes were adopted at this session.
