Our View: Wyo. misses out on booming West

Take a brief look at data released from the 2020 census and one thing becomes very clear -- the West is booming.

The population growth in many of Wyoming’s neighbors over the last decade is staggering. Utah saw an 18.4% increase in its population. Idaho saw a 17.3% increase, while Colorado had 14.8% growth in its population. Even South Dakota and Nebraska had notable gains in their populations, recording growth of 8.9% and 7.4% respectively. Wyoming’s population grew too -- by 2.3%. According to a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle article, that amounts to a little more than 13,000 more residents in the past decade.

Granted, there are a lot of factors that contribute to a growing population, but the biggest is the availability of jobs. Wyoming’s continued belief in waiting for the next mineral boom, if it will happen at all, continues to cost all of us. This state needs pragmatic leadership willing to explore other ways of growing new indus- tries while capturing new sources of revenue.

Wyoming’s leaders have made the state into the deadbeat who refuses to find work, thinking he’ll get the callback from the company that laid him off, all the while considering what furniture can be burned to keep the house heated. A different analogy works just as well: the state being that desperate gambler at the roulette table betting chips on the same number from his rapidly dwindling stack -- all the while hoping for the big payday hitting that number it would bring.

Wyoming needs to break away from its reliance on minerals. We’re not saying give it up completely, but the state needs to be much more open to alternative sources of revenue. It also needs to be more assertive in collecting tax revenue from those indus- tries. For anyone who has read the Our View editorials, this is not new thinking. Yet, our legislative leaders continue to do nothing of value in this regard, similar to how the Legislature has dealt with the school funding crisis the state faces.

Perhaps it’s time to consider the legalization of marijuana products and open legislation that would support marijuana farmers in the production of a Wyoming crop.

The state is quickly becoming one of the few that does not have some form of legalization on its books. Meanwhile, other states, such as Colorado, earn huge amounts of income from the taxes it placed on marijuana sales. Is this a one-size-fits-all solution to Wyoming’s income woes? Not in the slightest. However, we need open minds to think of ways to help the state regain its financial footing.

So far, we haven’t seen any encouraging news from Cheyenne.

 

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