by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Whenever politicians write bills about taxes and government spending they do so based on a an idea of how government relates to the private sector. This idea is rarely spelled out, and most of the time the politicians themselves are not even aware of how it affects their work. More often than we might want to admit, l...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff If a business is not taxed or regulated, does it exist? This is not just a question for practitioners of empirical ontology, but one that has real-world meaning in Wyoming today. Explains the Casper Star Tribune: Since the idea first appeared in the Legislature last year, regulated gambling was recognized by many to b...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff We have repeatedly warned against raising taxes in Wyoming. I have also warned that any attempt to "reform" our tax system without prior structural reforms to spending will result in tax hikes. Since the political conversation still trends in the direction of such reforms, it is time to revisit the last of these two w...

by Philip Baron It is no secret that coal provides a large chunk of the Wyoming's tax revenue. The coal industry in Wyoming was responsible for about $1 billion in tax revenue to state and local governments in 2013, according to the Wyoming Mining Association. This revenue has been shrinking since 2015 with the declining demand for coal. Coal is un...

Don't miss the first episode of our brand new podcast "Liberty Talk." In this first episode staff members Evan Blauser and Philip Baron take a hard look at Wyoming Medicaid funding in special education. 

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff As Wyoming Liberty Group policy analyst Austin Hein recently explained in an excellent white paper, corporate welfare – also known as economic development – distorts investments and other use of economic resources. One of Hein's most important contributions is to explain, using Austrian economic theory, how programs s...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff As an informed consumer, I have come to expect that if I spend more money on a product, I will receive a greater value and quality product than if I spent less money on it. Although this rule applies to cosmetics, clothing, and motor vehicles, the jury is out on whether or not throwing more money at healthcare creates...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Of all the spending programs in the state budget, Medicaid is probably the toughest to reform. Half of it is funded by the federal government, with state funds covering the other half. There are a lot of strings attached to the federal funds, making the provision of Medicaid-funded health care a chore for providers (w...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff We hear a lot about the gender pay gap in our state. This non-issue keeps coming back, as we noted back in February, despite the fact that it is mostly a matter of statistical mythology. Last year I debunked the Department of Workforce Studies report on the issue, explaining that the DWS appeared to have created the p...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff As promised, here is the first installment in a series on why and how to reform government spending. This article addresses the "why" question; in addition to economic analysis, there is a distinct philosophical reason why government should be small and strictly limited. A philosophical examination of the role of gove...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff On May 10 Wyoming News Now reported: According to Verizon, Cheyenne has been voted one of the best places nationwide to start a new business. Ranking in at #6, it is the only state capital to break the top 10. Sounds good, doesn't it? We all want Cheyenne to be a good place to start a business – in fact, we all want W...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Adjusted for inflation, the Wyoming economy was ten percent smaller in 2018 than it was in 2008, right when the Great Recession started. For every $100 of income, production and sales in our state in 2008, there is only $90 left now. Last year's minimal growth of 0.29 percent, which came on the heals of 0.48 percent i...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff On May 1 the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the final GDP numbers for the states for 2018. It is not a very pleasant read for us here in the Cowboy State. Year to year, our economy ended up in 49th place among the states; we only beat Alaska. All other states did better than us.* Utah and Idaho are running away ...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff My previous work looked at state and local government wages in the state of Wyoming. On average, in the state of Wyoming, there is a wage premium of 23% in state government. This analysis uses wages data from the Bureau of Labor and Statics, that does not include benefits. Local government employees' wages are similar...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff This blog is the first of two on the future of highway funding, here in Wyoming as well as nationally. As we have previously shown here at Wyoming Liberty Group, there are different views on how to fund our state's highway system, especially the interstates. We have presented arguments both for tolling the I-80, and a...

We are proud to announce the release of Chapter one of Cassie Craven's latest series "All Kids Deserve to Thrive: Making the Case for Education Choice Access in Wyoming." All Kids Deserve to Thrive: Making the Case for Education Choice Access in Wyoming by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff CHAPTER 1 WHAT THE CAMPBELL CASES TAUGHT US ABOUT EQUAL PROTECTIO...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff In the United States, it is estimated that 52% of households over the age of 65 have no retirement savings. What is more alarming is that a full 27% of Americans have neither retirement savings, nor a defined-benefits plan, meaning they are wholly unprepared for the mountain of expenses that faces almost everyone foll...

by Wyoming Liberty Group Staff Starting this Spring, the Joint Revenue Interim Committee will take a second look at a number of the failed tax bills from the spring 2019 session. One of the bills that could be reintroduced in the next session is Wyoming House Bill 220 (HB 220), "The National Retail Fairness Act". This bill will be in the discussion...

by Philip Baron The State of Wyoming has a new law on the books that will obligate electric, public utilities who are not cooperatives, to purchase coal-generated electricity. The law also limits the rate of recovery costs for the purchaser of the retired plant. Cost recovery is the costs to regain the value of an expense, usually done as the depre...

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...