An effort to reform rather than eliminate the Wyoming Business Council advanced in committee Monday and is now headed to the Senate floor.
The Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee passed Senate File 125, “Wyoming business council-amendments,” on a 4-1 vote after an hour of public comment — all of it in support of the council, as well as potential reforms to the agency.
The measure is among three bills introduced last week to realign the agency — all an attempt to defuse a Freedom Caucus effort to defund and dismantle the council.
Senate File 125 directs the embattled agency to provide a full accounting of its ongoing work by April 15. It also included the formation of a task force to analyze and recommend potential reforms. But Laramie Democratic Sen. Chris Rothfuss made a successful motion to form a Minerals subcommittee to do the work instead.
“For business and economic development, this is one of the agencies that we oversee,” Rothfuss said. “In my 16 years in the Legislature, I’ve been on countless task forces and working groups, and the ones that are most effective at drafting legislation are the ones that are structured this way — a small group of legislators working with stakeholders and getting that work done.”
Despite getting his committee colleagues on board with the shift to a subcommittee, Rothfuss was the lone vote against advancing the bill. That’s because, Rothfuss said, he’s opposed to a measure in the bill that would essentially block the agency from expanding its programs beginning in July, and to impose a “hard stop” on all Wyoming Business Council work on April 15, 2027, unless otherwise directed by the Legislature.
“I do not support pausing or restricting the Wyoming Business Council while we consider ways to improve it,” Rothfuss told WyoFile. “The programs are too valuable for our communities and our businesses.”
The committee also considered Senate File 100, “Wyoming business council-evaluation and reform-2,” but tabled the bill. It included a more expedited timeline for a review of the agency.
Still in play is House Bill 150, “Wyoming business council-evaluation and reform,” which is expected to come before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. It closely mirrors SF 100.
Failing introduction last week, Senate File 65, “Wyoming business council-repeal” would have terminated the agency and repealed the Wyoming Economic Development Act that established it.
However, lawmakers still have plenty of opportunities throughout the budget session to defund the agency.
Local support
The Senate Minerals Committee heard from several Wyoming mayors — including Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith and Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins — and local economic development officials about the vital role the Business Council plays.
Shoshoni received a Business Ready Community grant for a sewer line that freed up the town’s sparse dollars for another sewer line for a housing development — both critical to attracting new business, according to Highsmith.
“[The Wyoming Business Council has] been very helpful for us and very flexible working with us on helping so we can afford to do our infrastructure and stuff that we need to keep the town alive,” Highsmith said. “We were sort of dying, but with all their help [we’re] trying to keep things going in central Wyoming.”
We were sort of dying, but with all their help [we’re] trying to keep things going in central Wyoming.
Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith
It’s also vital to have the Business Council’s steady presence to pound the pavement for new businesses that otherwise wouldn’t consider Wyoming, Cheyenne Mayor Collins said. That was the case for Meta, which initially flirted with setting up shop in Cheyenne, went silent for a few years, but eventually began making huge data center investments in the community.
That would not have happened without the Business Council’s persistence, he said.
“Having certified economic development specialists available when the opportunities [arise], land and infrastructure to make development possible, willing governing bodies and a team that works at the speed of business has helped Cheyenne succeed,” Collins said.
Energy Capital Economic Development CEO Rusty Bell said the Business Council has had the same effect in northeast Wyoming. Bell’s group began serious talks with a new business developer in December, he said, for what could be a $1 billion capital investment. But in January when the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee recommended defunding and disbanding the agency, the business asked, “Is Wyoming still open for business?” Bell said.
Defunding efforts remain
On the House floor Friday, Sheridan Republican Rep. Ken Pendergraft — who joined his JAC colleagues in the pre-session effort to defund and dismantle the agency — suggested the entire Wyoming Business Council staff must go. He likened the organization to a football team with a coach who has groomed all the players to conform to a “particular mentality.”
“If you leave the rest of the staff there, that mentality, that worldview, that idea of how we do things, remains,” Pendergraft said. “I had literally hours of discussions with the CEO of this [organization], and from my view, and from the view of many of the people that I work with, the programs were not the proper role of government.”
Cheyenne Republican Rep. Lee Filer said there’s been no evaluation of particular Wyoming Business Council employees or divisions. He asked Pendergraft, “But we decided to go ahead and bludgeon instead? We’re going to eliminate 44 jobs? We’re going to eliminate those people that are working for the state?”
Wheatland Republican Rep. Jeremy Haroldson said that part of the JAC’s reasoning to get rid of the Business Council was that its members asked the agency for solutions, but its leadership didn’t come up with anything specific.
“When we say, ‘Come up with solutions that we can do, come up with something. Give us something to help you,’ and instead, we are almost given this, ‘Well, it’s the Legislature’s fault.’ Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we’re up against. This is what we’re dealing with.”
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