The fate of the Wyoming Business Council remains unclear following the Joint Appropriations Committee’s vote this week to defund the state’s primary economic development shop.
The committee informally agreed to consider sponsoring a bill that would presumably dismantle the Business Council statutorily. But the bill draft, as of Wednesday, had not been made public, and it’s unclear how far such an effort might go to reconfigure or reassign state economic development programs.
The legislative budget session begins Feb. 9.
If the Business Council is dismantled without a replacement, Wyoming might be the only state in the nation without a state-level economic development agency, proponents of the organization warned.
Though Gov. Mark Gordon said the committee’s defunding action “can be reversed during the full legislative session,” some economic development professionals say they’re prepared to work with the Legislature to reimagine how the state moves forward without the Business Council.
“It is clear that parts of the current economic development framework are not working as intended,” Wyoming Association of Municipalities Executive Director Ashley Harpstreith said in a statement to WyoFile. “Local economic development is ultimately about building and sustaining communities where businesses can locate, grow and remain competitive. That work starts with infrastructure and community readiness, not solely with programs or initiatives.”
Top of mind, according to Harpstreith and others who spoke with WyoFile, is maintaining vital programs like the Small Business Development Center, jointly administered by the Business Council and University of Wyoming.
“The most effective statewide economic development is going to have to prioritize empowering communities with the tools and resources they need to be ready for opportunity,” Harpstreith said.
The Business Council directly employs 38 full-time workers and two part-time workers, with an annual benefit and payroll of $5,894,845, according to the agency.
Council criticism
Dissatisfaction with the Business Council has been stewing for years, another economic development professional told WyoFile. The organization’s particular shortcomings, they said, depend on who you ask.
“We’re not finished yet. The full Legislature is going to come in, and they’ll have a conversation.”
Amy Edmonds, Gov. Gordon’s office
The agency does not help everyone who comes knocking at its door, Business Council Chief Executive Officer Josh Dorrell has testified to Wyoming lawmakers. Through an application process, the agency chooses from a pool of applicants with legitimate needs for state help. The appearance of picking winners and losers has made Dorrell “unpopular” in some Wyoming communities, he’s said.
In August, for example, Dorrell pitched a proposal to a legislative committee to increase the mandatory dollar match for the Business Ready Community grant and loan program from a varied scale to a flat 25%. The “controversial” move, he said, was intended to concentrate state dollars in communities that demonstrated the most bang for the state’s buck. It also aligned with what Dorrell perceived lawmakers were asking of the Business Council, he said. Intrinsically, the move would exclude communities that couldn’t afford the higher match. It was a tradeoff that, “from an economic standpoint,” Dorrell said, made sense.
The Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee declined to take up the measure.
But frustration with the council extends beyond any one particular program, Harpstreith said. Essentially, the organization has become too bureaucratic to effectively connect with businesses and communities.
“Over time, emphasis has leaned toward programming and administrative approaches, while flexible, direct investment in infrastructure and community development has not kept pace,” Harpstreith said. “What is missing is consistent, meaningful partnership around infrastructure and community-level capital. Without that foundation, even well-designed programs struggle to produce real, lasting economic outcomes.”
If not the Business Council, what?
If the Business Council is eliminated without a replacement, Wyoming — technically — might be the only state in the nation without a state-level economic development agency, according to several sources.
But that distinction comes with a lot of nuance.
“[Economic development] work starts with infrastructure and community readiness, not solely with programs or initiatives.”
Ashley Harpstreith, Wyoming Association of Municipalities
Wyoming, like every state, would still rely on various federal agencies such as the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which help meet myriad needs, including rural development, housing and food security. Other federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, offer funding for water systems.
In terms of other “homegrown” economic development agencies in the Cowboy State, there is the Wyoming Energy Authority, which administers things like the Energy Matching Funds program.
The Office of State Lands and Investments is also integral to many aspects of economic development. Somewhat unique to Wyoming, the office’s Mineral Royalty Grants program — funded via a stream of revenue from coal, oil and natural gas royalty payments — used to be a powerhouse source to help communities meet infrastructure needs. But the program has shrunk in pace with decreasing mineral revenue payments.
For now, Gordon is not entertaining the potential demise of the Business Council or concepts of how Wyoming might forge ahead without the organization.
“The governor wouldn’t have made the recommendations he did if he didn’t support economic development and the Wyoming Business Council,” his Communications Director Amy Edmonds told reporters during a Wednesday briefing.
“We’re not finished yet. The full Legislature is going to come in, and they’ll have a conversation,” Edmonds said.
The primary tools for diversification of the Wyoming Economy are not in the hands of the WBC.
That said, the WBC has made a lot of mistakes. Picking winners and losers from inception and failing with big projects simply has not helped. Holding Budget watch parties, where the economic development people deride the legislators that were in the watch party, was bad behavior. Particularly, when it was the governor that cut the exception request of WBC in half. Teleworking is a staple in the Business council. Contracting is a problem. And politics by the leadership has not helped.
Yes, the conversation will continue. Governor Gordon, in his letter, gave an example of economic development that came from the Clean Air Act. That example did not come from the WBC. It came from Federal legislation sponsored by a Wyoming Senator. When issues that impact positively or negatively for business in Wyoming come up in SLIB, Interim Committees, Legislative sessions, or conferences.. you will see the WBC absent.
The governor said in his Jan 7th letter “Wyoming learned a lot from those initial steps and created the Wyoming Business Council to bring some discipline and professionalism to the effort.” Is it professional to not show up?
Piling a Billion Dollars into the WBC, as reuested by Dorrell, is just a whopping amount of money for current mediocre results. Let’s face it, the WBC is out of gas and ideas.
The WBC failed to attend quite a number of legislative meetings in the interim. Not showing up never looks good. A visitor that comes to the business council building down the street from the UP Depot, will find the doors locked. Teleworking, locked doors, and not showing up are a messages that can be interpreted in only one way.
“We are not open for business!”
The entire business model of the WBC is ineffective. It’s a huge bureaucracy ($5 million per year in salaries alone!) that picks winners and losers, with Wyoming businesses often chosen as the losers. It pursues wasteful and useless projects, squanders taxpayer money by giving it to politically favored but dicey businesses, and is out of touch with our state’s needs. Time to shutter it and start from scratch.
I can’t honestly say there’s a lot of economic development. Now, there are more people here. Most of what I see is lots of apartments, churches, micro breweries, and gambling joints. Not much diversification.
A community that does not invest in itself will ultimately fail. Terminating the WBC without a statewide economic development plan alternative is very short sighted. While the Freedom Caucus believes government should not be in the economic development business, realistically the State of Wyoming has to compete with other local and state governments that do support economic development with their tax dollars. Eliminating the WBC puts the state at a further disadvantage. Its not about government spending, it’s about competing at the national level for economic diversification. Business development is crucial if we are to diversify and improve economic conditions state wide.
Most of these legislators need a reminder of what it was like back in the 1980s when energy was dominant and in the toilet. There was no economic diversification, no jobs, no economic growth. The newspapers were filled with foreclosed homes available through HUD – especially in those energy industry dependent communities. If you think young people fleeing the state for jobs is bad now, go back 40 years. Through years of investing in itself – both locally and at the state level – Wyoming is starting to see solid economic diversification.
Maybe the WBC is off course, maybe not. Maybe drastic change is necessary, but let’s not tear down the foundation because somebody is unhappy with the current results. Business development is a long term game, not something you see results in “Google Time.”