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BETTER WYOMING

The days of the Good Ol’ Boys are done, along with our state’s ‘free ride’ on the backs of the mining industries. So we’re educating, organizing, and mobilizing Wyoming residents on behalf of statewide change. We’re the generation that must build a Better Wyoming.

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Latest News

More than a third of Wyomingites said they had stopped taking drugs as prescribed because of cost.

Wyoming lawmakers’ plan to import drugs from Canada won’t lower prescription costs

September 27, 2020

Working families and seniors across Wyoming are feeling the pinch of paying for steadily increasing drug costs. But the Legislature’s plan to import drugs from Canada won’t help.

Wyoming's voter registration laws focus solely on registering at the polls. But this one-trick pony doesn't ride too well when almost half the electorate is voting absentee.

Registering to vote at the polls in Wyoming is great … until it’s not

September 2, 2020

The main way to register to vote in Wyoming is at the polls. But a huge portion of the state’s electorate is avoiding the polls altogether during COVID-19. As the state’s aggressive voter purge laws disenrolled massive numbers of Wyoming voters, we’re left to wonder whether our registration laws need an update.

Wyoming's dependence on plummeting fossil fuel revenues has the state's whole education funding structure crumbling.

Wyoming lawmakers try to “recalibrate” school funding while the whole system collapses around us

August 12, 2020

The ho-hum, business-as-usual “recalibration” process to determine proper state education funding levels looks absurd in the face of a $500 million budget catastrophe.

A patient receives treatment at SageWest medical center in Riverton, which has discontinued services as a result of staffing difficulties.

Wyoming needs a strong healthcare system to help diversify its economy. It doesn’t have one.

July 8, 2020

Quality hospitals and healthcare will be critical to attracting new businesses and developing new industries in Wyoming, particularly in rural areas. But Wyoming’s healthcare system is struggling, which will make the difficult task of diversifying our economy even harder.

COVID-19 is just one reason why Wyoming should join its Western neighbors and expand mail-in voting.

Wyoming takes meek steps to increase mail-in voting in 2020. It should be doing more.

June 10, 2020

Vote-by-mail has been proven to dramatically increase voter turnout in our neighbors like Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Wyoming state leaders have hinted at an interest in expanding our mail-in program, but they are mostly dragging their feet.

"I'm not really here to solve problems. I just like wearing a suit!"

Wyoming faces the biggest financial crisis in its modern history. Lawmakers respond by doing nothing.

June 4, 2020

The Legislature’s Revenue Committee has one job: to develop proposals that allow Wyoming to adequately fund its public services and infrastructure. Now that fossil fuel mining taxes are going away, the committee has failed at its single job again and again and again.

Layoffs in Wyoming's energy sector have some legislators thinking twice about refusing federal funds that can provide folks healthcare.

COVID-19 prompts Wyoming lawmakers to reconsider Medicaid expansion

May 20, 2020

Unemployed workers losing their healthcare, rural hospitals losing revenue, and an uncertain future for Wyoming’s economy have the Legislature taking another look at its decision to refuse federal Medicaid funding.

"Let's see ... Where does this gadget stick in here?"

Wyoming Legislature plugs in for an unprecedented "virtual" special session

May 14, 2020

The Wyoming Legislature is bad at transparency, lacks modern technological infrastructure, and is about to convene an emergency "virtual" session the public can't attend to appropriate more than $1 billion in federal COVID-19 funding. What could possibly go wrong?

Widespread layoffs and cut hours have threatened Wyoming workers' ability to pay rent and their mortgages during the COVID crisis.

Proposal to help stop COVID-related evictions passes Wyoming legislative committee

May 7, 2020

The bill would create a program that uses federal emergency funds to reimburse landlords who have experienced rental losses as a result of COVID-19, protecting both landlord and renter. The Legislature will consider the proposal during a special session next week.

Wyoming's gender wage gap, low minimum wage, and lack of healthcare access make life difficult for many Wyoming women even during "normal" times.

Already behind, Wyoming women hit hard by COVID crisis

April 30, 2020

Low-wage workers living paycheck-to-paycheck are least prepared to grapple with layoffs and cut hours resulting from the COVID crisis. By far, most low-wage workers in Wyoming are women.

Gov. Gordon can direct the state attorney general to order sheriff's offices not to execute evictions.

Governor Gordon can and should stop COVID-related evictions in Wyoming

April 1, 2020

As unemployment spikes during the pandemic, Wyoming workers are increasingly unable to make housing payments. Federal measures and the goodwill of banks and landlords do not offer Wyoming families the housing protections they need.

Wyoming towns and counties rely on state funds to help pay for local services. But state funds are drying up.

Legislature passes a bill making it easier for Wyoming communities to tax themselves

March 15, 2020

The increased ability for towns and counties to raise revenues is a nod toward diversifying Wyoming's tax structure. But because the new revenues will come from sales tax, they will come at the highest cost to the state's poorest residents.

Inflation-based cost adjustments, special education, and school districts' discretionary funds were all decreased.

Wyoming schools spared deep funding cuts despite the Senate’s best efforts

March 13, 2020

A veto by Governor Mark Gordon helped House education advocates fend off severe funding cuts pushed by the Senate throughout the Wyoming Legislature’s 2020 session. But they couldn’t stop them all.

The "born alive" bill would create a law rarely, if ever, used. But it's an incremental tool in the larger anti-abortion effort.

Wyoming House advances last surviving abortion bill of the budget session

March 10, 2020

The bill would criminalize doctors who fail to perform life-saving measures for infants meant to be aborted but that are accidentally “born alive”—a law that would rarely, if ever, be applied in Wyoming, since abortions after 12 weeks are illegal here and fetuses are not viable until at least 20 - 23 weeks. Two other anti-abortion bills have been defeated.

Sen. Perkins might give handouts to coal companies, but not tax relief to poor folks or cost-of-living bumps for state retiree checks.

Wyoming Senate President singlehandedly kills two antipoverty bills

March 7, 2020

A tax rebate program for elderly and disabled poor people and a cost-of-living increase for retired state workers both passed the House. But the bills died in the desk of Senate President Drew Perkins, who refused to introduce them for consideration.

HELP SAVE WYOMING HEALTHCARE

Wyoming lawmakers are blocking nearly 30,000 workers from getting health insurance by refusing to expand Medicaid.

Our rural hospitals are struggling, the cost of health insurance is so high that businesses hesitate to locate here, and mental illness is rampant while treatment is scarce.

Better Wyoming is building a statewide grassroots movement to make healthcare reform an issue Wyoming lawmakers can’t ignore. Join us.

Your 2020 guide to voting in Wyoming!

Whether you’re an experienced voter or still need to register, this year’s election is different (thanks, COVID!).

But we’ve got you.

Follow this voter guide to find out all you need to know to make your voice heard this election.

THE BETTER WYOMING GRASSROOTS INSTITUTE

Our free, multi-week advocacy leadership training courses prepare Wyoming residents to work on behalf of real change in the Cowboy State.

Areas of focus vary each course, but all Grassroots Institute graduates:

Understand key issues facing Wyoming
Learn strategies to turn out voters and organize their communities
Employ a broad set of advocacy skills
Connect with a statewide progressive network

Learn more and stay tuned for GRI news!

Together, we can build a better Wyoming

Join thousands of people just like you to build the kind of Wyoming that works for everyone

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