Miller: The solution is a state income tax (but…)
Rep. David Miller knows a state income tax would largely solve Wyoming’s revenue problems. But he’d rather shackle the state even more securely to boom-and-bust mining industries.
Entries by BetterWyoming
Wyoming’s budget is the smallest it has been in 15 years. We still need new revenues.
The deepest cuts in more than a decade couldn’t fix Wyoming’s “structural deficit.” When will lawmakers realize more cuts aren’t the answer?
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UW Board moves to grant itself unchecked power over reshaping the university during financial crisis
The board will vote next week to give itself the ability to single-handedly fire tenured faculty, cancel courses, and eliminate academic departments—big responsibilities for a group that’s proven itself incompetent.
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Session Recap: Funding restored, Wyoming must now work to rebuild its suicide prevention program from scratch
After completely defunding Wyoming’s statewide program in 2017, the Legislature allocated $2 million this year for suicide prevention. The scope of damage—and what a new program will look like—is unclear.
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Session recap: Medicaid work requirements didn’t pass this year, but they fit too well with Wyoming’s history of denying public assistance to assume they won’t be back
A work requirements bill passed the Senate with gusto, suggesting there’s no small number of lawmakers eager to kick folks in Wyoming off Medicaid.
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Better Wyoming director Nate Martin appears on “Speak Your Piece” talk radio show
Better Wyoming director Nate Martin spoke with Darian Dudrick for the Cody-based “Speak Your Piece” talk radio show about what BW is, what we want, and how we’re going to get it.
Session recap: Another year, another effort to criminalize edible marijuana fails. Is the Legislature getting ready to turn a corner on cannabis?
In killing yet another proposal to criminalize edible cannabis, a House committee doubled down on its position that Wyoming needs marijuana reform
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Session recap: Wyoming hasn’t seen the last of pipeline protest bills like SF-74
The bill vetoed by Gov. Matt Mead that would have punished protesters like those at Standing Rock with imprisonment and absurd fines was a small part of a much larger fight. It’s likely to be back in some form soon.
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Book review: The currents young Wyomingites swim against
In an essay for High Country News, BW director Nate Martin looks at two books that explain why Wyoming can’t keep its young talent.
Session recap: How the death of “Wyoming Public Lands Day” illustrates mining’s grip on the Legislature
What should have been an uncontroversial win for public lands advocates became a way for mineral industry-connected lawmakers to demonstrate their supremacy.