Wyoming’s population is shrinking and aging, and the Good Ol’ Boys in the Legislature staunchly oppose new taxes. But younger generations who would like to build their lives here are starting to speak up against budget cuts that would cripple the state’s education system and economy.
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.
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.
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.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan to send applications for absentee ballots to all registered Wyoming voters. County clerks across the state have received record requests, moving Wyoming in a direction toward mail-in voting that’s already widely embraced across the West.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
