The Wyoming State Legislature's Oil King
Wyoming lawmakers capped special education spending in 2018, leaving school districts wondering how to cover the costs of services children need.

As state money for special education dries up, Wyoming looks to Medicaid

Dwindling mineral revenues threaten Wyoming’s ability to provide costly special education services. Legislators can pursue federal Medicaid funds to help, like most states do. But they’re learning there’s no such thing as easy money.
National corporations suck money out of Wyoming communities. A proposed corporate income tax would capture a small slice of corporate profits for Wyoming schools while sparing Mom and Pop shops.

Proposal would help stop corporations from sucking profits out of Wyoming

Corporations demand public services, but in Wyoming they don’t help pay for them. A new proposal advanced by the Legislature’s Revenue Committee last week would change that, while raising much-needed funding for Wyoming schools.
The pursuit of beaver fur brought trappers West to Wyoming in the early days of European settlement. Those trappers adapted when the fur trade went south.

What Wyoming can learn about coal from the collapse of the fur trade

When the world switched from beaver-skin hats to silk hats in the 1800s, the fur trade plummeted. Instead of doubling down on pelts, smart fur-bearing states developed new industries.
The coal industry's downturn has cost the state of Wyoming nearly a third its budget. What happens if other carbon-based industries follow it down?

Climate change creeps into Wyo Legislature tax reform talks

The Revenue Committee’s co-chair asked tax reform opponents: What happens if Wyoming continues to depend on revenues from carbon-based minerals while the rest of the world moves away from them?
Lawmakers put a bullet in each and every tax bill that came before them.

Wyoming Legislature shoots down “big box” corporate income tax and all other revenue-generating bills — 2019 Legislative recap

You got a tax bill? The Legislature has a bullet. Along with the “big box” tax, lawmakers killed proposals to “modernize” Wyoming’s sales tax structure, tax tourism to promote the tourism industry, increase cigarette taxes, and every other tax-related bill this year.
Bebout awoke to news that the tax break he'd tried to give himself and other oil bosses hadn't made it through the night.

Bebout’s tax break for oil companies dies an 11th-hour quiet death

On an absurdly late final night of the 2019 session, Bebout went home before the House and Senate could hash out disagreements over his proposed oil tax break. In Bebout’s absence, the bill sputtered and died.
The program was funded with $4.2 million in 2016. A new bill asked for $2.3 million to be restored. Instead, it will get $625,000.

Wyoming Senate guts funding from a tax rebate program for elderly and disabled poor folks

Tens of thousands of people depended on the rebates prior to the Legislature’s ending the program in 2016. An effort to bring it back fizzled. Less than 15 percent of its funding will be restored.
Sens. Bill Landen, Cale Case, and Wendy Schuler

Wyoming Senate committee praises “big box” corporate income tax proposal … and then kills it

Three members of the five-person committee spoke positively about the bill. But so much opposition had built up against it in the Senate, the committee chairman decided it wasn’t even worth a vote.
Recipients would receive refunds between $200 - 900.

Wyoming Legislature moves to reinstate tax rebate program for elderly and disabled poor folks

The rebate program had been in effect for 41 years before lawmakers canned it in 2016 in the midst of a mineral bust.
Wyoming is one of two states that have neither a corporate income tax nor a gross receipts tax.

The Wyoming State Legislature is seriously considering a "big box" corporate income tax

A proposed corporate income tax on "big box" stores like Walmart would not raise prices for consumers, but it would generate tens of millions of dollars per year for Wyoming schools. Is that enough to get it past the radically anti-tax Wyoming State Senate?
Smoke 'em while they're cheap!

House advances bill to increase Wyoming's tobacco taxes

Supporters said that higher tobacco taxes discourage kids from starting to smoke, and that non-smokers end up paying for smokers' healthcare costs.
The Wyoming State Legislature's Oil King

Senate Committee chaired by Eli Bebout advances an oil tax break that would benefit Eli Bebout

Spoiler alert: The bill is also co-sponsored by Eli Bebout. Who says a Wyoming State Legislator can't get a little something for himself?