Lawmakers discuss future of Wyoming's economy ahead of 2025 general

Former chairman of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, and current Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to handling Wyoming’s economy.

Bear, Driskill and Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, previewed the upcoming 2025 general session during the Governor’s Business Forum on Thursday, hosted by the Wyoming Business Alliance in Laramie. The panel was moderated by WBA President Renny MacKay.

Newly elected members of the 68th Wyoming Legislature will take their seats in both chambers in January, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline Republicans, is set to take control of the House of Representatives.

MacKay asked Bear, who he informally dubbed “Christmas Future,” about the state of Wyoming’s budget moving forward. The representative alluded to some floating concerns about the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee, which could see some major turnover with the new Legislature.

“I would be highly honored to be a part of that,” Bear said.

He said the state had “some real challenges coming up,” nodding to the recently ordered breach of the LaPrelle Dam and the need to replenish the state’s depleted wildfire funds. More so, Bear said he was focused on returning taxpayer money to Wyomingites.

In contrast, Driskill believes the best use of state funds isn’t giving them back to taxpayers, but investing them so future Wyoming generations are prosperous.

Driskill, who will not be returning to the Legislature next year, said there’s a circulating narrative out there about the state’s financial standing that “the sky’s falling.”

“Folks, the sky’s not falling,” Driskill said. “Wyoming’s got more money in savings per capita than any state in the nation.”

A Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG) report in October showed that the 2024 fiscal year ended with a $173 million surplus. Driskill said he wasn’t worried about the next three to eight years, as far as Wyoming’s economy is concerned.

“Companies don’t cut in times of prosperity. They invest in their future,” Driskill said.

In response to Driskill’s comments, Bear said he holds a “higher expectation” of Wyoming taxpayers. He believes in their ability to spend the money in the best way they see fit.

Property taxes

Wyomingites have paid “generously” over the last few years in property taxes, Bear said. It’s time to take money out of the state’s general fund, he said, and put it back in the taxpayers’ pockets.

Driskill was adamantly opposed to this idea. Property taxes are controlled by fair market value, which is out of the Legislature’s hands, he said, and contribute to funding schools and other public services provided by the local government.

“I don’t support transferring out of our general fund, which breaks down our funding for our government agencies. I do not support doing that to return money back to the personal property taxpayer,” Driskill said. “But we’ve got to address it. There’s no doubt it has to be addressed.”

Bear countered the senator’s comments, saying that Wyoming taxpayers “have given us a generous income over the last couple of years based on property values.”

“It’s time to get a little relief in that area and probably come up with some reforms,” Bear said. “We’ve got several ideas that we’re going to be putting forward.”

Diversifying Wyoming’s economy

Driskill said he welcomes diversifying the energy industries moving into Wyoming, such as Bill Gates’ TerraPower, which is developing a next generation nuclear plant near Kemmerer. On a smaller scale, private landowners should be allowed to invest in wind and solar energy resources, he said, even if some people may frown upon the subsidies that come with it.

“Whatever happened to folks, to private businesses, being able to invest however they want? You can hate the subsidies, fine,” Driskill said. “You don’t like it, fight the policy, but don’t kill the guy that’s building the business model.”

In order to attract more industries to Wyoming, Bear said the state needed to look at lowering its taxes on businesses.

“My philosophy has always been that government needs to run much more efficiently on a much smaller amount of dollars that are in the economy,” Bear said. “Personally, I think the majority of the conservatives in the House of Representatives would agree with that statement.”

Bear also agreed people should be able to do whatever they want with their land, even if he might personally disagree with it.

“If they can make money off of their land for that, good for them. I’m certainly not going to promote that at the government level,” Bear added.

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