If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. PJ O'Rourke Choosing to expand Medicaid is like deciding to marry for the sake of a dream honeymoon when disillusionment is the likely outcome. Fortunately, seven members of the Joint Appropriations Committee rescued Wyoming from a looming and ill-conceived ...

When politicians justify handing out public dollars for private benefit, they use the word investment to spin this spending into something more palatable to voters. However, state directed spending in the economy is nothing more than economic central planning in disguise. To stop the growth in central planning in Wyoming, we must bring the state's ...

During Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's visit to Wyoming in November 2015, he discussed his strategy to put Louisiana's fiscal house in order. His basic philosophy of government is that we can grow the American economy or we can grow the government economy, we can't do both. If we want to grow the American economy we must shrink the government eco...

During Governor Mead's Business Forum in Cheyenne in November 2015, Dr. Robert Behn from Harvard University presented his theory on the budget cut challenge in the lead up to a discussion by a panel of legislators. Wyoming legislators must decide how to deal with a 25 percent reduction in revenue, a $155 million deficit in the education account for...

The state of Wyoming earmarks tobacco settlement funds to certain programs — and guess what. The programs cost more than the revenue they receive. As you might expect, the knee jerk reaction to this is to raise tobacco taxes to cover the shortfall. But let's take a closer look. The Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund was set up after a 1998 settlement be...

by Stephen Klein On Wednesday the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Wyoming Legislature voted to adopt a committee bill to reform civil asset forfeiture under the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act ("WCSA"). The law as it exists today allows Wyoming police to seize and the state to keep ("forfeit") property that they suspect is related to the drug tr...

Governor Mead announced he will cut approximately $200 million from the current fiscal year's spending. This apparent burst of fiscal conservatism came as a result of a clause in the 2014 budget bill directing the governor to review agency budgets and reduce them if it looks like the fall in tax revenue will result in a deficit. Revenue has been on...

Wyoming faces a multi-million dollar deficit in the 2017-18 biennium and the specter of plummeting revenue looms large on the horizon. Why then, is the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) about to rubber stamp funding to help lift a new $18 million terminal off the ground at an airport that just last year lost 50 percent of its customer seating ...

by Stephen Klein In the 2015 Wyoming Legislative Session, Senate File 14, or Senate Enrolled Act 1 (SEA 1), would have overhauled Wyoming's drug forfeiture laws to require a felony conviction before alleged drug property (cash, cars, firearms and the like) could be permanently taken by the state. The bill passed the Wyoming Legislature with an init...