Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Sorted by date Results 1 - 15 of 15
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Revenue Interim Committee has a bill on its plate that would allow cities to put an additional municipal sales tax to voters. But instead of voting on the bill, the committee hit pause this week to allow cities and counties a chance to work through major difference on the bill and find a compromise that could pass through the Legislature. Representatives from the Wyoming Association of Municipalities and the Wyoming County Commissioners Association said they are set to meet this month to try to wor...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Government Efficiency Commission on Monday approved recommending a group of about 18 cost-saving measures to Gov. Mark Gordon and the state Legislature. The list could potentially save the state more than $60 million over the 2021-22 biennium. The recommendations come from the national consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired by the state in 2018 on a one-year, $1.8 million contract for the efficiency study. According to the report, which was voted on by the efficiency commission during a Monday meeting, its p...
CHEYENNE – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne released the names of 10 priests and one bishop they said served in Wyoming and faced substantiated accusations of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults dating back to 1950. The list was released Wednesday in the Diocese newsletter, the Wyoming Catholic Register, and was accompanied by a long letter from Bishop Steven Biegler, who said the names of the men “represents a betrayal of trust, a violation of the innocent and a human tragedy.” In his letter, Biegler called the history of sexual...
CHEYENNE - The story of Cheyenne is impossible to tell without also telling the story of the railroad. The tracks that cut through town are more than just the lifeblood of the country's economy; they were the genesis of Cheyenne's entire existence. The railroad is just as synonymous with Cheyenne as the cowboy is, said Darren Rudloff, CEO of Visit Cheyenne. "The railroad's history is an integral part of the Cheyenne mystique. Not just nationwide, but worldwide, as well," he said. "The name Cheye...
CHEYENNE – Gov. Mark Gordon on Friday used his veto pen on two bills, one of which would have authorized the Legislature to sue to allow Wyoming’s coal to be exported through Washington State. Gordon also declined to sign several more bills he saw as problematic, including a bill to prevent county commissioners from creating special zoning regulations for private schools. While Gordon agreed Wyoming should sue Washington over the refusal to allow Wyoming coal to be shipped overseas out of the state’s ports, he vetoed House Bill 251 to preve...
CHEYENNE – Counties seeking delinquent ad valorem taxes from bankrupt energy companies will automatically move to the front of the line of creditors seeking payment starting in 2021. This general session, the Wyoming Legislature passed Senate File 118, which gives primacy to counties seeking delinquent tax payments from bankrupt energy companies. The new system starts in 2021. Currently, counties can file a claim for first payment but must compete against banks and other lenders for a chance to recapture some of the money owed. The bill’s spons...
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s efforts to expand broadband internet access across the state go beyond making sure people can binge their favorite TV show no matter their ZIP code. Connectivity is just as vital for small communities as it is for large population centers. Being able to access the internet provides a multitude of economic opportunities for members of rural communities, and allows them not only to sustain their population but grow it, as well. Access can provide medical care to patients with mobility issues and allow elderly residents to...
CHEYENNE – The Senate killed a bill to implement a statewide lodging tax on a final vote Monday after it was pulled from the consent list. It was just one of several bills aimed at broadening and diversifying the state’s revenue stream that failed to make it through the Legislature after a lot of talk to start the session about this being the year for change. House Bill 66 died 19-7 in the Senate after it had passed out of the House earlier this session on a 44-16 vote. The bill would have put a 5 percent statewide tax on lodging sales, wit...
CHEYENNE — The effort to end the death penalty in Wyoming was unable to get past conservative opposition Thursday in the state Senate. House Bill 145, sponsored by Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, was defeated on its first reading in the Senate on an 18-12 vote. Only the day before, the bill had passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 5-0 vote. One of the Senate co-sponsors, Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, laid out the arguments for HB 145 during a floor debate Thursday, focusing on the financial cost for the state, the moral issues with g...
CHEYENNE — Gov. Mark Gordon and State Auditor Kristi Racines’ working group to make Wyoming a more transparent state met Friday to chart a path forward. But its members cautioned it likely would be a long process. The Financial Transparency Working Group that Gordon and Racines announced in the final months of last year’s campaign has tasked itself with working to solve multiple issues related to access to public documents and financial information. Friday’s meeting was mostly laying out the challenges the group would need to address, and pla...
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Legislature will take another crack at changing the requirements for the Hathaway Scholarship for high school students looking to focus on career and technical education. The bill, Senate File 43, would change requirements for students to receive the two highest levels of funding through the Hathaway Scholarship. Instead of requiring two sequential years of a foreign language class, the bill would allow students in ninth through 12th grades to take three years of one elective: career and vocational education, p...
CHEYENNE - Wyoming's new governor, Mark Gordon, was sworn into office Monday, officially becoming the state's 33rd leader. The newly minted chief executive used his inaugural address at the Cheyenne Civic Center to both praise his home state and outline his vision for it under his leadership. Speaking behind a surprise gift made by his son, Spencer Young, a handmade wooden podium with artwork of the Capitol done by childhood friend Jim Clayton, Gordon focused on the potential of Wyoming and its...
CHEYENNE — Wyoming has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous states for workers. And in 2017, Wyoming once again more than doubled the national average for workplace fatalities. According to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, the state saw a fatality rate of 7.7 workers per 100,000 full-time-equivalent employees in 2017. That’s the third highest in the country and significantly higher than the national rate of 3.5 per 100,000. Only Alaska and North Dakota ranked higher last year. Last year’s numbers weren’t an anomaly...
CHEYENNE — State lawmakers gave initial support to a supplemental school construction bill that includes additional funding for maintenance, school security and money for a Cheyenne charter school’s housing costs. The Joint Appropriations Committee sponsored a bill Friday that included an additional $1 million in school maintenance money and almost $5 million for school security projects. The members also added more than $400,000 to the bill to help pay for leasing costs associated with the PODER Academy Secondary School (PASS) in Che...
CHEYENNE — Start a conversation about Wyoming state government’s finances with lawmakers or outside observers, and inevitably the talk will move to the need for the state to diversify where it gets its money. Currently, just less than 50 percent of all state revenue comes from the mineral industry. That oversized financial dependence on mineral extraction has led Wyoming to feel every boom-and-bust cycle in the energy market. So diversifying the state’s tax structure has been a focus of state lawmakers for years now. And in 2019, Wyomi...
