Wyoming Business Council Survives Reform Bill but Faces Leaner Future

The Wyoming Business Council remains alive in both chambers’ budget drafts after a sweeping reform bill stalled on the Senate floor Tuesday, though its funding level—and future—now hinge on conference committee negotiations.

Senate File 125, which sought to freeze the agency’s activities and eventually shut down its grant and loan programs, essentially died when sponsor Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, asked to lay the bill back one legislative day—past the deadline for bills to pass third reading in their house of origin. Lawmakers could revive it with a two-thirds vote, but its fate is uncertain.

The bill’s struggle came moments after an amendment requiring the council to document the public purpose and state benefit of every grant it awarded fell just one vote short, 15-14. Five senators who had voted to save the agency from outright dismantling on Feb. 9 crossed over to support the amendment.

Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Torrington, who offered the amendment, framed the issue as constitutional. She cited a 2003 attorney general’s opinion that said the constitutional prohibition on government aid to private entities exists “to prevent governmental bodies from depleting the public treasury by giving advantages to special interests.”

Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, countered that attorney general opinions carry no force of law and that Wyoming Supreme Court precedent has upheld such lending programs provided no debt is created beyond the current year’s taxes and any private benefit is “purely incidental.”

The agency’s funding now rests with budget negotiators. The House draft would give the Business Council $9.8 million for one year. The Senate version funds it at $55 million for the biennium—half its request but in line with the governor’s recommendation.

“The question is, how much money do they have?” said Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie.

Rothfuss noted the sharpest criticism targets the Business Ready Communities program, which funds public infrastructure projects that facilitate business development. He pushed back on the premise that the council funnels money directly to private companies.

“The public dollars have always gone through the business council, through Business Ready Communities, to public dollar projects,” Rothfuss said. “They fund things that are public resources and that facilitate business. It’s never dollars going to a business.”

The debate will likely continue in the interim, with a committee amendment routing future review to the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee rather than a standalone task force.