Wyoming lawmakers continue to mull revenue, K-12 deficit
May 11, 2021 GMT
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) Wyoming lawmakers discussed what to do about a $300 million annual K-12 education shortfall amid ongoing reluctance to raise or impose new taxes.
The budgetary concerns before the Joint Revenue Committee on Monday follow a decade of sharply falling state revenue, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.
A major factor in the decline is the state’s reliance on revenue from coal, oil and natural gas extraction, which a state panel called the Tax Reform 2000 Committee identified as an issue more than 20 years ago. These commodities are all subject to volatile market forces and prove to be an unstable base for the state’s tax system, Wyoming Department of Revenue director Dan Noble said.
Written by Associated Press on May 12, 2021
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) Wyoming lawmakers discussed what to do about a $300 million annual K-12 education shortfall amid ongoing reluctance to raise or impose new taxes.
The budgetary concerns before the Joint Revenue Committee on Monday follow a decade of sharply falling state revenue, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.
A major factor in the decline is the state’s reliance on revenue from coal, oil and natural gas extraction, which a state panel called the Tax Reform 2000 Committee identified as an issue more than 20 years ago. These commodities are all subject to volatile market forces and prove to be an unstable base for the state’s tax system, Wyoming Department of Revenue director Dan Noble said.
Green River Star -
January 6, 2021
Well-considered comments and e-mails following the discussion of Wyoming’s excess tax capacity, and the one-page legislative document that measured it, differed widely and reflected all of the various political positions one might expect. But a number of astute readers raised the same valid concern: Our discussion omitted the issue of ability to pay.
In other words, unless Wyoming residents can actually afford to bridge the gap between what we pay in taxes and what our neighbors pay on average, then tax capacity as measured is just a bunch of empty numbers.
Well, consider it good fortun.