The Wyoming Joint Revenue Committee met on Sept. 29 & 30, 2021, to discuss Wyoming's fiscal status quo and examine potential options to address the structural deficit that has produced boom and bust economic cycles for decades. With stimulus packages due to COVID-19 flowing into the state from Washington DC. Fortunately, the state has also enjoyed substantial sales tax revenue increases resulting from the 30 plus percent increase in summer traffic as the national crawled out of 18 months of sheltering in place. The combination of these revenue streams has reduced the immediate pressure on the legislature going into the 2022 Biennium Budget Session next February 14, 2022.
A plethora of taxation concepts were discussed and forwarded via bill draft requests. WPMA staff will not report on those concepts until they are in written form and formally discussed by the Joint Committee. Years of Joint Revenue Committee hearings have demonstrated the propensity for the Committee to draft bills for discussion only to see those bills not be forwarded to the next legislative session. Accordingly, staff has determined that until the issues is passed to the next session, extensive review and reporting is unnecessary and a waste of time. But that is the legislative process, as mind-numbing and jejune as it truly can be.
One topic...while also a perennial, non-starting tax option, is Sen. Cale Case's relentless effort at taxing wind energy. This interim Sen. Case put together an excellent slide presentation, The Case for an Electricity Tax in Wyoming (wyoleg.gov) , that gives a convincing case for taxation of wind energy that roughly 85% is transmitted to other states. There are abundant numbers for analysis and enlightenment that demonstrate the lost revenue Sen. Case is alluding to. Readers are able to review the over two hours of discussion beginning with Sen. Case's presentation. Find that discussion at Joint Revenue Meeting, September 30, 2021-AM - YouTube , beginning at 29:30 minutes into the meeting YouTube. Public testimony after the discussion by electric utilities (Anshutz Corp., the American Clean Power Association) provided the usual opposition to any tax increases while leveling threats to take their windfarms elsewhere. The Committee declined to support the Rep. Yin (D) Jackson, motion to draft a bill to look at bringing wind energy taxation to at least the same taxes that the extractive industries pay. Accordingly, yet another attempt to help diversify Wyoming's tax base and address the declining (and not returning) extractive minerals revenue, is quashed.
During the two days of meetings, little of substance was forwarded. However, now the legislators have a better understanding of why Wyoming's revenue streams have long term structural sustainability issues. As stated by more than one member of the Committee, they are not giving up on coal just yet.
