Issues | Economic Development

Through my work on the Forward Cody Board I have seen first hand how the Wyoming Business Council can support businesses such as Cody Labs, Wyoming Authentic Products and Sleeping Giant Ski Area.  In Cody we have been able to diversify our economy with these businesses.  I will bring this experience to the state. 

We need to be sure that government supports rather than unduly restricts the economic engine of the state. Legislators need to make prudent decisions to manage our resources.  In economic boom times, legislators should support growth, invest in infrastructure and programs to benefit taxpayers; in downturns, they must be willing to make tough adjustments to correspond to drops in revenue to protect the financial health of the state. That’s what responsible leadership does. The prudent path forward is to continue to manage wisely and invest strategically.

The legislature needs to broaden Wyoming’s job base by forging a stronger alliance and alignment between the business and education sectors. That alliance should be tasked with identifying employment opportunities beyond those on which we’ve historically relied, and we need specific training directed toward those opportunities.

With the decline in state revenues, we not only need to encourage and support new small business enterprises, we need to support the technological updating of old projects such as coal and oil exploration while preserving our environment. UW has become an international leader in natural resources research.  Ongoing research in carbon fuels and unconventional oil and gas fields has the potential to lift and expand the state’s economy.

 
I support  aggressively seeking alternative industries and businesses, not to just balance the energy revenue losses but also to provide gainful employment for those impacted.