State’s top elected officials address municipalities

CHEYENNE — In an address to the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, Gov. Mark Gordon said Friday he is optimistic for the future of the state’s towns and municipalities, but they must also be willing to stand up and fight for themselves in addition to receiving support from the state.

“I’d love to tell you that there’s rainbows and unicorns in the future, but I don’t believe that at all,” he said. “I think our communities are going to have to stand a lot more on their own, and we’ll certainly fight for you, but we’re only one piece of it.”

Gordon, along with the four other top elected officials in the state, held a panel discussion Friday in the state Capitol to answer questions from WAM about the role the state plays in supporting Wyoming’s 99 towns and municipalities.

The opening question from panel moderator and WAM Interim President Carter Napier of Casper referenced Gillette Republican and Freedom Caucus member Rep. John Bear’s 2024 comment pondering if small towns in Wyoming should even exist if they rely on state funds to stay afloat.

Napier asked what the panelists thought of the role the state plays in supporting infrastructure development and maintenance for WAM localities.

Gordon was joined on the panel by State Auditor Kristi Racines, State Treasurer Curt Meier, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder. All five panelists make up the State Loan and Investment Board, which manages the state’s permanent land funds and administers grant and loan programs to municipalities.

Most panelists referenced the state’s Mineral Royalty Grants program, which offers funds to alleviate an emergency situation that poses a direct and immediate threat to public health, safety or welfare; to comply with federal or state mandates; or to provide an essential public service.

Racines acknowledged municipalities cannot operate with a negative budget without assistance from the state, and Meier said the role of government is to invest in things that people can’t do by themselves.

“Those are the things like building roads, building infrastructure in the water systems. Those things are going to continue to have to be looked at,” he said.

Gray said that it is important that municipalities take action on seeking those MRG grants immediately, and he is optimistic about the future of Wyoming under the second term of President Donald Trump.

He also said he believes the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is leading the work on supporting rural communities.

“Just look at the fact that the (Wyoming) Freedom Caucus is the number one group in the Legislature protecting our core industries, whereas a lot of other folks seem to want to move off our core industries,” Gray said.

American Rescue Plan Act funding and capacity

Napier said it is clear that there are capacity issues across the state as it pertains to professional services, like engineering, to complete construction of ARPA-funded projects.

He asked the panel whether the state government has a role in supporting understaffed municipalities that may lack capacity to meet federal deadlines for these funding applications and construction timelines.

The panelists acknowledged that it can be more difficult for small municipalities to apply for funds through the federal government, as there is often less leniency than when applying for state funds.

Racines said the requirements are “non-negotiable, non-vending and robust” on the federal level, and that 2020 was the first time a lot of municipalities had access to federal funds.

She said the state will try to support them, but they have a limited bandwidth.

Gordon said the state also needs more accountability for consultants like contractors and engineers on the quality of their work. Degenfelder added that these capacity issues are also related to workforce issues, segueing into Napier’s next question.

Workforce and attainable housing

An interim committee bill that would have made state land adjacent to corporate boundaries available for long-term lease for the person who has the development recently failed. Napier said this bill had excited many communities as an opportunity to partner state and private developers.

He asked the panelists if this idea had merit, and if the use of state lands could be part of the solution for the state’s housing crisis.

Degenfelder said it is important to consider that the state has a constitutional fiduciary duty to maximize revenue from these lands.

“It’s not our business plan to provide cheap land for these kinds of (developments),” she said.

Racines said that there are some pieces of land that currently generate little to no revenue.

Meier referenced the possibility of looking into relocating 3D-printed housing to Wyoming to alleviate some housing concerns, noting that the technology is in its infancy, but could be cheaper in the future.

Gray and Degenfelder both acknowledged the need to focus on education to grow and maintain a trades workforce in Wyoming that help grow infrastructure for a larger workforce to find housing in Wyoming.

“The bottom line is there isn’t enough supply, and that’s because we lack enough of these trades,” Gray said.

Where Wyoming is headed

To conclude the meeting, Napier asked the panelists what their biggest concerns are for Wyoming going forward and inquired about what they think is going well.

Degenfelder and Gray both said they view the diminishing of the state’s fossil fuel industries as the biggest threat to the state.

“While we see a success in President Trump coming into office, that is something we can’t be complacent on,” Degenfelder said. “And as we saw with the Biden administration, just how detrimental that can be to us, and recognizing at the end of the day that the mineral industry pays the lion’s share of the revenue in the state.”

Degenfelder also expressed concern with the aging population in the state, noting that there aren’t enough young people choosing to live in Wyoming. She said Wyoming should consider creating an integrated medical system for those retiring here.

Gordon said he is optimistic about Wyoming’s investment in the uranium industry, and the potential of developing technologies like enhanced oil recovery and investing in carbon fiber.

He also said he’d like to see towns and cities near Wyoming’s borders become more attractive so that residents can keep business and residents within Wyoming and attract people to the Cowboy State.

“It’s going to take a lot of work ... but by God, that’s what this state ought to be doing,” Gordon said.

This story was published on January 24, 2025.