As Wyoming’s legislative budget session draws closer, the Wyoming Business Council surveyed some 500 Wyoming voters about how they feel about the state’s economy. The Business Council is the state economic development agency, and Josh Dorrell is its CEO. He said he hopes the results can help state leaders make sound decisions.
The survey of 514 registered voters was conducted Sept. 20 to 24, 2025.
Editor’s note: This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Nicky Ouellet: Before we dive into the survey's results, I wanted to ask you about some economic myths that the business council has listed on its website.
Josh Dorrell: That sounds great.
NO: Wyoming is broke.
JD: That is a myth. Wyoming has a tremendous amount of wealth, and Wyoming has a lot of money that we can utilize for difficult situations like we find ourselves in right now.
NO: On the flip side, the state economy is doing just fine.
JD: That's a little bit of a myth. We are actually in a little bit of decline. It's been long-term decline, in fact. What we find is that not only is GDP stagnant or dropping, but things that most people feel every day are actually not doing as well as we think.
Our wage growth, it's actually dropping. Employment numbers are staying steady or dropping as well. And the number of people who leave our state that are born here is two out of every three Wyomingites end up leaving the state. All of those indicators together tell us that the economy is actually in long-term decline.
NO: The private sector will take care of the economy.
JD: Yes and no. Yes, the private sector has a huge role in our economy. But in terms of doing it all alone, that's just not true. We in rural America, especially in Wyoming, rural places are losing their businesses. They're losing their youth to the larger city centers.
And so what we need to do is really think about how do we have private business and government intervention that work together to solve that problem.
NO: And then thinking of government, nobody wants taxes to increase.
JD: Nobody is the keyword in that. And that is a myth, because there are actually people who say we would favor paying more taxes if the number of jobs increased and we knew what it was going for. I think that level of transparency and creating new opportunities is really the key there. About 35% of Wyomingites polled said that they were in favor of paying slightly higher taxes, which was a bit of a shock to us.
NO: I was curious what else sticks out for you from this year's poll.
JD: A few really key indicators I think are important for us to think about.
What we found is that there is support for population growth. In fact, 65% said they support growing the population to support new economic opportunities and businesses. Seventy-nine percent favor their town or county taking decisive action to grow jobs and expand the economy.
And then, I think, the most telling stat is that 90% believe that it is important for local government to invest in programs that help retain or attract young people and recent graduates. To me, that's really a Wyoming feeling of, we want to keep our families close. We want our children to have opportunities and to enjoy the Wyoming that we all love.
NO: What did your survey respondents see as kind of the biggest issues facing the state's economic success and the barriers to those findings that you just mentioned?
JD: Well, we did ask some questions about how they felt their local economy was today versus about a year ago. And about 75% said that they feel like the economy is doing worse than it was or stagnant. What we found is that people, by and large, want the government to invest in job creation and infrastructure for growth.
The really sexy, exciting things like water and sewer and roads and curb and gutter, those are all really important so that our communities can keep up with growth and instigate that growth that they need for their economy.
I think that that is really important as we think about how does the state government play in what is typically considered a private sector world.
I think those things – trying to increase the number of jobs that are available as well as the infrastructure that we need in our communities – is incredibly important.
NO: You asked folks about changes that they'd wanna see in their town. What came out as winners and losers?
JD: As we look at what changes people are really saying they need, there is a real strong component about attracting new businesses. About 29% of those that responded [said] that attracting new businesses is important.
But the other part that I think is really exciting is the idea of helping our existing businesses expand and grow. So, 36%, the largest group of people in a community, said they wanna take existing businesses and help them grow.
As I mentioned, infrastructure improvements is really important.
This is where it also becomes interesting. People thought that it's important for us to take a look at taxes and maybe reform them a little bit in order to instigate that growth.
NO: It looks like almost two thirds opposed that, but can you tease apart those responses for me?
JD: I think that's an interesting one, and it's one that we wanna dive into deeper. Again, we were actually a little bit shocked that 35% would support slightly higher taxes. However, if we parse the data and look at those folks who answered that they felt their economy was in rough shape, there was almost 50-50 that said they would pay slightly higher taxes for greater economic opportunities. They understand that something's gonna have to change.
Taxes is a really challenging issue. There are a number of tools that we have at a local level and in our state that are not being utilized fully that could help us with some of these elements. I think that's the first step to take on our way to maybe restructuring the fiscal system in the long run.
NO: Property taxes obviously are a flashpoint right now. What other tools do you see in the toolbox?
JD: I think there are optional sales and use taxes that need to be fully exercised in our state. One penny of those optional sales and use taxes in our state accounts for about almost $300 million a year. There are additional tax revenues that we can utilize for that infrastructure for growth.
I think what we need to really understand is we have those tools at our disposal, but we're not taking advantage of them. And we really need to, so that we can build a thriving economy that, again, gives us that local control, and we can, at a local level, pay for the things that we need to grow our towns.
NO: Do you see Wyoming instituting an income tax?
JD: That's probably a discussion for another day. I think what we need to fully understand and help people understand is this economic idea of: What is the system you're going to get if you don't change it?
The system today is really based on that extraction revenue. It has served us very, very well. It has made us a very wealthy state. I don't think that we should throw that baby out with the bathwater. However, I do think that we should open our minds to other tax tools, because it's not just about revenue. It's also about: What do we incentivize in our state?
And today, we incentivize low population and high extraction. So one of the things that we know is that in the future, our economy will likely be based on both extraction and those knowledge sector jobs, which means an increase in population.
I think it's important for us to realize our fiscal system is a tool that we need to utilize as a way to get what we want. If we're okay with shipping out two out of every three kids that are born in Wyoming, well, we should just keep doing what we're doing. But if we are really feeling strongly about families and trying to keep them together and provide opportunities for Wyomingites, we're gonna have to take a hard look at other tax tools.
