The Wyoming Business Council survived a Freedom Caucus-led effort to dismantle it earlier this year. Now, lawmakers are discussing how to reform, rather than eliminate, the agency. Wyoming’s top economic development shop became the subject of ire and misunderstanding, some lawmakers said, beca use the Legislature has compiled 93 pages of state statutes regarding the agency over the past 25 years — a voluminous mix of mandates that muddy its mission, duties and expectations. The Legislature’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee spent several hours last week contemplating the future of the agency, with a focus on its structure and guiding principles. The Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee also launched its joint effort to reimagine the agency’s budget matters, including its management of vast federal and state grant and loan programs. “Everything the business council does is a program that this committee created,” Laramie Democratic Sen. Chris Rothfuss said. “I guess the question I have for the business council and, really, a challenge for the committee, is to understand what you’re complaining about.” Lawmakers and stakeholders throughout the state during the Legislature’s budget session clashed over whether the agency is fulfilling its mission and whether it was even necessary to help advance the state’s economy. Legislators ultimately reduced the council’s budget for the next two years from the governor’s recommended $54.6 million to about $15 million — enough to sustain the agency as lawmakers reexamine its role and contemplate potential reforms. Economic development challenges Since its inception in 1997, the business council has overseen some $1.5 billion in economic development funding appropriated by the Legislature, according to the Legislative Service Office. Yet several speakers at last week’s meetings lamented that the state is dealing with many of the same issues that led to the formation of the business council in the 1990s: lack of municipal infrastructure to support new businesses, gaps in a skilled workforce exacerbated by a youth exodus and an economy that lags behind surrounding states. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, gathers with members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to pray early Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, outside the Wyoming Supreme Court in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile) In the appropriations committee, Sheridan Republican Rep. Ken Pendergraft reiterated his belief that the state should not spend public dollars on economic development, while Gillette Republican and committee co-chair Rep. John Bear suggested a reading list for business council leaders, including economic theory works by Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman.  “The vision [for the business council] needs to include the idea that if we’re going to really be a free market as much as possible that we reduce regulations,” Bear said. “That government is as small as it can be.” Philosophical theories aside, Business Council Chief Executive Officer Josh Dorrell said his agency juggles myriad legislative mandates as it attempts to respond to Wyoming realities. “You mentioned Milton Friedman,” Dorrell said. “Milton Friedman believed, and rightly so, that people vote with their feet. Well, people are voting with their feet. People are leaving Wyoming. That’s voting with your feet.” Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell. Lack of skilled, available workforce is the No. 1 deterrent for businesses hoping to launch or expand in Wyoming, Dorrell has said. Meanwhile, some 60% to 70% of Wyoming-born residents permanently leave the state by the time they are 30, according to analysis prepared for the business council. Business Council Board of Directors Vice Chair Joe Schaffer pushed back on the notion that state government shouldn’t invest in economic development and that the council is culpable for Wyoming’s larger economic challenges. Though business council leadership is eager for the legislative effort to more narrowly define its mission, Schaffer said, many challenges that deeply impact the state’s economy — a declining birth rate and access to healthcare, for example — are not within the agency’s purview. “I would love to know where, truly, a free, unregulated market exists that doesn’t have things such as child labor laws, monopoly laws, investments in workforce and education — other things that ultimately create or enhance a market,” Schaffer said. “Whose responsibility is it to create a vision for Wyoming’s economy? Is it the governor? Is it the Legislature?” Whether intentional or otherwise, the business council’s recent work has given the appearance of a “top-down” approach without meaningful public engagement on the businesses or public works that it supports, Glenrock Republican Kevin Campbell said. Campbell, who serves on the minerals committee, said the council’s Business Ready Community grant and loan program appears to pick winners and losers, while its work to attract industrial projects like wind energy and nuclear manufacturing leaves communities divided over whether or not they want that type of economic benefit and headache. “It’s not working, and the people hate it,” Campbell said. “That’s the reason why we’re here.” “My impression is exactly the opposite,” Cheyenne Republican Sen. Tara Nethercott said. The council’s alleged “top-down” approach is in response to a legislative directive to more narrowly invest state funds in places that have the most promising rate of return.  “I don’t think you’re top-down enough,” Nethercott said, adding the council needs to boost its business recruitment efforts. “I actually would like to see more of that rather than being all things to all people.” Laramie Democratic Sen. Chris Rothfuss, Cheyenne Republican Sen. Tara Nethercott and Ten Sleep Republican Sen. Ed Cooper attend a Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee meeting in Casper. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile) Wyoming’s tax-and-revenue structure and conservative policies work well for families and communities close to the minerals industry, but the state has long failed to address underlying challenges such as economic diversification and affordable housing, business council board member Mark Christensen told the minerals committee. The lack of affordable and accessible healthcare is another headwind for economic development, he said. “Why does everybody want to work for the government or the state? Because that’s the only place in Wyoming you can get [good] health insurance,” said Christensen, a former Campbell County commissioner who also serves as a Campbell County School District 1 board trustee. “Wyoming has lower taxes and Wyoming has all these other things,” he added, “but that’s not what drives people like what drives the quality of life. I feel like sometimes we don’t address the hard problems.” Reform themes For its part, the appropriations committee wants the business council’s financial programs to shift away from grants and focus more on loans, Bear said. Grant programs, which may shift to some other state agency, should be reserved for bolstering basic infrastructure in towns, while loans are more appropriate for businesses. “I think one of the things that this body is really, really interested in is making sure that the totality of this operation [the business council] doesn’t lead to a welfare for the well connected,” Bear said. The minerals committee tasked the business council with auditing and suggesting which among its 13 programs might be eliminated or handed to another entity — an effort already underway within the council. However, committee members said they’re interested in focusing on how to potentially restructure the council’s Business Ready Community grant and loan program. The program was established in 2003 to support publicly owned infrastructure — water and sewer system expansions as well as curb-and-gutter additions — as a means to attract new businesses. Yet towns have long struggled to even maintain basic services, let alone expand infrastructure to attract new ventures.  And in recent years, the business council has been criticized for concentrating Business Ready Community support to communities that are already growing — a more bang-for-the-buck approach that ensures actual economic growth, agency leaders have said. “It is the most controversial [program] that the business council [oversees],” Dorrell agreed. “It’s the least-known thing that the business council does with the biggest dollar amount. We sort of have this confluence of all of these challenges — let’s tackle that one.” The Business Ready Community program received no new appropriation for the upcoming two-year budget, but it continues to operate on leftover dollars from previous appropriations. Both legislative committees will resume their review of the business council in June. 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