Serving as the unsuccessful quasi-governmental economic development arm of the State of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council has received over $1.66 billion in legislative appropriations from 2001 to 2025 (table below). Basically their function is to create revenue and jobs by re-imagining the Wyoming economy. They do this at the direction of corporate influence, gubernatorial mandates, political trends/pressure, and whatever federal grants are available.
Published on Oct 15, 2025 the WBC posted the results of “a statewide poll of 514 people” – less than .1% of Wyoming’s population of 587,618 residents. How survey respondents were chosen is not shared, and the exact language and questions of the poll are not shared. What they do share is statements such as these:
- Action is Mandated: 79% of respondents favor their local town or county taking decisive action to grow jobs and expand the economy.
- Youth Retention is Key: A virtually unanimous 90% believe it is somewhat to extremely important for local government to invest in programs that help retain or attract young people and recent graduates.
- Support for Growth: Nearly two-thirds, 65%, said they support growing their local population to support new economic opportunities and businesses.
At a glance, and in a hurry, some people would likely agree with those statements. But, as usual (and especially with quasi-governmental entities) the devil is in the details. Here are a few worth pointing out:
- “expand the economy” = without any public input whatsoever they will choose new forms of business such as deploying nuclear energy into Wyoming and plan for the storage of spend nuclear fuel
- “invest in programs to retain or attract young people and recent graduates” = college programs for skills and training in the nuclear field
- “growing local population” = they want to import workers or import out-of-state leaders of nuclear projects into our communities (Example: Radiant Industries Matt “Wilson, who’s planning to move to Wyoming with his family”, Cowboy State Daily article).
- these actions are “mandated” and require “decisive” and “urgent” action
Whether you agree with those statements or not, they ultimately point to a desperate attempt for public support of the unsuccessful Wyoming Business Council and, as always, more money from taxpayer’s pockets. In fact they are certain the survey results of 0.1% of WY citizens “Affirms Need for Urgent Grassroots Action”.
Here are just a few examples of Wyoming Business Council failures:
- Cody Laboratories was founded in 2000. In 2007 the business was acquired by Lannett Company, Inc of Pennsylvania. In 2012 Cody Laboratories received $2,531,424 WBC grant to “construct a 23,725 SF warehouse facility to be attached to the existing Cody Laboratories facility on the south side of the west end of the existing structure”. By 2018 Cody Laboratories was up for sale, and by 2019 it was shutting down.
- In 2010 a $2,998,599 WBC grant was awarded for a new headquarter building for Eleutian Technology in Cody, Park County. According to the Cody Enterprise, four years later, half the company had been sold to a Japanese company, and the other half appeared to be up for a sale.
- Bright Agrotech was founded in 2010 by agronomist Nate Storey, University of Wyoming graduate. In 2017 Bright Agrotech was acquired by a San Francisco company, Plenty (Plenty Unlimited Inc. #3898923, CA Secretary of State). In 2021, the WBC approved a $2,685,750 grant and $209,250 loan for Bright Agrotech (see page 12). In 2023, Governor Gordon proudly announced that Bright Agrotech (“first innovated here in Wyoming by one of our own”) would receive an additional $20 million WBC grant. Despite $23million of taxpayers dollars, and being backed by Jeff Bezos, one year later in March 2025 Plenty was filing for bankruptcy.
- In April 2023 WBC recommended $600,000 for purchase of a manufacturing building Phoslock Environmental Technologies in Casper, which SLIB approved. In August 2023 the Natrona/Casper Economic Joint Powers Board purchased the building for Phoslock. By November 2023 Phoslock had changed their mind – which left Natrona/Casper Economic Joint Powers Board with an empty building partially bought with taxpayers funds. Because the Natrona/Casper Economic Joint Powers Board does not have any public accounting of this, and the WBC does not acknowledge this failure anywhere – no one really knows if the $600,000 was ever paid back.
Using taxpayer dollars to purchase buildings or anything else for private business is not only repugnant, it is also ineffective. Nevertheless, that is what the Wyoming Business Council calls “economic development”.
To learn more about quasi-governmental entities in Wyoming click here.
To see our page on the Wyoming Business Council click here.
WBC Legislative Appropriations 2001 – 2025
All funds appropriated by the WY Legislature for the WY Business Council occur under Section 085 in budget and supplemental budget bills. (This does not include any stand alone bills or separate legislative actions that might appropriate more money.) Bill links are embedded in year. To view entire 5 column table, hold cellphones horizontal.
| Year/ Bill Link |
General Fund |
Fed Funds | Other Funds |
Notes |
| 2001 | 2,000,000 | (Section 332) | ||
| 2002 | 21,942,094 | 7,688,091 | 1,755,612 | (Fed Funds for WBC in Section 001 Governor’s Office) |
| 2003 | 21,992,094 | 7,688,091 | 1,755,612 | |
| 2004 | 53,386,925 | 7,844,061 | 22,50,612 | |
| 2005 | 69,722,525 | 7,844,061 | 2,509,212 | |
| 2006 | 98,512,938 | 7,844,061 | 1,759,212 | $10,000,000 from Section 006 for Business Council Welcome Centers |
| 2007 | 131,762,938 | 7,844,061 | 1,759,212 | |
| 2008 | 114,178,070 | 7,919,061 | 1,503,019 | |
| 2009 | 114,178,070 | 7,919,061 | 1,503,019 | |
| 2010 | 77,670,784 | 7,844,413 | 1,578,019 | |
| 2011 | No Section 085 | |||
| 2012 | 78,717,746 | 7,876,279 | 1,775,180 | |
| 2013 | 74,186,546 | 7,876,279 | 1,775,180 | |
| 2014 | 94,193,880 | 6,216,186 | 1,792,180 | |
| 2015 | No Section 085 | |||
| 2016 | 60,278,509 | 6,236,031 | 1,741,200 | |
| 2017 | 53,075,030 | 6,236,031 | 1,741,200 | |
| 2018 | 55,832,165 | 6,224,757 | 1,748,103 | |
| 2019 | 55,832,165 | 6,224,757 | 4,748,103 | |
| 2020 | 40,640,269 | 6,252,924 | 9,752,241 | |
| 2021 | 35,326,245 | 6,252,924 | 9,752,241 | |
| 2022 | 40,801,096 | 0 | 9,943,094 | |
| 2023 | 70,942,363 | 0 | 9,943,094 | |
| 2024 | 86,977,306 | 1,242,905 | 5,955,117 | |
| 2025 | No supplemental bill passed | |||
| Totals | 1,452,149,758 | 131,074,034 | 74,789,850 | $1,668,103,642 |