Wyoming Road Usage Charge

They need to stop hiding word of their vast flying tarantula farms. Sure, they aren't always venemous but most people can't get over how many are able to enter houses via the sewer system.

 

I believe you have to be a resident for 5 or 10 years to qualify for the state dividend. I believe the annual fund payment was only $5k a few years ago.

 

That would be nice. But the weather there is enough to keep me out.

 

Not really a big deal. Many have judgements against them so the state takes them, I honestly haven't seen a big deal about dividend time, just more retail spending. Lots of them also never really remember to apply.

1 year residency. The largest we've ever gotten was just over $2k

That is correct. We actually should have gotten a $2700 dividend in 2018 and $2300 in 2019, but our government took most of them to balance the state budget. They spend like drunken sailors and figured out how to get their paws on the dividend, so it won't be around much longer.

 

Nobody around. People that hate being around other people live there. Same in ND.

 

While this proposal isn't going to happen us in Wyoming really don't need to do the above as we fully know where the budget problems are coming from.

In Wyoming us individuals and small businesses have had extremely low taxes because we have enjoyed decades of thermal coal and oil and gas paying most of the bills. Unfortunately due to the downfall of thermal coal and the boom in natural gas drilling resulting in a glut of cheap natural gas and lower prices the writing has been on the wall for years in Wyoming.

Even without environmental regulations the economics of thermal coal have been tanking for years now but our spineless legislators keep kicking the need for new revenue can down the road because it will be politically expensive for them to really address.

Basically all our cowardly legislators do is propose some form of additional revenue that they think will sound like it won't hit the locals as much and then it hits the news and then it goes away.

Here is a news story that will describe the states situation better.

For Wyo’s untaxed generations, the 'free ride' may be over

But as the state legislature only convenes in a budget session in even numbered years and they got nothing done this year we will just have extreme budget cuts for the next couple of years.

The Governor is already slashing budgets which means that WYDOT has to cut plowing operations and will limit overtime and will probably not plow anything overnight if we have a rough winter nothing is going to fix this this year.

With the fact that towns like mine only have 3 ICU beds and because those beds cannot be shared between Covid-19 cases and other cases this is the year to slow the hell down and increase your following distances when driving across Wyoming, especially if you have a light road.

As Utah is rationing care and Wyoming ICUs will most likely be full over the next few weeks if you crash this year you simply will not get a normal standard of care if you need to go to the ER.

Even if the Interstate travel lanes are plowed at night the medians most likely will not be and non-Interstates will not be plowed at night and the roadway will only be made passable for drivers who are taking reasonable winter driving precautions.

I apologize that my elected officials being cowards impacts you but please plan for extra time and slow down this year for your own health and safety.

The only thing that made it out of committee related to transportation was increasing the 24 cent fuel tax by 9 cents....we will see if that actually happens.

The state legislature hasn't allocated any general funds to WYDOT in years and the departments revenue has been reduced every year for the past 10 years so they didn't even have the ability to deal with the impacts of normal inflation. Basically our cowardly legislators have known about this problem for 20 years and have refused to deal with it and have been slowly taking money away knowing that the impacts of being underfunded wouldn't show up for years and years.

Now it is catching up to us and the Federal Highway Trust Fund problem will make this a national problem in the next few years.

It will get ugly but it won't only be Wyoming.