In recent months, the Equality State Policy Center (ESPC) has drawn public attention to tax policy and tax system accountability issues affecting our state's fiscal health and every citizen's pocketbook. Among other things, the ESPC has pointed out the significant losses to state coffers due to tax rate reductions and tax breaks to the mineral industries, and the need to capture more value from our publicly-owned and non-renewable resources.

Since 1985, the Wyoming Legislature has allowed taxes to expire and awarded tax breaks that reduced revenue for the 1999-2000 biennium by $190.4 million - the equivalent of nearly 20% of the state's discretionary General Fund income. $36.4 million was in severance tax reductions on oil and natural gas. Now, a state with vast mineral wealth, including some of the hottest natural gas plays in the country, is on the verge of a financial emergency.

Now, a state with vast mineral wealth, including some of the hottest natural gas plays in the country, is on the verge of a financial emergency. Instead of restoring previous levels of mineral taxation, the Governor and legislative leadership are attempting to increase taxes on citizen and small business taxpayers to replace what has been given away in mineral tax giveaways and balance the state's budget.

The ESPC feels that multitude of reductions in state severance taxes that oil and natural gas producers have received in recent years are not warranted, and that the taxes that have historically been paid on oil and natural gas production should not be shifted onto citizen and small business taxpayers.

A study by the Mineral Tax Incentives Subcommittee of the Joint Appropriations Interim Committee has just been completed and released by a team of University of Wyoming economists. The question the study sought to answer is whether or not all these tax breaks for oil and natural gas resulted in increased production and employment, or would help preserve existing production and jobs. The answer came back a resounding: No. (The remainder of the study, focusing on coal, is in progress and will be completed by year's end.)

To see the ESPC's guest opinion column on the subject, or the Executive Summary or entire text of the study and report, please visit the following links:

ESPC guest opinion column, Repeal Severance Tax Breaks for Oil and Gas

Mineral Tax Incentives, Mineral Production, and the Wyoming Economy, Executive Summary

Mineral Tax Incentives, Mineral Production, and the Wyoming Economy, Complete Report

ESPC Special Report, Putting Together the Pieces . . . Wyoming's Budget Crisis