2023 Wyoming Infrastructure Report Card
2023 Report Card GPA: C
Wyoming’s 580,000 residents are spread across almost 100 million square miles of often harsh terrain. Population growth is slow, and the state relies on federal funding for almost 60% of their annual revenue. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will send significant additional funds to Wyoming for transportation and water systems but will only temporarily close structural funding gaps – not proportionate with identified needs. Even with federal support from formula and competitive money, many Wyoming communities struggle collecting funds needed to match.
Wyoming’s infrastructure systems are struggling to support core operations on already-low fees that lose purchasing power as high inflation rates persist following the COVID-19 pandemic. A quarter of drinking water systems spend more than they bring in from ratepayers, a third of those systems don’t charge by usage; and Wyoming’s median wastewater treatment system bills only half the national average. The $0.10 increase of state motor fuel taxes from 2013 has also lost significant ground from increasing vehicle efficiencies.
Wyoming can be a tough place to keep infrastructure high functioning. Corrosive soil throughout the state is shortening the lifespan of metal pipes delivering fresh water for resident consumption. The Equality State has experienced moderate to severe drought conditions every year since 1999 and is allocated only six million acre-feet of surface water per year of the 15 million acre-feet of surface water originating within the state. Drivers pay the gas tax on fill-ups within Wyoming, but the state loses out on registration and other fee revenue from the over 85% of commercial trucks neither beginning nor ending their routes in the state. For the supply chain in the American West, Wyoming is a “bridge state” maintaining critical links from the Pacific Coast to the Midwest.
Wyoming has been described as a small town with a very long main street, reflecting the willingness of citizens to drive longer distances for community, work, recreation, and shopping. This is reflected in Wyoming’s more than 14,000 vehicle miles traveled per capita in 2018, the highest in the nation. Engineering in the state is the most effective way to ensure the safety of motorists dying in crashes by greater numbers than any other state, 25.4 per 100,000 residents.
Read the executive summary here.
Link to Post:https://infrastructurereportcard.org/trump-signs-executive-orders-to-begin-second-term-creating-uncertainty-for-iija-spending/">Trump signs executive orders to begin second term, creating uncertainty for IIJA spending
