Josh Durell, chief executive officer of the Wyoming Business Council, presented the agency’s biennial budget and exception requests to the Joint Appropriations Committee on Nov. 20 and urged lawmakers to consider larger infrastructure investments to stem long‑term population and economic decline in the state.

Durell summarized a strategic reorientation since 2019: the Business Ready Communities program now applies a stronger business‑case lens for state investments, the agency reduced program fragmentation and reorganized staff to emphasize local problem solving. Durell said the council is now focused on unlocking community infrastructure (water, sewer, industrial sites) and building commercial‑grade broadband backbone and redundancy to attract and sustain businesses — not consumer broadband alone.

Broadband redundancy and federal funding: Durell said Wyoming has captured hundreds of millions in federal BEAD/CPF and CARES broadband grants (committee staff cited roughly $348M in federal broadband funding overall), which target consumer coverage but do not fund the kind of commercial backbone redundancy needed by data centers and large employers. He asked for a $50 million state investment to build higher‑capacity backbone (an example cited was an 864‑strand cable) and to encourage sites suitable for hyperscale or data‑intensive businesses; he framed that ask as complementary to federal funds that expand household coverage.

Scale of need: Durell told lawmakers the agency’s analysis shows communities face a shortfall in infrastructure investment of roughly $500 million to $1.7 billion to make local sites “business ready.” He said those numbers include water/sewer and other enabling infrastructure needed to attract private investment and that the Business Council’s full request totals $111,770,612 for the biennium while the governor recommended $54,623,232.

Programs to support entrepreneurs and manufacturers: Durell described targeted programs that leverage federal dollars and local partners — SBIR match and kick‑start grants, market‑expansion grants, manufacturing‑works operational assistance, and startup support — and said those programs have higher success rates in Wyoming than national averages for federal commercialization competitions.

Committee questions and concerns: Lawmakers pressed several issues including: whether the council had spoken to the governor about the scale of its request (Durell said yes), how much federal broadband money has been deployed (committee staff and witnesses noted CARES and CPF spending and oversight constraints for BEAD), how the council would allocate a $50M infrastructure appropriation (Durell said he would provide the committee a deployment plan), and the role of state investment versus private market solutions. Members also debated the council’s role in “picking winners,” local capacity for growth, workforce and CTE connections, and lease practices for state agency offices (committee members suggested WBC consider state‑owned facilities to avoid lease language that marks offices as gun‑free zones). Durell said WBC programs are increasingly selective and that infrastructure investments are intended to unlock multiple private projects and community benefits, not subsidize single firms.

Durell closed by saying the Business Council’s budget arguments are rooted in an interrelated need for infrastructure, regulatory reform, workforce development and strategic state support to keep Wyoming communities competitive. He committed to providing additional materials requested by the committee including deployment plans for major infrastructure asks and more detailed program performance reports.