Barron: State’s workforce key to development – Casper Star-Tribune Online

A new, long-term economic diversification initiative kicks into gear this month.

Bearing the acronym ENDOW (Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming), the goal is the development of an economic diversification strategy for the state in order to build a sustainable and diversified, value-added economy by 2038.

It is admittedly difficult to get excited about yet another study on how to diversify Wyomings natural-resource-based economy.

It seems to me, however, that one advantage of the new effort over past initiatives is the emphasis on a 20-year program if it can be sustained.

The Wyoming Legislature historically has had a bad case of attention deficit disorder when it comes to economic diversity.

That is why previous studies have been started in panic only to be abandoned once the drills start drilling again and the money starts pouring in.

A second wise move is the emphasis on workforce development.

Of the $2.5 million appropriated for the initiative, $1.5 million is dedicated to workforce development and training.

The ENDOW programs 15-member board will devise four-year action plans.

Regardless of what the board ultimately recommends, there is no way any state program will find enough businesses or industries that will produce the same revenue as the extractive industries have contributed in Wyoming.

So the state and the new board must look at all the practical alternatives and their needs and reduce their revenue expectations accordingly.

As a former economic development official once observed wryly, Toyota never came.

The Bloomberg article published in December last year received a lot of attention in economic development circles. It identified Wyoming as the possibly most economically troubled state in the country, even worse than the Rust Belt states.

This is an old story. Wyoming was often described as the Appalachia of the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Bloomberg article said Wyomings economy has lagged because it is built around the energy extraction industry and because we dont have enough people. Wyoming has no large metropolitan areas.

The article also pointed out how many Colorado residents commute to work in Cheyenne.

Randy Bruns, director of Cheyenne LEADS, is the premier economic development guru in the state.

He mentioned the Bloomberg article and its reference to Cheyenne and Wyoming in an interview a week ago on Wyoming Public Television.

Bruns said Cheyenne has done well in supporting economic development for the last 30 years.

So he was rather astonished at the results of a survey his group conducted in conjunction with Laramie County Community College about 18 months ago.

It showed 20 percent of the people employed in Cheyenne commuted from their homes in Weld and Larimer Counties in Colorado.

There are a number of Cheyenne residents who work in Colorado. But the numbers dont equate.

The Colorado people work here but dont spend money here or have any investment in the community.

So were creating the jobs, but were filling them from surrounding counties, Bruns said.

The problem? Inadequate workforce.

Bruns said earlier that the city lost a couple of companies because it couldnt produce the workers with the type of skills necessary.

Today, even warehouse workers must have computer skills, he said.

The challenge is to have a discussion about our workforce and why do people want to be here or why they dont and what can we do about it and do we want to do anything about it, Bruns said.

That is a good starting place for the ENDOW council.

Incidentally, the Bloomberg article referred to Wyoming residents as Wyomans.

The word was created by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a 2011, Scalia was the only dissenter in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Wyoming in a water rights spat with Montana.

In his dissent, Scalia referred to Wyoming residents as Wyomans. He inserted an asterisk next to the word and explained in a footnote:

The dictionary-approved term is Wyomingite, which is also the name of a type of lava, see Websters New International Dictionary 2961 (2d ed. 1957). I believe the people of Wyoming deserve better.

Wyomans never did catch on. Wyoming residents remain Wyomingites, lava or no.

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Barron: State's workforce key to development - Casper Star-Tribune Online