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CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) unanimously approved a Business Ready Community (BRC) grant and loan request from the City of Laramie at its meeting on April 3, 2025. The request, presented by the Wyoming Business Council (WBC), will support WyoTech’s expansion plans in Laramie.
Project Details
Laramie requested a $5 million Business Committed grant and a $5 million loan to support WyoTech’s construction of a 137,000-square-foot facility. The new 32-acre campus south of Venture Drive will house expanded trade training programs, including welding, advanced diesel, heavy diesel, and trim.
The approval comes with specific contingencies that are in line with the WBC’s expectations of communities to take more responsibility for economic development at the local level. These include 80 percent revenue recapture on the grant returned to the WBC with potential escalation to 100 percent if job and performance metrics are not met, and a restriction preventing grant dollars from being used for pre-construction activities.
The total project cost is $42,842,750 and includes a $32,842,750 match from WyoTech. The project is expected to create an additional 99 positions to WyoTech’s current 240, with a median wage of $35.80 per hour.
Focus on Local Investment
During discussions, SLIB members and the WBC team emphasized the importance of local “skin in the game” and the need for communities to utilize all available resources, including local economic development taxes, to meet their goals.
State Treasurer Curt Meier highlighted this concern: “Communities have been almost totally relying on state funding, and that’s something we’re going to have to wean them off of so they take more interest in their own futures.”
Currently, Goshen County is the only Wyoming county with a local economic development tax. WBC CEO Josh Dorrell noted this is “an important and underutilized lever to build local self-reliance” and a key consideration when evaluating BRC project requests.
Building Self-Reliance
Dorrell described the WBC’s approach as balancing community growth opportunities with encouraging local responsibility: “We want to utilize BRC projects like this as a lever for self-reliance. The challenge is that we have local control, which we all love, but not a lot of local responsibility, which is harder.”
He added: “We’re looking not just at this project, which we’re all excited about, but at the system where the deeper problems lie. I’m glad we’re having these conversations and taking the courage to address these issues.”
The WBC continues to work with communities across Wyoming to develop resilient economic development strategies that combine state resources with local investment and commitment.
Watch the SLIB Meeting here (the WBC presentation is at the very beginning).