Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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Here are a few Wyoming news items of interest from the week of December 15th, 2024:
Tuesday, December 17th, this article appeared in Buckrail announcing the ribbon cutting of Teton County’s new Swinging Bridge. Closed since October 2023 (and reopened last month), the vintage 1960 bridge was formerly an iconic single-lane crossing the Snake River near Jackson. The new and improved structure now boasts two lanes and a separate pedestrian pathway. Ironically, while the name implies otherwise the former and current Swinging Bridge spans never actually swung. You have to go back to 1938 for the origins of the name when a real swinging bridge spanned this section of the Snake River. I don’t know about you, but this latest Swinging Bridge incarnation just doesn’t have the charm of the earlier versions. What do you think?
Thursday, December 19th, Cowboy State Daily published this article about State Representative Steve Harshman’s plan to resurrect a property tax reduction bill from last year’s session that, if successful in 2025, would eliminate property taxes for 97% of Wyoming homeowners. To make up for the lost revenue, state sales tax would increase from 4% to 6%. Harshman, a Republican legislator from Casper, summarized the end result of the bill as being “a way to really change that tax from a property tax payment to a consumption tax”. While Harshman hasn’t settled on the final version of the bill he’ll introduce during the 2025 legislative session, you can read the 2024 version of House Bill 0203 Property Tax Reduction and Replacement Act at this link.
And, on Friday, December 20th, Governor Mark Gordon read a proclamation at the Sweetwater County Courthouse designating January 5th, 2025 as Nellie Tayloe Ross Day in homage to the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of Wyoming’s and the nation's first female governor. In a 1924 special election, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor of Wyoming following the death of her husband, Governor William Bradford Ross. Out of the special election’s 79,000 votes cast, Nellie won by 8,000 ballots a larger margin than her husband’s victory two years earlier. Nellie Tayloe Ross did not win re-election in 2026, however, she remained active on the political scene and in 1933 was appointed as the first woman Director of the U.S. Mint by President Franklin Roosevelt. She served four five-year terms before retiring from politics in 1953. Read more about the Governor’s proclamation in this article at SweetwaterNow and to learn more about Nellie Tayloe Ross, check out this article at WyoHistory.org.
That’s all for today buckaroos! Thanks for reading and have a great week!
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