Did you know that Wyoming is one of just three states in the entire country that has not opened its books for its citizens to see where all our state money is going?
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Did you know that Wyoming is one of just three states in the entire country that has not opened its books for its citizens to see where all our state money is going?
Yes, sadly, that is true.
I know Wyoming newspapers have been working hard to get the state to open its books, but it should not be this hard.
One of the biggest issues this election cycle is that the state budget has a shortfall. As a candidate, this is important to me but imagine my surprise when I discovered how hard it is to even find out where Wyoming’s money is being spent?
Years before running for governor, my wife Lynn and I donated to a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan charitable government watchdog organization called OpenTheBooks.Com. That organization, whose honorary chairman is former Oklahoma U. S. Sen. Tom Coburn, has been very effective in getting many of Wyoming’s accounts open. If I am honored to serve as your governor this will be one of my highest priorities.
As a result of the efforts of OpenTheBooks.com, we discovered that the state of Wyoming paid a magician $35,000 to perform at one of its state conferences. What a waste of our hard-earned money!
We also found out that $15,000 was paid so that a video documentary could be made about something called the Dutch Hop Dance! Again, could not that money have been used for something that would help Wyoming people more than that?
And how likely is it that we as taxpayers would decide to send $500,000 to an out-of-state Boulder, Colorado marketing firm to devise a new University of Wyoming slogan? This is the type of wasteful spending that may have gotten our budget out of whack.
In the 25 years in Wyoming building my business to $15 billion assets from $800 of accumulated Army leave pay -- not a single penny of wasteful spending ever entered our books. I relish taking that discipline to our state spending.
Wyoming needs more transparency. Join my efforts at Fosterfriess.com.
Foster Friess is a Republican candidate for governor of Wyoming. He is a retired conservative businessman. He and his wife Lynn are 25-year residents of Wyoming. He can be reached at www.fosterfriess.com.
