Next time you’re at the gas pump, cursing the higher prices, somebody in Wyoming will be smiling.
Colorado’s neighbor to the north has one of the fastest-growing economies in the United States, thanks to its booming energy industry – and for the first time since their oil boom a generation ago, Wyoming residents now earn more than Coloradans on a per capita basis.
Colorado’s average per-capita personal income in 2006 was $39,186, up 4.5 percent from 2005. But Wyoming’s average was $40,676, 9 percent higher than 2005’s average of $37,305, according to a new U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report.
“Their gains are at the expense of everyone who puts gasoline in their car,” said Martin Shields, a Colorado State University economics professor. Nationally, per-capita personal income rose 5.2 percent, averaging $36,276.
Wyoming’s economy, much like Colorado’s, has been boom and bust for decades. But unlike Colorado, Wyoming has the budget flexibility to save for those rainy days. Wyoming also saves a share of its mineral severance tax revenues in a permanent trust fund. Lawmakers used $400 million of surplus revenues this year to set up a fund to help residents pay for higher education.
But rather than being jealous of our neighbors, maybe we should just borrow their good ideas.
