This proposal would appropriate $100,000,000 to the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account from the General Fund to match private, state or federal funding for research, demonstration, pilot or commercial deployment projects related to Wyoming energy needs, including, but not limited to, carbon capture utilization and storage including soil carbon, carbon capture on coal/gas fired utility plants, carbon dioxide transportation, industrial carbon capture, coal refinery, and hydrogen production, transportation, storage and/or hub development, wind or solar.

Foundational funding to build a center of excellence that will ultimately be funded through other mechanisms, including competitive research grants, support from industry, and more. This will focus on how hydrogen can add value to Wyoming resources and other energy programs.

This proposal creates pathways to economic growth, job creation, and prosperity. Some of the outcomes of this project will be a Growth Diagnostics, Comprehensive Economic Diversification Strategy (CEDS), identification and mitigation of economic growth constraints, an investment thesis (investment framework based on research and analysis of its return potential) and growth-oriented policy recommendations.

Creation of a special projects team to address the complex challenges that hinder Wyoming’s economy. At the same time this project will also provide structure to better seize opportunities (i.e.: nuclear, CCUS, hydrogen, etc.) and engage business and communities in collaborative problem solving.

The intention of this proposal is to take full advantage of the Infrastructure bill's once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure investment in a way that captures the most market share for Wyoming. The funding will be used for contractual support for grant writers and managers to pursue federal competitive funding opportunities within the infrastructure bill.

The future of many businesses that supported the energy sector is at risk. Small- and medium-sized companies have a diminished capacity to pivot or create spin-offs. Several medium and large businesses are eager to pursue new opportunities and collaborate but there is a lot of uncertainty right now. This proposal creates productivity enhancement and incentive programs to support Wyoming industries as they make changes in their business models.

The United States has inferior public airborne geophysical data coverage relative to other developed countries, and Wyoming has some of the worst coverage in the United States. This would allow for more regional coverage of public, or pre-competitive, airborne geophysical data that reduces exploration risk, attracting private investment.

The Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP), endeavors to create the functional environment through a collaborative approach that will give Wyomingites the skills, means, and tools to drive economic development across the state and to provide workforce expansion and better training opportunities to help residents secure higher-paying jobs and careers.

The current unique-solution to-each-problem approach is causing inefficiency. We need a unified vision and clear policy narrative. Developing a Wyoming agriculture industry strategy for economic development is the outcome of this funding.

How can we build a stronger entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in Wyoming? Through strategic investments that support innovation when it is most likely to fail due to lack of funds and also build a strong road map for future funding that generates deal flow for local investors that support the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Develop a scholarship fund that is administered by WEDA that sends groups of not less than 10 people per year from local communities to training (together) and certifications.

Large and expensive anchor buildings in Wyoming downtowns need renovation that cannot be done while fitting needed economics for a successful development. This would be a study of building inventory, number of buildings that could be stabilized, number of grants that could be used, other uses, planning options, and researching other funding sources.

An infusion into the Trust Fund will allow the funds to be held in perpetuity in an interest bearing account. Only the interest earnings will be spent in the following years. This could help start a private foundation that will match the public investment with private dollars. This structure will allow for a self-sustaining foundation that will pay for future costs.

Matching grants to non-profit organizations across the state for the purpose of humanities-based programs and projects to help Wyoming’s communities realize growth through a period of change.

Due to the pandemic, Wyoming State Parks and Wyoming communities saw a 41% increase in outdoor recreation visitation as people sought out places to escape and improve their mental and physical health. Communities and parks did not have the capacity to provide outdoor recreation opportunities and infrastructure for this growing number of visitors. This trend is expected to continue. Existing outdoor recreation infrastructure does not have a robust funding source for ongoing construction, maintenance, and enhancement. This grant program would lead to construction of new outdoor recreation products and to maintain existing outdoor recreation infrastructure for the enjoyment of future generations.

Wildlife crossings involve infrastructure work to enhance wildlife migration and movement of big game populations. This would be matching funds for projects funded by the Infrastructure bill to enhance big game populations while saving millions of dollars in vehicle damage and personal injury costs.

The WWNRT currently has a corpus of approximately $115,000,000 and generates as much as $5,000,000 a year in interest, while not insignificant, the need for conservation funding is growing. With this funding we plan to meet the increasing concerns with terrestrial invasive plants across our rangelands and address the safety of our travelers through wildlife crossing projects. The conservation demand is nearly triple the current funding available and multiple projects are delayed or staged when they could be expanded with adequate funding.

The Wyoming Housing Grant Fund is a pilot to provide start-up financing to better address Wyoming’s unique statewide housing needs. This provides more flexibility to fund housing for Wyoming’s workforce, homeless citizens, low-to-moderate income rental housing, and moderate-income home ownership.

Tourism visitors seek more than a great stand-alone attraction. They seek holistic experiences. Wyoming is also realizing increasing demand for livable communities offering a variety of soft amenities for workforce relocation and economic development. These funds would be a first round of funding for enhancing community amenities; and events, functions and courses that can be adapted to accommodate ever-changing interests. The Wyoming Office of Tourism, in collaboration with the Wyoming Business Council, will solicit applications from Wyoming communities/counties for destination defining development projects. A local 20% match will be required.

The WBC has ten projects in the BRC and CDBG programs that are beginning construction or are in the process of final design and bidding of the projects. Due to the unforeseen consequences of the COVID pandemic, building materials for all types of projects have seen a dramatic increase in construction costs to complete. In many cases, the costs have increased 30-40% above the original certified project estimates done at time of application.

In tandem with higher education proposals this would allow decision makers to consider options to fund ARPA eligible portions of seven workforce-specific proposals: Wind River Job Corps, Talent Transition, Career Center Development/Relaunch, Targeted Healthcare Workforce Program Proposal, Targeted Early Childhood Workforce Program, Workforce Development Training Fund/Apprenticeship Program Expansion, Provide upskilling, training, soft skills, etc. to overlooked or otherwise not WIOA eligible populations.

The program is designed to provide infrastructure funding to improve broadband access to unserved and underserved areas across the state. All infrastructure will be installed, owned, and operated by private companies who have to apply for funding.

In 2021, Governor Gordon directed the Wyoming Department of Health to provide emergency funding to stabilize staffing in hospitals and long-term care facilities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If funded, this project would expand staff retention funding for additional provider groups and settings, first for those who care for extremely vulnerable populations (Tier II) and, second, for those serving at-risk populations (Tier III). Potential provider groups include:

• • • Developmental disability service providers;

    • Intermediate care facilities;

    • Community Choices Waiver providers (long-term care);

    • Congregate care providers;

    • Hospice providers;

    • Mental health and substance abuse providers;

    • Free-standing emergency rooms;

    • Primary care clinics;

    • Human service providers who serve at-risk and low-income residents.

This project would fund healthcare and human services facility infrastructure and capital construction needs. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a great deal of infrastructure and capital construction needs at healthcare and human service facilities throughout Wyoming. These needs include: hospital and long-term care facility upgrades and renovations, like HVAC improvements, isolation rooms, negative pressure rooms, and single occupancy rooms; capital construction investments in community mental health and substance abuse centers, primarily residential settings; capital construction investments in senior centers and child care facilities across Wyoming; and remodels necessary to adequately care for “hard to place” clients, including youth, at congregate care facilities.

This project would set aside funding for investment in expanding the availability of telepsychiatry in Wyoming. The WDH would design a competitive request for proposals to develop a network of Wyoming-based psychiatric providers as well as a technology platform on which customers (including courts, medical providers, community service providers, and others) could access the network for various telepsychiatry needs (e.g., remotely-conducted psychiatric evaluations and provision of care).

This funding will allow for a variety of opportunities for innovation in the health and human services areas. Projects may include innovations in the areas of telehealth, rural health, mental health and behavioral health reform, substance abuse, long-term care, human services, digital medical and health information technology.

This proposal will provide funding to expand the Suicide Lifeline to 24/7 operations while supporting the initial transition to the 9-8-8 crisis intervention system.

Wyoming lacks a standard medical response system within the 9-1-1 dispatch centers, leading to a lack of medical guidance occurring at the time of the emergency call. This proposal asks for a one-time investment of start-up costs for purchase of the Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) curriculum, staff training, and recertification will bring all 9-1-1 response centers up to the same standard of care delivery across Wyoming, enabling immediate medical response to occur over the phone.

This proposal further enhances Wyoming resource support by establishing regional resource champions that can provide in-depth services and care coordination. The resource center network will enhance local level support to ensure connections are made and services are delivered.

Increased needs for resources during the pandemic have highlighted a gap in the connection between local resources and would-be service users. Wyoming 2-1-1 has long been an integral actor in assisting citizens to make the connection with various resources, helping to reduce long-term costs that come from missed connections. This proposal seeks to designate ARPA funds to increase Wyoming 2-1-1 program capacity to better address the increased need and to create a marketing campaign to help increase awareness about the non-profit and improve public knowledge about this critical resource.

Due to changes in service utilization, facility closures and quarantines, delays in court proceedings and changes in lengths of stay, the Department has made monthly payments with a higher proportion of general fund than federal fund, and has an insufficient amount of general fund remaining to continue to reimburse providers for access to crisis facility services through the remainder of the 21/22 biennium.

Increase public knowledge and use of the Wyoming 211 program to better connect Wyoming citizens to available resources.

Mental health issues have increased during the pandemic and in 2020 Wyoming had the highest recorded amount of deaths by suicide. This proposal looks to implement a Mental Health First Aid program across the state to help in addressing these problems. The program provides classes on Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention, with the goal of having 102 trained instructors to cover each county as well as each higher education institute in the state. By providing these education opportunities, the goal is to equip the citizens of the state to better handle mental health concerns and help to prevent suicides.

Due to the pandemic, many ambulance services are at risk of shutting down in Wyoming. These emergency services are vital to ensure a suitable coverage area, especially in rural Wyoming. This proposal looks to provide temporary funding while the taskforce works on seeking more solid funding options.

Currently, emergency medical services continue to rise in cost without a sustainable funding source. This is placing a significant financial burden on local and county entities. The regional pilot project will allow regions to convene and develop local solutions for regional pilots. The goal is to pilot programs that decrease costs and increase access to emergency services.

The SNAP program is largely underutilized in Wyoming, with only 30% of eligible families receiving benefits. This proposal looks to provide the funding to bring in private stakeholders to take on the task of assisting in bringing eligible people onto the program. This proposal is a part of a larger effort to address food insecurity and nutrition deficits that contribute to chronic health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Chronic health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes cost Americans $1.1 trillion dollars, not including lost productivity or other extra costs. One of the major contributors identified in causing these chronic health conditions is nutrition, and nutrition can be a major factor in successfully managing a chronic health condition, thereby reducing healthcare costs. This proposal looks to pilot a program that provides resources for patients experiencing diabetes or heart failure around nutrition and wellness education and access.

One-time funding to create programming at the DOC’s Honor Camp to resolve a backlog in treatment created by COVID.

One-time funding to alleviate the fiscal stresses on the UW FMRP during a period in which the FMRP is fostering a new administrative relationship with

its clinics--now managed by the Educational Health Center of Wyoming (EHCW). The decrease in clinical income related to the pandemic has added further fiscal challenges to the programs. The funding request provided below will assist the FMRP for the next 12-18 months, after which time the support will be recommitted by the EHCW.

Identify and complete necessary and beneficial eligible portions of the critical technology needs for public safety via the Revenue Information System and/or WyoLink.

The Departments of Family Services and Agriculture are proposing funding for a two-part project: (1.) Hire a consultant to study and evaluate the current capacity of non-profit organizations to maximize state and local distribution and minimize waste of donated and publicly purchased food to feed needy children, families, and elderly. The intent is to examine the current distribution network and identify best practices and opportunities of enhancement and improvements.

An application program for local governments to benefit citizens across Wyoming by funding opportunities to help them Thrive. This program would also align with the Governor’s view of the importance of local control, as it would provide local communities with the ability to direct how a portion of State ARPA dollars should be spent wisely for future impacts. This would include eligible water projects as well as other uses local communities do not have the funds to pay for on their own.