Compass 2017

ECONOMY

HOUSING

EDUCATION

ELECTIONS

JACKSON HOLE

2017 EDITION

LEADING the region Jackson Hole’s role in the greater Teton community.

REGION

INSPIRE INVEST INSPIRE: serving as a leader, catalyst and resource

The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole supports all of Jackson’s nonprofits through Old Bill’s Fun Run, a collaborative fundraiser, and our grant programs.

Each year, Community Foundation dollars are busy helping feed the hungry, helping care for the sick and elderly, helping protect wildlife and open space, helping build affordable homes and helping to enrich our lives through the arts.

Gifts to the Community Foundation touch everyone living in Teton County.

INVEST: devoting time, talent and treasure to positively impact the community

Since 1989, the Community Foundation has granted to nonprofits including over

$261 million

$22 million in 2016. The Foundation

consistently ranks as a national leader in gifts and grants per capita.

INSPIRE “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

—Helen Keller

DO MORE. Work with the Community Foundation to enhance your giving and ensure you leave a lasting legacy.

PHOTO: ROGER HAYDEN

FEATURED LISTING

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We help solve problems.

“Brad sees the big picture better than almost anyone I know. He is extremely prepared and doesn’t just deal in the abstract. What was reassuring was Brad’s broad experience and legal knowledge. In a recent mediation, there was an issue of law that I was sure nobody else had figured out — it was the first issue out of Brad’s mouth. There is no substitute for smart.”

Mel C. Orchard, III — The Spence Law Firm, LLC, Jackson, Wyo.

High-asset divorces Complex commercial disputes Real estate disputes Catastrophic injuries

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7 CANYON VIEW DRIVE SHERIDAN, WYOMING 82801

CONTENTS JACKSON HOLE

2017 EDITION JHCompass.com PUBLISHER Kevin Olson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Adam Meyer EDITOR Johanna Love CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jonathan Schechter MANAGING EDITOR Richard Anderson ART DIRECTOR Kathryn Holloway

6

Introduction It takes a storm or other crisis for Jackson Hole to realize how connected it is to its neighbors.

8 Comp Plan Vision To realize our audacious vision will require courage and specific steps.

16 Demographics

Teton County’s population growth is among the top 5 percent in the nation.

21 Economy

We have more jobs than residents, and taxable sales will likely keep increasing.

30 Housing

The data suggest there’s little Teton County can do about its housing crisis.

34 4

Education The tourism economy provides a plethora of jobs for those without higher education.

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

38 42

Elections There’s a clear political divide between voters in Jackson and those in the unincorporated county.

Coal-dependent Wyoming This coal-powered state continues to struggle with a changing energy market.

46 Region

Growth in Teton County and its bedroom communities is booming.

51 54

PHOTOGRAPHERS Bradly J. Boner, Ryan Dorgan COPY EDITORS Jennifer Dorsey, Mark Huffman, Tom Hallberg RESEARCH ASSISTANT Will Stabler CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER Lydia Redzich AD DESIGN & PRODUCTION Sarah Grengg, Kelsey Chapman ADVERTISING SALES Karen Brennan, Tom Hall, Chad Repinski, Megan LaTorre, Oliver O’Connor ACCOUNT COORDINATOR Maggie Gabruk CIRCULATION MANAGER Kyra Griffin CIRCULATION Hank Smith, Jeff Young, Mark Whitaker

Peers Income inequality in Teton County, Wyoming, is greater than in any other U.S. county.

Directory Find out who’s who in local, state and federal government and how to get hold of them.

OFFICE MANAGER Kathleen Godines ON THE COVER: Dawn commuters cruise over Teton Pass between Teton Valley, Idaho, and Jackson Hole.

BRADLY J. BONER PHOTO ©2017 Jackson Hole Compass Additional copies available for $2.95 each.

Bulk discount available.

Jackson Hole News&Guide P.O. Box 7445, 1225 Maple Way Jackson, WY 83002; 307-733-2047 FAX: 307-733-2138, JHNewsAndGuide.com

2016

GREETING THE DAWN EDWARD ALDRICH

May • ElkFest & Old West Days July • 4th of July Parade Summer • Town Square Shoot Out Gang and Stagecoach Rides

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March/April • Town Square Easter Egg Hunt September • Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival September • Jackson Hole Marathon

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INTRODUCTION

O

ne community spanning two states and at least three counties. This is the greater Tetons metropolitan area.

Of 3,114 American counties, 1,824 have 20,000 or more residents. In 2016, six of those larger counties had more than one job for every resident, relying on workers from the surrounding region to fill their jobs.

Five of the six were major Jonathan Schechter metropolitan areas: New York City, with 1.82 jobs per resident; Washington, D.C. (1.3); Atlanta (1.05); San Francisco (1.03); and Boston (1.02).

The sixth county was Teton County, Wyoming, with 1.33 jobs per permanent resident.

Jackson Hole has more jobs per capita than any major American city except New York, yet it has barely 1 percent of New York’s population. Like its much larger counterparts, Jackson Hole has suburbs, counties surrounding it that house large numbers of its workforce. Over the last 40 years, Jackson Hole’s two primary suburb counties — Teton, Idaho, and northern Lincoln, Wyoming — have experienced greater population growth than did the suburban counties surrounding any major U.S. city during the 40 years following World War II. Socially, economically and eco-

logically, the greater Tetons region is one tightly linked community, with people, money, animals, and elements flowing easily and readily into and out of Jackson Hole. We’re also linked by our collective challenges, for the growth spilling over Teton Pass and down the Snake River and Hoback canyons is causing problems our neighboring communities are struggling to address. Save for the occasional storm, landslide or avalanche, though, the only real barriers dividing the region’s residents are geographic and political.

Hence the theme of this year’s Compass: regionalism. As we’re reminded every time a road into Jackson Hole closes, the region’s communities are symbiotic. Yet because of

The Charture Institute and what it does The content of the 2017 Compass was produced by the Charture Institute. Founded by Compass author Jonathan Schechter, Charture’s focus is co-thriving: the state in which both human communities and their ecosystems simultaneously flourish.

In pursuit of co-thriving, Charture focuses its efforts in five related areas: Learn, Teach, Act, Fund and Inspire.

Learn and Teach are exemplified by the Jackson Hole Compass and Charture’s annual “22 in 21: The State of Our Community” conferences. Translating learning and teaching into meaningful action is done through efforts such as Charture’s innovative “Healthy

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Business, Healthy Planet” initiative, which brings together business leaders effecting meaningful sustainability-related change in their industries and communities.

“Fund” is done through 1 Percent for the Tetons, now into its second decade as a leading funder of regional sustainability efforts.

“Inspire” comes from the annual 1 Percent for the Tetons Video Blitz, a film-based celebration of cuttingedge sustainability efforts in the Tetons region.

Charture is a 501(c)3 tax-deductible charity. To help support our efforts or learn more about Charture, go to Charture.org or contact Executive Director Jonathan Schechter: 307-733-8687 or js@charture.org.

BRADLY J. BONER

Within the town of Jackson many economic and political forces are at work.

those geographic and political barriers, it’s sometimes hard to think of us as one tightly connected community.

With luck, the data and analysis presented in Compass 2017 will, at a minimum, make our interconnectedness more apparent.

Besides a new theme, this year’s Compass also offers a new feature: Three Big Things. Each section of Compass starts with a focus on three items that are particularly important, interesting, or useful to know, a way for readers to quickly get a sense of what’s going on with that topic. Captions on graphs provide not just analysis, but key numbers on which the graphs are based.

Among the good stuff we’ve kept from past editions of Compass are the excerpts from the “State of My Jurisdiction” speeches delivered by local leaders at January’s “22 in 21: The State of Our Community” forum put on by my Charture Institute.

While the greater Tetons community has a large number of political jurisdictions for such a lightly populated area, the region is blessed that its land use managers and political leaders are so conscientious and accomplished.

Producing Compass would not be possible without the contributions of many talented professionals at both Charture and our co-publisher, Teton Media Works. On behalf of all of us, thank you for your readership.

— Jonathan Schechter

New and Noteworthy New at St. and John’s Noteworthy Medical Center Leading Community Wellness at at St.St.John’s Medical Center John’s Medical Center

Awards and Recognition Awards and Recognition

Patient & Employee Experience Patient & Employee Experience

92% 92%

Safest Hospital in Wyoming Safest Hospital Quantros and Consumer Reports in Wyoming

Gold Seal

5-Star Rating

American College of Radiology Gold Seal

Presented to St. John’s Living Center 5-Star Rating

by CMS to Presented

American College of Radiology

Quantros and Consumer Reports

Of employees polled in a 2016 Survey consider St. John’s Medical Center one of employees polled in in a 2016 Survey theOf “Best Places to Work” Teton County. consider St. John’s Medical Center one of the “Best Places to Work” in Teton County.

#1 #1

St. John’s Living Center

by CMS

St. John’s Medical Center’s ranking for “Patient Centered Care” by the National St. John’s MedicalCorporation.

Center’s ranking for Research “Patient Centered Care” by the National Research Corporation.

4-Star Rating

“A” Ranking

#1 Ranking

Presented to St. John’s Medical Center 4-Star Rating

by CMS to Presented

Leapfrog Group

For Joint Replacement Rehab #1 Ranking

by Marshall For JointSteele

“A” Ranking

Leapfrog Group

St. John’s Medical Center

by CMS

> 90% > 90%

Of patients polled in a 2016 survey answered favorably when asked if they would Of patients polled in a 2016 surveyPractices. answered recommend St. John’s Physician favorably when asked if they would

Replacement Rehab

by Marshall Steele

recommend St. John’s Physician Practices.

2016: By The Numbers 2016: By The Numbers

2,796

3,503

16,432

17,450

200

2,081

8,815

79,432

Surgical Visits

Oncology Visits

Urgent Care 16,432 Visits

Joint 200 Replacements

Miles Raced

Emergency 8,815 Visits

Outpatient 79,432 Visits

Surgical Visits

Oncology Visits

Urgent Care Visits

Resident Nights at17,450 St. John’s Living ResidentCenter Nights

Emergency Visits

Outpatient Visits

2,796

3,503

at St. John’s Living Center

Joint Replacements

tetonhospital.org

2,081 (through Worksite Wellness) Miles Raced

(through Worksite Wellness)

COMP PLAN VISION “Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community, and economy for current and future generations.”

— The vision of the Jackson/ Teton County Comprehensive Plan

I

n last year’s Compass, I argued that no other community in America — and by extension the world — enjoys Jackson Hole’s combination of economic, social and environmental resources.

Here’s another thing no other community in America has: a vision for itself as bold, dynamic and utterly audacious — as utterly visionary, if you will — as the one adopted by local government in the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan.

In fact, you could argue the vision is so audacious that it’s overwhelmed our local governments. Having adopted it, they ignore it; not because they don’t believe in it, but because they have no idea how to pursue it. Thus the price of being visionary.

This essay’s foundational belief is that the Comp Plan’s vision is not just audacious but also profoundly necessary. Why? Because as the vision suggests, ultimately the human communities in the Tetons region can be no healthier than the ecosystem in which they lie. To that end, this essay will explore what it will take to bring the vision to life, to define and activate a strategic plan that will move the greater Tetons region ever closer to fulfilling the Comp Plan’s vision.

Context

The first six words of the Comp Plan’s vision are its essence: “Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem ...”

The remaining 15 words are its rationale: “... in order to ensure a healthy environment, community, and economy for current and future generations.”

While these are great motives, they’re not necessarily audacious: What community would oppose a healthy environment, community or economy?

What makes the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan’s vision truly audacious is its fifth word: “Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem...” “Area” is a loose term, but if we think of it in terms of connections — in terms of the daily flow of people, money, critters, and so much more into and out of the Jackson Hole valley — at a minimum the area whose ecosystem we’re trying to “preserve and protect” stretches from the northern border of Yellowstone National Park to

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

the southern end of the Star Valley, a swath of land many times larger than Teton County.

And that’s what makes the plan’s vision audacious, if not crazy: It seeks to preserve and protect an area extending far beyond the jurisdictional control of the town of Jackson and Teton County, Wyoming. But while it may be crazy, it’s also necessary, for if we really do care about the community we’ll leave to future generations, we need to be thinking well beyond our community’s political boundaries to those of the area’s ecosystem.

To frame the discussion, let’s first stipulate the obvious. Pursuing the Comp Plan’s vision will require everyone involved — local government and businesses, full- and part-time resi-

dents, visitors and land managers alike — to act differently, for change won’t occur if we keep doing the same thing over and over. And while there is no guarantee that acting differently will produce a different outcome, the scientific evidence makes it clear that if we keep acting the same way, we’ll slowly but inexorably ruin the area’s ecosystem. Complementing the science is the weight of history: Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 1760s, no area with an advanced economy has successfully preserved and protected its ecosystem.

Does this mean preserving and protecting the area’s ecosystem is impossible? Not at all. What it does mean, though, is that there’s no road map or blueprint for achieving our vision. In

BRADLY J. BONER

Voters in Jackson Hole recently rejected taxes to address affordable housing and transportation. Now what?

far more important than anyone could have imagined, both within the region and beyond. Even more remarkable?

All of these accomplishments occurred well before the Jackson Hole area led the world in its combination of environmental, economic and social resources. How fitting if those of us lucky enough to live here today can harness our extraordinary resources toward something that, for our time, is as audacious and important as the legacies left to us.

So how do we make this happen?

How do we design a strategy that will get us from where we are — with an audacious vision but no path to get there — to a place where we are actively working to preserve and protect our ecosystem? The answer is to create a strategic plan, one which, in this case, will feature three key elements: getting our politics right; making changes within Teton County and the town of Jackson; and providing leadership within the region. The place to start is with local politics.

Jackson Hole politics

that sense, those wanting to bring the Comp Plan’s vision to life are analogous to Lewis and Clark setting out on their expedition. We know there’s something out there, but we aren’t sure what it is, nor how to approach it.

We also know the pursuit will be full of mistakes and risks — sometimes big; hopefully not fatal.

Yet as finance theory tells us, high risk can produce high reward, and the potential reward for this community is not only achieving its audacious vision, but providing an example other regions can follow to preserve and protect their ecosystems. In addition, if we succeed it will mean that this generation of Jackson Hole residents will leave to future generations a legacy as great as those left to us by our fore-

bears, who in their times did things as audacious as found the world’s first national park (Yellowstone in 1872), elect the nation’s first all-women’s town government (Jackson in 1920), create arguably the world’s greatest publicprivate partnership (the expansion of Grand Teton National Park in 1950), and develop one of the nation’s singular fundraising events (Old Bill’s Fun Run in 1997).

Today we recognize that all of these were extraordinary accomplishments.

Much harder to recognize is that, during their times, each proposal was as audacious as the Comp Plan’s vision, for each was a never-before-imagined idea. Yet proponents persevered, and over time the fruits of their seemingly impossible efforts have proven

“Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem...” is a political statement, the result of a multiyear process ultimately ratified by Jackson Hole’s local governments. If they are to see their vision become reality, though, they first need to correct a fundamental problem: local politics and local government are not aligned.

In November 2016 and again in May 2017, Jackson Hole’s elected officials asked voters to authorize taxes to address what officials believed were the two most significant problems facing the community: affordable housing and traffic. Both times, the voters said “no”: in 2016 to a general request; in 2017 to all but one discrete request.

Why? Three reasons suggest themselves: Distrust of government, concern about growth, and no counternarrative to a vision of sprawl.

Jackson Hole is special place but far from unique, and distrust of government is a hallmark of our times. The local consequence has been that it’s no longer enough for elected officials to say “Trust us to do the right thing.”

The local twist on this is that voters like the community the way it is, and see anything related to additional See COMP PLAN VISION on 10

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

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growth as potentially harmful to their quality of life. As a result, every chance they get they’ll vote against measures they see as linked to additional growth.

Hence, for the past decade-plus, almost every zoning, affordable housing, or motorized mass transit measure put before voters has gone down in defeat.

Arguably this isn’t fair. For example, it’s not clear how upgrading an aging bus fleet — a funding request on the May 2017 ballot — affects the community’s growth. But because it’s hard for most people to directly affect land use decisions, the only way most voters have to express their concerns is to vote against the occasional ballot measure that seems to be growth-related.

(In a related aside, the next domino to fall in this “no more growth” chain will likely be the lodging tax, which comes up for reauthorization in November 2018. Fairly or not, opponents will link the tax to growth and corporate welfare. When those messages resonate with voters, unless there’s another recession the lodging tax will go down in flames.)

Along with distrust of government and dislike of growth, there’s a third reason why Jackson Hole’s politics and government aren’t aligned: Leaders have not given voters a tangible vision of the future, much less the path we’ll follow to achieve it.

The Comp Plan’s vision is wonderful. However, because no one has ever achieved such a vision, there’s no clear sense of what the “preserve and protect” community will look like. Making matters worse, there’s no common understanding of the steps needed to achieve that community. As a result, when envisioning the future voters default to a picture of Jackson Hole that mirrors what they know other cities to look like; i.e., places plagued by sprawl, the quality many people moved to Jackson Hole to escape. Absent a clear countervailing vision, the default reaction is that any new development is only going to contribute to turning Jackson Hole into yet another Sprawl-ville.

As a result, the reason the debate over every proposed development turns into a death match is because the community is missing context, a shared vision for allowing residents to judge just how important or trivial any particular development proposal might be. And absent that perspective, when any new proposal is introduced, people react — or overreact —

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

accordingly.

Which makes Jackson Hole a bit like high school, save with a ton of money.

Like high school, Jackson Hole is hormonal. Impassioned. More than a bit self-absorbed. An ever-shifting admixture of high ideals and even higher immaturity.

Go into the lunchroom at any local high school and let the energy wash over you. Young people are excited by everything, even if today’s source of excitement is different than yesterday’s, and will change again tomorrow. It’s wonderful; it’s age-appropriate; it’s the process of youth maturing into what they will become. It’s an environment of high passions and little perspective — whatever’s going on in the moment has the potential to be the greatest thing ever or the end of the world.

Jackson Hole is similar. Few people move to Jackson Hole because they have to. Instead, most of us are here because we want to live in a place that speaks deeply to us, that touches us at a profound level. As a result, it’s a community hallmarked by high energy and even higher passion.

There’s a catch, though. Just like in high school, Jackson Hole’s highs are wonderfully high and its lows powerfully low. When things don’t work out, on an individual level we get things like the community’s high rates of suicide, alcoholism and domestic abuse.

On a collective level, when two visions of Jackson Hole collide, we find ourselves battling over not just a simple commercial transaction, but something far more fundamental — a sense that someone else is threatening what Jackson Hole means to us. And in the same way that, if I think you’re flirting with my girl in the high school lunchroom, I’ll punch you first and ask questions later, in Jackson Hole I’ll fight you tooth and nail if I think your plan for changing Jackson Hole interferes with my vision of what this place should be.

When hormones and passion rage, it’s hard to compromise, much less be rational.

Hence we fight and fight and fight some more, waging battles royale over even the smallest of proposed changes.

Why? Because while we share a lot of passion, we lack both perspective and a mutually agreed-upon vision of what our community is or should be.

As a result, we have no way of judging how important any proposed change might be. And when that happens, the net result is not just political gridlock, but a dynamic in which elected officials seem to be at odds with the people they represent.

To move beyond that, Jackson Hole needs a shared vision of not just what the community is and could be, but how it will get there. The place to start is by focusing on that which local governments can control; i.e., what happens within their jurisdictions.

Control what we can control

In algebra, it’s impossible to simultaneously solve an equation with multiple variables. Instead, each variable must be addressed one at a time, eventually reducing the complex problem to just one unknown.

Applying this concept to Jackson Hole, one reason we go into political gridlock over every development proposal is because each contains a number of variables we try to solve all at once. What are a proposal’s effects on the environment? Housing? Traffic? The workforce? If it’s impossible to simultaneously solve a mathematical equation with multiple variables, how can a poor elected official make a decision about a similarly complicated development?

Writ large, the same problem applies to achieving the Comp Plan’s vision. Preserving and protecting the area’s ecosystem is a wildly complex problem, and we lack a clear strategy for addressing it.

Applying the algebraic approach of addressing only one variable at a time, here’s an 11-step process for pursuing the Comp Plan’s vision.

• Step 1: Define the goal.

What does it actually mean to preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem? There are three key elements.

- Ensure viable populations of all native species.

- Preserve all scenic vistas.

- Protect the conditions that allow natural processes to occur, including adaptation and evolution.

• Step 2: Understand what is needed to achieve each “preserve and protect” element.

This includes not only the requisite ecological research, but also understanding how humans interact with the area’s ecosystem. Why? Because unless the area’s residents and visitors feel the vision benefits them, any attempts to preserve and protect the ecosystem will fail.

• Step 3: Identify all ecologically important lands.

What are the county’s important

wildlife habitats, migration corridors, scenic vistas and other lands necessary for native species to thrive and ecological processes to occur? We can’t preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem unless we know. And in identifying them, we can’t be parsimonious, for nature isn’t precise. Hence we not only have to preserve and protect known habitats and migration corridors, but leave plenty of room for future adaptation.

• Step 4: Conserve our ecologically important lands.

Having identified all ecologicallyimportant lands, local government must act to preserve and protect them by partnering with landowners and organizations such as the Jackson Hole Land Trust.

• Step 5: Evaluate the capacity of Teton County’s roads.

Steps one through four focus on the natural world. What about Jackson Hole’s human population? Step five begins this process by looking at Teton County’s transportation system, in particular its roads. Barring some dramatic change, the Jackson Hole valley will remain dependent on cars and buses well into the future. Equally

certain is that the valley’s road system won’t significantly change. Combine the two, and the question underlying step five becomes “How much traffic can our roads reasonably hold?” The traffic problems of the last few years suggest the answer will be something close to where we are today.

• Step 6: Determine a build-out population.

The previous steps have determined how much land needs to be conserved and the valley’s transportation-related constraints. Step six’s goal is to figure out how many more people can live on the remaining lands without creating the massive traffic problems seen in major cities (e.g., because the San Francisco Bay area allowed housing to grow faster than its road capacity, the typical trip there takes 39 percent longer than it should; in Los Angeles, it’s 45 percent longer).

• Step 7: Calculate the difference between current and build-out populations.

The resulting figure is how much more growth the community should plan for.

• Step 8: Determine the socioeco-

nomic profile of the community’s additional residents.

Determining the mix of people living in Jackson Hole once the valley is built out is the hardest step of all, because it will force us to address our deepest desires and fears.

To stipulate the obvious, yes, this is social engineering. But the elephantin-the-room issue facing Jackson Hole is that the valley’s socioeconomic and demographic mix is already being determined by another social-sciencebased mechanism: economics. And what kind of community is economic engineering producing? One with the greatest income inequality in America. Where the middle class is rapidly shrinking. Where traffic is overwhelming the road system. And where the environmental qualities that form the bedrock of the community’s economy and character are slowly, steadily and clearly being compromised.

Thus the fundamental choice facing the community, and the reason step eight is the hardest. As much as people may be anti-growth, there is no question Jackson Hole will continue to grow. If the current “economic engineering” approach guides that growth, the end point is clear: Jackson Hole See COMP PLAN VISION on 12

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2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

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COMP PLAN VISION Continued from 11

will not come close to reaching the Comp Plan’s vision. Nor will it have a vital middle class. If this is not what the community wants, the alternative is the “social engineering” path. The risk of trying this approach is that it may not work. If it does, though, the reward is a community that has not just preserved and protected its ecosystem, but maintained its human diversity.

If the community decides to take the social engineering path, three additional steps are needed.

• Step 9: Determine nonresidential land needs.

Whatever the ultimate build-out figure, the community will need a certain amount of commercial, industrial, and other non-residential space. Determining how much and where is the goal of this step.

• Step 10: Revisit the plan to ensure it makes sense.

This quick — emphasize quick — process will look at steps one through nine as a whole, and make sure they all work together reasonably well. The goal is neither perfection nor delay, but instead a chance to identify and address any glaring macro-level problems.

Step 11: Unleash the private sector.

When step ten is done, step eleven becomes easy: Let the private sector have its way, building the kinds of units the community wants on the lands the community wants developed.

Will taking these steps be easy?

Not at all. But then again, the planning processes we’ve taken to date haven’t been easy, either, and it’s not clear that they’ve produced results the community is happy with, much less ones aligned well with the community’s vision.

More importantly, the planning processes we’ve taken to date have not created a generally accepted understanding of how we’ll get to our vision. As a result, we fight hammer and tong over every proposed development because we lack any sense of how any particular development fits into a larger whole. And as that happens, our politics become increasingly Balkanized and ineffective.

Viewed from a business perspective, the way Jackson Hole is currently trying to achieve the Comprehensive Plan’s vision is akin to stringing together a series of loosely linked tactical

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

decisions. This rarely works. Breaking the strategic process into a series of discrete steps will not only address this problem, but produce two other clearly needed benefits. One is to improve our politics, for the effort will produce the currently missing generally agreed-upon framework for making decisions. The other benefit will be to give Jackson Hole the credibility it needs to enlist the help of the area’s many other jurisdictions.

Lead the Region

The audacious quality of the Comp Plan’s vision is that it aims to protect the area’s ecosystem. There is no blueprint for doing this, but it is clear the effort will require every jurisdiction in

the region to act in new and different ways. Because this is Jackson Hole’s vision, though, it’s incumbent upon Teton County and the town of Jackson to lead not just within their jurisdictions, but across the region. Yet unless Jackson Hole can first show it is willing to change, it will have no standing to ask others to behave differently. In addition, the clearer Jackson Hole can be about its intentions, the easier it will be for others to plan around its actions.

So what is the region? To simplify, let’s include the two Teton counties, Star Valley, all of Yellowstone, and all of the Bridger-Teton and CaribouTarghee national forests. All told, this swath of land encompasses around 10 million acres and at least 14 federal

BRADLY J. BONER

Traffic builds up on High School Road after school in the fall of 2016.

and local political jurisdictions. And while a more comprehensive definition of the area’s ecosystem might extend the boundaries farther, this is a solid start.

To get all of these jurisdictions to support preserving and protecting the area’s ecosystem, two steps need to be taken.

First, as discussed above, Teton County and the town of Jackson need to back up their words with specific actions, ones that show they are serious about achieving their vision: Are they all hat, or do they have some cattle behind the words? Further, if done properly, a strategic plan for accomplishing the plan’s vison can be expanded to include specific asks of the area’s other

jurisdictions, making it easier for those jurisdictions to envision their roles in this new, audacious effort.

Second, if the town and county want other jurisdictions to help them achieve the Comprehensive Plan’s vision, they also need to be willing to help those jurisdictions address their issues.

What are those issues? To oversimplify, they fall in two categories.

The five federal agencies in the Tetons region all face the same basic problem: shrinking budgets and growing pressures on their lands. The national parks are arguably in better shape than their counterparts, because the funding for Yellowstone and Grand Teton is merely being trimmed,

while the National Elk Refuge and national forests are seeing their budgets slashed.

The county and municipal governments in the Tetons region face similar pressures. However, because they have less control over their jurisdictions than federal land managers have over theirs, the challenges local government face are arguably much more complicated. For the simple fact is that because Jackson Hole is growing, so too are the surrounding counties. Is this what those communities want?

We have no idea. If it’s not, though, then the resulting resentment toward Jackson Hole makes it unlikely they’ll support our vision.

What we do know is that the communities surrounding the Jackson Hole valley have become suburbs to Jackson Hole. Every day, roughly onefifth of all Star Valley and Teton County, Idaho residents leave their communities to work in Jackson Hole, and this link is absolutely vital to all communities involved — commuters keep Jackson Hole’s economy working, while Jackson Hole’s wages keep the economies humming both over Teton Pass and down the Snake River Canyon.

Yet this commuting dynamic creates profound problems for Jackson Hole’s suburbs, ranging from traffic congestion to stresses on families. How do these cash-starved, rapidly growing communities serve their residents well, when so many of them travel long distances to earn their livelihoods?

Complicating things further, unlike the traditional big-city-suburb model, the Jackson Hole “metropolitan area” is lightly populated, making standard solutions to commuting-related problems economically impossible.

In short, from an economic perspective, the Tetons region can be thought of as similar to any major metropolitan area, with two key differences: We have just 1 percent of the population; and, because both Wyoming and Idaho are deeply conservative, local governments have far fewer legal and taxing tools for address the consequences.

Before considering what to do, let’s recap where we are. If Jackson Hole is really interested in pursuing its vision, it needs to both act differently inside its borders and create different types of relationships with the region’s other jurisdictions.

See COMP PLAN VISION on 14

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

13

COMP PLAN VISION Continued from 13

Acting differently inside Teton County, Wyoming’s borders won’t be easy, but what needs to be done is both clear and within the control of local government. Creating different types of relationships with other jurisdictions is more challenging, for here the town and county will have to use soft power — developing an understanding of the desires and problems of our neighbors, and then helping where we can. Making things more difficult still will be that we have no experience in this and no blueprint to follow. But the reality is that other jurisdictions are facing challenges created or exacerbated by Jackson Hole’s growth, needs, and desires, and to get their help for what we want, we need to help them with what they want.

To do this, Teton County has one major arrow in its quiver: its wealth.

Teton County, Wyoming, is the richest county in the richest country in the history of the world. Compared to most places in America, its residents are lightly taxed, and tourists pay a goodly proportion of local sales tax, the largest single source of revenue for local government.

Add all this together and if we can figure out a way to use our wealth to help our cash-strapped neighbors, we stand a much better chance of getting them to help us realize the comp plan’s vision.

The most obvious tool is the lodging tax. Currently, Teton County levies a 2 percent tax on all lodging bills, which has raised roughly $6.5 million in he past year. Wyoming law requires that 60 percent of the proceeds be used to promote tourism (roughly $4 million), with the rest going to the town and county for a variety of purposes.

Three things about Jackson Hole’s lodging tax are notable.

First, by national standards it’s a wildly low figure. In 2014, only three of America’s 150 largest urban centers had lodging taxes below 10 percent, with the lowest at 8.64. In the five major cities with commuter problems most similar to Jackson Hole’s — Atlanta, Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. — the rates ranged from 14.45 to 16.25 percent.

Regionally, the lodging taxes in Salt Lake City were 12.6 percent; in Boise 13 percent; and in Denver 14.85 percent.

Heck, even Silver Gate, Montana, imposes an 8 percent lodging tax, four times Jackson Hole’s rate.

Communities impose lodging tax-

14

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

es for three reasons: they need the money; it’s politically easier to tax tourists than residents; and tourists generate costs. These reasons all apply to Jackson Hole, especially the latter: Of the many threats to preserving and protecting the area’s ecosystem, tourism is arguably the greatest. Yet even though tourism poses a greater threat to Jackson Hole’s well-being than it does in other communities, we paradoxically do little to offset the problems.

Second, under current state statute, Teton County and the town of Jackson can levy a lodging tax of up to 4 percent. Given that each 1 percent of lodging tax currently yields around $3.25 million, this means there is an untapped capacity for another $6.5 million in lodging tax proceeds. Add to that the fact that lodging tax collections have been growing around 10 percent annually for the past few years, and by 2020, every percent of local lodging tax levied will likely produce around $4 million.

Third, unless there’s a recession or a dramatic shift in how lodging tax

proceeds are spent, it’s highly unlikely Jackson Hole will still be levying a lodging tax in 2020. This is because, as mentioned earlier, the lodging tax is the next logical scapegoat for the community’s growth-related concerns. As a result, come 2019, as a community Jackson Hole will likely be leaving around $8 million on the table each year, and potentially twice as much.

That’s real money, and if channeled properly could become a valuable tool to help Teton County and the town of Jackson achieve their vision. So what can we do?

For starters, we can create and begin implementing a strategic plan for pursuing the Comp Plan’s vision. As part of that exercise, we can get the community to buy into a vision of a lodging tax that differs from the current one in two ways: Charge a much higher rate, and give local government complete control over the proceeds.

Getting these changes in place will require a change in state law, so in the spirit of working with other jurisdictions, let’s bring the state in as

RYAN DORGAN

Grizzly 679, known more commonly as Bruno by wildlife watchers and photographers, lumbers through snowcovered sagebrush in Grand Teton National Park in early spring 2017.

you’re right. For example, Wyoming’s legislature may balk. The tourism industry will fight it. And given the last two elections, voters might refuse to put more money in the hands of local government.

All these and more are fair objections, and any one could paralyze any efforts to realize the comp plan’s vision. But that gets to the heart of the issue. Having adopted a vision for the region that is utterly at odds with the status quo, are the town of Jackson and Teton County willing to walk their talk? If they are, they have to upend the status quo, for if we remain on the path we’re on, there’s no chance of realizing the comp plan’s vision.

Conclusion

a partner, giving them, say, one-third of the total amount taken in.

The remaining tax proceeds will be split into two equal shares. The second third of the overall total will go to local government, which will soon need a lot more money to replace all the retiring employees who began working for the town and county decades ago, when local government wages were sufficient to buy a local home.

The final third will animate the comp plan’s vision, giving Jackson Hole the funds it needs to help itself and the surrounding jurisdictions preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem. If the lodging tax is raised to, say, 10 percent, within a few years Jackson Hole will have over $12 million per year to fund the needs of the area’s ecosystem.

Whether this was used within Teton County or outside it wouldn’t matter, as long as it was clearly helping preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem.

Best of all, this needed money would be supplied by the tourists putting much of the stress on that ecosystem.

“But wait!” you protest. “That proposal has so many problems.” And

The ideas described in this essay are audacious. To bring them to life will require an equally audacious effort, one that will likely be uncomfortable and tedious and all-too-often contentious.

Yet the reality is that by adopting the Comp Plan and its vision, we’ve already launched ourselves down the path of audaciousness. We’ve put a stake in the ground saying we want a different outcome for our region than 250 years of history suggest we’ll get; we’ve formally stated that we want to do something no other place has ever done.

To achieve that vision, though, we need to do more, a lot more. In particular, we’ve answered only two of the three fundamental questions underlying any strategic planning effort. We know where we are. We know where we want to be. We’ve yet to define, though, how we’re going to get there.

Some of the steps described above can be done immediately; others will take time. Similarly, some can be done in parallel, while others build on each other sequentially. Ultimately, though, each has to be taken, including developing the dedicated funding source any successful long-term effort requires.

None of these steps is beyond our abilities. Nor is any of them beyond our imagination. We’ve already taken the first, most difficult step, creating a vision that resonates with not just residents and not just visitors, but with the

region as a whole.

Now the question is whether we are willing to act on that vision. To do so will be hard, for reasons including the fact that no one has ever done what we envision ourselves doing.

Yet what’s the alternative? It really boils down to two choices. The default is to continue doing things the way we’ve been doing them, and let the area’s ecosystem decline under our watch. The other is to try something audacious and hope that, with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, future generations will continue to enjoy the same healthy environment, community and economy that past generations have bequeathed to us.

One final thought.

If we do choose to pursue the Comp Plan’s vision, the going will inevitably get tough at times. When it does, I hope both current and future generations will ask themselves two fundamental questions.

First, do we believe in our vision?

Do we want to preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community, and economy for current and future generations? If we do, when times get tough we need to have the courage to persevere. If we do not, we should be honorable enough to memorialize our thinking for future generations. As in “Dear future generations. Here are the reasons we failed to take the actions needed to fulfill our vision; the rationale underlying why we chose to bequeath to you a degraded ecosystem and a less-thanhealthy environment, community and economy.”

Second, if we do believe in our vision, whenever someone objects to taking the hard steps necessary to bring it about — to setting growth limits, to actively helping other jurisdictions, to creating a dedicated funding source — we should ask them the obvious: “How, then, do you propose to achieve the comp plan’s vision?”

And when we do ask that question, we should demand specifics: The stakes are too high for platitudes.

As scripture reminds us, to whom much is given, much will be required.

To end where I started, Jackson Hole has arguably the greatest combination of environmental, social, and economic resources the world has ever known, not to mention an extraordinarily impassioned citizenry. Tying all this together is perhaps the world’s most audacious vision. Let’s pursue it.

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

15

DEMOGRAPHICS

H

ere are three big things to know about Jackson Hole’s demographics.

• 1. The Census Bureau counts far fewer people living in Teton County than the number who claim the county as their residence for tax purposes.

In almost every American county, the Census and IRS population figures are within a couple of percentage points of one another. In Teton County, Wyoming, however, there is a huge discrepancy, with a much higher percentage of people claiming Teton County as their residence on tax returns.

The reason for this is almost certainly a combination of two realities: Wyoming does not have a state income tax; and for those of means, Teton County has become Wyoming’s most desirable place to live.

The two figures were relatively

16

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

close until 2010, suggesting either a change in methodology by one or both agencies, or a sudden increase in Teton County’s attractiveness to those looking to reduce their tax burden.

• 2. Historically, lots of people move into and out of Teton County each year.

Two things changed around 2000.

For the first time in many years, some years saw more people moving out of the county rather than into it; and the percentage turnover each year began dropping.

In recent years, things have changed again. 2013 and 2014 both saw big jumps in new residents (at least for tax purposes). In 2015, the county’s population turnover percentage reached its low since migration data were first recorded. This was not a function of the number of people moving in and out dropping, for that figure has stayed fairly con-

stant over the past quarter century.

Instead, on a percentage basis, Teton County’s population turnover has become less extreme because the number of non-migrants — i.e., the county’s permanent population — is growing every year. For good or ill, the community’s population is becoming less volatile.

• 3. People moving to Teton County make about twice as much money as those leaving.

What’s striking is how the mean household income of both in- and outmigrants has been climbing sharply in recent years. Around the turn of the century — i.e., around the time of the first dot-com bubble — there was a six-year spike in the mean household income of new residents. After falling back during the early part of the 2000s, it began climbing again, culminating during the run-up to the recession.

IRS vs. Census Population Estimates In almost every American county, the Census Bureau’s population estimates are similar to people claiming residency for tax purposes. In Teton County, the discrepancy is the nation’s highest, with far more people claiming residency than the Census counts. Sources: IRS; U.S. Census Bureau

Intro Graph 1 Census v. IRS

30,000

30%

25,000

25%

20,000

20%

15,000

15%

10,000

10%

5,000

5%

2010

2011

2012

Census population estimates (left)

2013

2014

IRS / Census (right)

IRS exemptions (left)

Annual Migration: In, Out and Turnover Until the early 2000s, in most years a few more people moved to Teton County than left, and roughly one-eighth of the county’s population turned over every year. Over the last several years, there’s been a surge of in-migrants, and the turnover rate has dropped in half. Source: IRS

Intro Graph 2 Annual Migration

2,500

15%

2,000

12%

1,500

9%

1,000

6%

500

3%

BRADLY J. BONER

Dual immersion sixth-graders perform a skit during the program’s annual year-end celebration in May 2017.

1990-91 1992-93 1994-95 1996-97 1998-99 2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 2006-07 2008-09 2010-11 In migrants (left)

Out migrants (left)

2012-13

2014-15

Migrants / Non-migrants (right)

Mean Household Income: In-Migrants vs. Out-Migrants Until just the past few years, new residents’ mean incomes tended to be in the $100,000-$125,000 range. Starting in 2013, though, the mean household incomes of new residents was $226,125, $142,487, and $316,910; i.e., the three highest figures ever recorded.

Of perhaps even greater interest is that two of those same three years have set new records for the mean household incomes of people moving away from Teton County, suggesting there may be some truth to the old joke about billionaires driving out the millionaires. Even if not technically true, the data strongly suggest that there are good reasons to be concerned about the community’s ability to sustain economic diversity.

As a rule of thumb, people moving into Teton County earn twice as much money as those moving away. In the last few years, the amounts being made by both those moving into and leaving Teton County have risen markedly. Source: IRS

Intro Graph 3 Migrants’ Income

$350,000 $300,000 $250,000 $200,000 $150,000 $100,000 $50,000

1992-93

1994-95

1996-97

1998-99

2000-01

2002-03

In migrants

2004-05

2006-07

2008-09

2010-11

2012-13

2014-15

Out migrants

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

17

C. 12-15 Health Insurance Cover

Health Insurance Coverage Status, 2012 and 2015

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

2012 Total population AGE Under 18 18-64 65 and older ETHNICITY

PERCENT POPULATION INSURED UNINSURED UNINSURED 16,501 21,261 4,760 22% 4,280 14,928 2,053

3,828 10,736 1,937

452 4,192 116

11% 28% 6%

White Hispanic HOUSEHOLD INCOME

17,559 3,101

14,697 1,235

2,862 1,866

16% 60%

Less than $25,000 $25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$74,999 $75,000-$99,999 $100,000 and more

1,705 4,206 4,654 3,903 6,793

1,202 2,511 3,380 3,354 6,080

503 1,695 1,274 549 713

29% 40% 27% 14% 10%

2015 Total population AGE Under 18 18-64 65 and older ETHNICITY

PERCENT POPULATION INSURED UNINSURED UNINSURED 18,503 22,253 3,750 17% 4,197 15,529 2,527

3,846 12,201 2,456

351 3,328 71

8% 21% 3%

White Hispanic HOUSEHOLD INCOME

18,075 3,372

15,821 1,908

2,254 1,464

12% 43%

Less than $25,000 $25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$74,999 $75,000-$99,999 $100,000 and more

1,537 2,979 4,386 3,546 9,070

1,183 1,987 3,394 3,309 8,108

354 992 992 237 962

23% 33% 23% 7% 11%

2012-15 CHANGE Total population AGE Under 18 18-64 65 and older ETHNICITY

PERCENT POPULATION INSURED UNINSURED UNINSURED 2,002 992 -1,010 -21% -83 601 474

18 1,465 519

-101 -864 -45

-22% -21% -39%

White Hispanic HOUSEHOLD INCOME

516 271

1,124 673

-608 -402

-21% -22%

Less than $25,000 $25,000-$49,999 $50,000-$74,999 $75,000-$99,999 $100,000 and more

-168 -1,227 -268 -357 2,277

-19 -524 14 -45 2,028

-149 -703 -282 -312 249

-30% -41% -22% -57% 35%

St. John’s changes to reflect patients’ needs sions in the Affordable Care Act don’t change radically, Let me begin with what I’d like to end with: St. many in our community will continue to lack health John’s is a community medical center. Our mission is insurance, will rely even more heavily on St. John’s for to meet the health and wellness needs of the Jackson charitable care, or won’t seek care at all.

Hole community.

Changes for the better? The recruitment of Paul Access to and cost of health care are top local and Beaupre as CEO. Paul was formerly CEO of a large national concerns. On access, St. John’s seeks to prohospital complex in Silicon Valley, California, and bevide local health care services where clinically and economically feasible. Some basic statisfore that was a practicing physician and tics: Last year St. John’s assisted in the chief of staff. In just his first year, Paul delivery of 444 babies, provided nearly is already proving to be an asset for the 80,000 outpatient consultations, includhospital and the community. ing almost 9,000 emergency department Other favorable developments invisits. We had nearly 3,000 surgical cases, clude adding to our stock of employee 3,500 oncology visits, and provided 17,000housing, although it’s still not where plus Living Center resident nights. We we’d like it to be. recently added cardiology and diabetes We’ve also made continuing imspecialists to the medical staff, and new provements in the scope and quality general surgeons with different skills. of St. John’s services, and are getting Finally, we have invested in telecommuincreasing recognition of that quality nications technology and developed reboth by national rating organizations, lationships with the Huntsman Cancer and even more importantly, by local Center, enabling their expertise to be deresidents. As a consequence, St. John’s Michael Tennican livered locally. is increasingly becoming the choice for President of the Board Given Jackson’s distance from major elective procedures, which in turn helps medical centers and our sometimes chalour financial results. That noted, it’s of Trustees at St. John’s lenging weather, things might have not vital for the community to understand Medical Center that we don’t seek financial returns in have gone well for many of the urgent order to benefit remote investors, shareholders or pocases we took care of here in Jackson, so I think St. sition investors. St. John’s is a nonprofit governmental John’s is an absolutely vital component of our commuentity serving Teton County. We strive for financial nity. strength to continue and, where appropriate, expand St. John’s works to control costs wherever possible, the services we provide to the community. most importantly by avoiding complications. The costs What can the community expect to see in the comof hospital-acquired infections and other medical care ing year? An extension of the community health needs complications are staggering, and we work to avoid assessment, which is already underway in collaborathose by delivering the highest possible quality care tion with a number of partner organizations.. Building the first time. We also attempt via our wellness and on the needs assessment, you will see a major update other programs to identify and mitigate problems beand extension of our 2013 strategic plan, and a proposfore they become costly. al to help us replace our aging and obsolescent skilled Changes in the last year: For the worse, the national nursing facility. election results have created even greater uncertainty The new Living Center is our most urgent need and about how federal government mandates will affect greatest present single opportunity. the delivery of health care services. Even if key provi-

18

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

2010-2016 Population Growth In 2010, the Census Bureau counted 21,297 people living in Teton County, Wyoming. In 2016, it estimated a permanent population of 23,191, a total growth rate of 8.9 percent, and a compounded annual growth rate of 1.7 percent, twice the national average. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

2. 10-16 Pop Growth US v WYv TC

25,000

Population by Ethnicity, 2010 and 2015

20,000

Source: US Census Bureau 15,000 10,000

2010

2015

2010-2015 GROWTH

2010-2015 GROWTH

White

17,494

18,117

622

3.6%

Hispanic

2,704

3,369

665

24.6%

603

826

222

36.8%

20,802

22,311

1,509

7.3%

White

6,439

6,964

526

8.2%

Hispanic

2,606

2,609

3

0.1%

397

579

182

45.9%

9,441

10,152

711

7.5%

TETON COUNTY

5,000

Other 2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Total population TOWN OF JACKSON

Population by Area and Ethnicity, 2015 Latinos account for about 15 percent of Teton County residents, and roughly three-quarters of the county’s Latino residents live in Jackson. Since 2010, roughly 60 percent of the county’s 1,017 new residents have been white, 20 percent Latino, and 20 percent other. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Other Total population

12,000

TETON COUNTY - UNINCORPORATED

10,000

White

8,000

Hispanic

6,000

Other

4,000

Total population

11,056

11,152

97

0.9%

99

760

661

671.1%

207

247

40

19.4%

11,361

12,159

798

7.0%

2,000 Alta

Hoback

Jackson

Kelly

Moose Wilson White

Latino

Rafter J

South Park Teton Village

Wilson Rest of County

Other

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2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

19

Outselling All Area Brokerages in 2017 Year to Date - May 31, 2017

With over $273 Million in sales, Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty is responsible for 57% of the total real estate sales volume in Jackson Hole.

SOURCE: Teton Board of Realtors MLS Areas 1-10 and supplementary sales data.

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ECONOMY

H

ere are three big things to know about Jackson Hole’s economy.

• 1. Teton County continues to have the nation’s greatest income inequality.

In 2014, Teton County, Wyoming led the nation in income inequality: The 11 percent of households reporting incomes of $200,000 or more earned 88 percent of the county’s collective income. In only two other U.S. counties did residents who earned $200,000 or more account for over 80 percent of total income: Lightly populated McMullen, Texas, in which four households had incomes of $200,000 or more; and New York, New York, the island of Manhattan, where 15 percent of all households broke the $200,000 threshold.

Broadly speaking, the counties with the greatest income inequality fall into three categories: - Rocky Mountain and Florida resort communities

- New York, San Francisco, and their suburbs - Lightly-populated, hydrocarbonrich Texas and North Dakota counties • 2. Among American counties with 20,000 residents or more, Teton County ranks second in the number of per capita jobs.

In 2015, besides Teton County, only six counties had more than one job per permanent resident. Five were the homes of major commercial centers: New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and Boston.

The sixth was Williams County, North Dakota, the epicenter of North Dakota’s Bakken fracking boom. Of the seven counties, Teton County was least populous.

Looking ahead, it seems likely that Williams County’s numbers will fall as the fracking boom subsides. The other six, however, should continue to have more jobs than residents.

This creates a particular problem for

PRICE CHAMBERS

Taxable sales from Teton County businesses are expected to remain strong through the summer of 2018.

Teton County, for its population will not support the mass transit systems that abet major cities serving as job hubs for their regions.

• 3. Taxable sales will likely continue to be healthy through summer 2018.

Based on the stock market’s performance out over the past 17 months, projections suggest local taxable sales will slow in the summer of 2017, then pick up steam again in the fall.

Growth will continue, and by the end of summer 2018, taxable sales will be 14 percent ahead of where they were at the end of winter 2017.

That noted, because taxable sales at the end of winter 2016-17 have been stronger than this model suggests, the model’s predictive powers should be viewed with a strong note of caution.

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

21

U.S. Counties with Populations >20,000; Per Capita Jobs

Teton, WY

NUMBER OF PERCENT OF PERCENT OF TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS HOUSEHOLDS INCOME EARNED BY EARNING HOUSEHOLDS EARNING EARNING +$200,000 +$200,000 +$200,000 87.9% 1,490 11%

McMullen, TX

70

15%

86.9%

New York, NY

129,150

15%

82.5%

1,080

11%

78.5%

Pitkin, CO La Salle, TX

120

5%

74.8%

Glasscock, TX

100

16%

74.3%

Fairfield, CT

58,490

13%

73.1%

Marin, CA

22,770

17%

72.5%

Collier, FL

15,850

9%

71.2%

Westchester, NY

62,760

13%

69.3%

San Mateo, CA

51,790

14%

68.2%

580

10%

67.9%

Karnes, TX Summit, UT

2,660

13%

67.3%

DeWitt, TX

650

8%

64.1%

Santa Clara, CA

125,840

14%

63.4%

Goochland, VA

1,330

123%

63.0%

53,710

11%

62.8%

McKenzie, ND

610

12%

62.7%

Blaine, ID

930

8%

61.3%

43,230

6%

61.2%

San Francisco, CA

Palm Beach, FL

1. Counties over 20k & >1 Job

2,000,000

New York, NY 1,500,000

POPULATION

U.S. Income Concentration: 2014

Few U.S. counties have more jobs than residents. In 2015, Teton County ranked second in per capita among those counties with 20,000 or more residents. Coincidentally, among all U.S. counties, Butte County, Idaho, has the most jobs per capita, a function of its small population and being home to the Idaho National Laboratory. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Fulton, GA

1,000,000

San Francico, CA Suffolk, MA Washington, DC 500,000

Williams, ND 1

Teton, WY 1.25

1.5 JOBS PER RESIDENT

1.75

Protecting the wildlife, wild places, and community character of Jackson Hole jhalliance.org

Ryan Sheets

Ryan Sheets

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Josh Metten

2

Total Taxable Sales: June 2005-March 2017 Teton County’s taxable sales levels are closely correlated to the Standard & Poor’s 500 level of 17 months earlier. Based on recent stock market performance, it is likely that taxable sales will remain strong over the next couple of years. Source: Standard & Poors; WY Dept. of Revenue $1,500,000,000

2,500

$1,200,000,000

2,000

$900,000,000

1,500

$600,000,000

1,000

$300,000,000

500

June 2005

June 2006

June 2007

June 2008

June 2009 Taxable sales (left)

June 2010

June 2011

June 2012

Best fit line - r2=.921 (left)

June 2013

June 2014

June 2015

June 2016

June 2017

June 2018

S&P 500 - 17 month offest (right)

Elk feeding solution will require collaboration We are in a transition at the National Elk Refuge, issues, people have to do more than just point out a with Steve Kallin recently retired and our new refuge solution; they have to stick around and have those immanager, Brian Glasspell, scheduled to arrive later in portant ensuing conversations. the month. Because I am pinch-hitting in the interim, This reality also applies to the supplemental feedI want to share some thoughts less about the Elk Refing program on the National Elk Refuge. Supplemenuge and more about problem-solving in tal feeding and the increased risk of general. disease is the greatest management As involved community members, we challenge on the National Elk Refuge. are always looking for solutions to the If we ended the program tomorrow, are problems we face. More often than not, we as a community prepared to accept the issues affect not only us, but other the higher mortality rates seen in un-fed agencies and organizations as well. At elk populations throughout the country, the root of all issues related to change particularly in the calf population? Will is the fact that we never really reach the we see an increase of wildlife and motor point where we’re issue-free. Whenever vehicle collisions as more elk leave the you initiate a change, you create a new refuge and move throughout the valley? situation, and that new situation almost Is there a tolerance for more wildlife always comes with challenges of its own. in private subdivisions and developed Not unlike Newton’s theory that every areas, causing conflicts and property action creates a reaction — you can’t damage? Will there be complications Lori Iverson overlook that. from commingling with cattle on nearby Spokeswoman for the A case in point is a recent newspaper ranch lands?

National Elk Refuge piece about ending Grand Teton National The point is that we can’t just look at Park’s elk reduction program. The writer pointed out the issues at hand; we have to be proactive, look at the that we can’t be so focused on just one solution hat we unintended consequences, and answer some crucial ignore the larger, interrelated problems involving elk questions first. People from all sides of an issue need management. Would Grand Teton’s action cause elk to to sit down at the table together and have these converavoid forest and refuge lands in the fall? That would sations. Words like partnerships, public engagement, create more density for several months. What effect sustainability, problem solving and civility aren’t just would it have on other plants and wildlife? Would the buzzwords or trendy jargon, they are the keystones elk population increase? Would it exacerbate condito good decision-making, to keeping our community tions that lead to disease transmission? Would hunter strong and vibrant. opportunities decline?

At the National Elk Refuge we pride ourselves in “Unintended consequences” is what this is about. our openness and our transparency and we look at you Look at a problem or solution holistically, and uninnot only as our partners and our community, but as tended consequences can make a seemingly simple our friends. Thank you for your interest, your involvesolution become a lot more complex. As we discuss our ment, and your support.

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

23

Grand Teton wants healthy visitors, neighbors for the eclipse, and we’ve been planning for it for well over What has changed for Grand Teton National Park over a year. the past year? For a third consecutive year, in 2016 Grand The other thing we look forward to is taking our many Teton National Park had record visitation. Surprise, surrelationships to the next level. Our gateprise. The park received over 4.8 million way communities, park neighbors and visits, a 3 percent increase from 2015’s previous record. The biggest increases came stakeholders can count on Grand Teton during May, June and November when total National Park being extremely engaged visitation increased 20, 11 and 10 percent rein many of the conversations about our spectively. Over the past four years, visitaregion. How do we address the need for tion has increased 23 percent. affordable housing? How do we address In order to mitigate the impacts of intransportation issues and interests? Most creased visitation on park resources and importantly, how do we mutually provide the visitor experience, we’ve taken a varifor safe, rewarding, enriching visitor expeety of steps. These include creating a new riences? We all share this mutual interest String Lake volunteer team, beginning the while protecting the very resources for implementation of the Moose-Wilson corriwhich the world comes to enjoy. dor comprehensive management plan, and What keeps me up at night? As superhaving park social scientists and ecologists intendent, am I doing everything possible begin studying how visitors use String Lake to ensure my employees, volunteers and David Vela and Leigh Lake when they visit. At Grand Superintendent of Grand Teton our park community are safe and sound and, at the end of the workday, go home?

Teton National Park, we greatly value the National Park This also includes our park visitors, as I importance of science, especially as it perpersonally take very seriously any park-related injury or, tains to the human dynamic, and the human component, unfortunately, fatality for national parks.

The other thing that keeps me up at night: Are we Looking over the next year or so, here’s what our resiasking the right questions? Are we using appropriate scidents and visitors can expect. entific methods? Are we being transparent, and are we For a variety of reasons, we anticipate visitor growth properly engaging to ensure the resources with which will continue, especially because of the Aug. 21 solar you and I are entrusted are indeed protected? eclipse. Grand Teton is going to be a prime viewing area

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

E PLEAS E! L C RECY

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What gives me hope? The tremendous passion and support that exist within these local gateway communities for this special place. Our amazing staff, volunteers, partners and concession community. And our ability to effectively engage the next generation of conservation stewards and advocates. If we are mutually successful, my friends, we will be able to shape the future of the National Park Service, as well as our public land management agencies.

One thing individuals can do is simply get and stay engaged.

It’s that simple and it’s that important. Inform and work with public and private sectors on the value and importance of protecting our national heritage — from our preserving our public lands to ensuring our national stories reflect the pride and history of all Americans.

The major takeaway is to know how much we value and need you. Our ability to effectively protect and take care of your national heritage is dependent upon you and your continued support.

Teton County Personal Income: 1969-2015 In 1969, total personal income of Teton County residents was $27.5 million; per capita income was $5,822. In 2015, figures were $4.5 billion and $194,861. Annual growth rate of total personal income was 11.7 percent; for per capita income it was 7.9 percent. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis $5,000,000

$250,000

$4,000,000

$200,000

$3,000,000

$150,000

$2,000,000

$100,000

$1,000,000

$50,000

1969

1974

1979

1984

1989

Total personal income (left)

1994

1999

2004

2009

2014

Per capita personal income (right)

LET US HELP YOU PLAN YOUR NEXT TRIP TO JACKSON AND THE PARKS

WWW.GRANDTETONPARK.ORG

Join in the fun!

PA R T N E R I N G W I T H

Don’t miss out on all the great things happening at Parks & Recreation Visit us online to get up to date information on upcoming programs and events.

307-739-3606

Jackson Hole/Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center on N. Cache located in Jackson • Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center located in Moose Jenny Lake Visitor Center • Colter Bay Visitor Center Jackson Hole Airport, Park Store

www.tetonparkandrec.org Follow us!

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

25

Jobs by Employment Type: 1975-2015

Per Capita Personal Income: 1969-2015

Teton County has had a higher percentage of self-employed jobs than elsewhere. In 2015, we had 20,319 wage jobs and 10,549 self-employed jobs, a 2 to 1 ratio. Nationally, it was 5 to 1.

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

In 1969, the U.S., Wyoming and Teton County had similar per capita income figures: $3,930, $3,683 and $5,822 respectively. In 2015, the figures were $48,190, $56,038, and $194,861, reflecting compounded annual growth rates of 5.6, 6.1, and 7.9 percent. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

UNITED STATES

$200,000 $150,000

1975 1985

$100,000

1995 $50,000

2005 2015

1969

WYOMING

1974

1979

1984

1989

Teton, WY

1975

1994

1999

2004

2009

2014

United States

Wyoming

1985

Total Jobs Per Capita: 1969-2015

1995

Teton County has always had higher per capita job figures than the U.S. or Wyoming. In 1969, they were 0.70, 0.45, and 0.48 respectively. In 2015, the figures were 1.33, 0.59, and 0.69, reflecting annual growth rates of 1.4, 0.6, and 0.8 percent respectively. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

2005 2015

1.5 TETON COUNTY

1975

1.2

1985

0.9

1995

0.6

2005

0.3

2015 20%

40% Wage and salary jobs

60%

80%

100%

1969

1974

1979

Self-employed jobs

1984 Teton, WY

1989

1994

Wyoming

1999

2004

2009

United States

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

2014

Forest faces shortfall from rising fire costs the time that people want access Every time an administration to the forest. Rails and roads and changes, there’s uncertainty and bridges across all the streams, changes. We know that. Every and every one of those things is administration does something not in very good shape. We’re a bit differently. The chief of the doing a pretty good job trying to Forest Service is not a political prioritize, but we’re also looking appointee, so Chief [Thomas] for creative ways to do things difTidwell will remain in place at ferently. As is true for our nationleast for the short term. He said al parks, infrastructure issues to us the other day, “What’s reare tough when you lack money. ally important is not so much My request to you as national what happens up here, but what forest users? Help us figure out goes on locally.” We have really what’s important. Where do you good relationships throughout think are the best the communities of places to invest our the Bridger-Teton, time and resourcand I don’t see that es, because that’s changing. I like the what’s important idea of being posito us. tive and thinking What keeps about what we can me up at night is work on together. national apathy Regarding other towards natural changes, the nation resources and the and the forest are outdoors, particuwrestling with the larly around the effects of a changvalue of public ing climate. We are lands, seeing longer fire Tricia O’Connor Please think seasons and hotter Bridger-Teton National Forest about this. If you’re fires, and we were Supervisor tracking up Glory very lucky last year or snowmobiling Togwotee; if not to lose any homes or other inyou’re cutting firewood or killing frastructure from fires. We have your elk or deer; if you’re walka project coming up — Teton to ing your dog up Cache Creek Snake, a fuels reduction project (and hopefully picking up after — that’s going to look at things your dog) or hiking or riding in we can do to help in the forestthe Wind River Range; if you’re urban interface. cutting some poles for your fence What else can you expect this or wood to build your house; all year? The eclipse of course. We these are among the many uses are building a new office and of the forest. It’s so important to should be moving in this sumsustain all the traditional uses mer. It’ll be a much better place the public enjoys for a pretty low for the public to interact with us. cost, mostly free. It’s really, reWe also are really trying to amp ally valuable, and it’s something up youth engagement, because we have to continue to be vigilant connecting with youth is our fuand work on. ture. Those are all good things.

What keeps me up at night is One not-so-good thing. In 1995, that this sense of ownership is 16 percent of the Forest Service eroding. What can we all do tobudget went toward fire and fire gether? Engage and care. Get suppression. Today it’s over 50 somebody out on your national percent, and that number just forest. And when you do, don’t keeps climbing. Unfortunately, forget — whether it’s noxious the pie is not growing, so that weeds or trash or bad behavior, money comes from everything we’re all stewards. Let’s work else we do. together, get it done, and reThe biggest impact is on infraally continue to value our public structure. When I visit the Bridglands and national forests. er-Teton communities, I hear all

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2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

27

Taxable Sales by Category: June 2005-March 2017 From June 2005 to March 2017, Teton County’s total taxable sales grew from $855 million to $1.33 billion, 3.8 percent on a compounded basis.

Although retail is the biggest taxable sales category, the only sector to outperform overall taxable sales during the period was restaurants, which grew at a compound annual rate of 8 percent. Source: Wyoming Department of Revenue $400,000,000 $350,000,000 $300,000,000 $250,000,000 $200,000,000 $150,000,000 $100,000,000 $50,000,000

June 2005

June 2006

June 2007

June 2008

June 2009

June 2010

June 2011

Retail

All other

Lodging

Restaurants

June 2012 Construction

June 2013

June 2014

June 2015

June 2016

Autos

Sales tax revenue drives town services The t own of Jackson continues to be financially Our highest transportation priority is to get the stable despite the defeat of the general revenue penny maintenance facility built, which will allow us to tax in November. Teton and Lincoln are the only two maintain and service more buses and put more sercounties in Wyoming with increasing sales tax revevice hours on the road. The three highest priorities nue, but sales tax growth is slowing, from 10 percent for transit are increased commuter service to outlytwo fiscal years ago to 8 percent last year ing communities, increased service to to 6 percent year to date. That’s still very Teton Village and starting service to healthy, but when I look forward I see Rafter J and Melody Ranch. some slowing.

What keeps me awake at night is the Over the next year, what can residents West Broadway landslide. It happened and visitors expect from the town of three years ago yet continues to move at Jackson? You can expect us to continue a speed that varies with how much predelivering high-quality municipal serviccipitation is in the ground. What worries es: police, fire, snow removal and other me is frozen ground and a lot of rain. basic services everyone counts on.

That is the sword of Damocles hanging When we do our job right, nobody over our heads — a sort of slow-motion notices. You don’t think about the town emergency threatening the water and when you get up in the morning unsewer utilities in the street. less your water is out or the street isn’t What hopes do I have? I hope the plowed. We’re kind of like a computer state of Wyoming’s economy will recovBob McLaurin operating system, working in the backer. The town of Jackson lost about $1.8 ground and obvious only when some- Town of Jackson Administrator million in state-shared revenues last thing goes wrong. We have about 118 very dedicated year, and depending on what happens we could lose folks committed to delivering those quality services to more money. The state made a commitment not to you seven days a week, 365 days a year. raise taxes, but didn’t say it wouldn’t steal taxes from What are the town’s initiatives for the coming year? somebody else. So we’re watching the lodging tax and Despite our new mayor, it’s very unlikely you’ll see our other state-shared revenues. We are ably served by strategic focus change. a great delegation, but the state is in dire financial We’ll continue to work on land development regustraits. lations. District Two was finished after a long, tumulI hope people know how committed the town of tuous process, and we’ll be moving forward with the Jackson employees are to this community. They serve residential district and outlying areas. you day in and day out, and do so in a selfless manner.

Housing and transportation continue to be high They are loyal to this community and proud to work priorities, and we’ll continue to work on them despite here, trying to make things better every day. For exhaving very little revenue for the job. ample, during this very heavy snow year, we hauled Regarding housing, we will work with the new 18,000 cubic yards of snow in just the last week in Januhousing department and the Housing Trust to try to ary. Hauling is something we didn’t used to do, but now put units on the ground. you can get two cars by on the streets.

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

National Park Recreational Visits: January 2000-April 2017 From January 2000 through March 2017, annual recreational visits to Yellowstone National Park grew from 3.1 million to 4.3 million, a compounded annual rate of 1.8 percent. For Grand Teton National Park, recreational visitation grew from 2.7 million to 3.3 million, a 1.2 percent rate. Source: National Park Service 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 Jan. 2000 Jan. 2001 Jan. 2002 Jan. 2003 Jan. 2004 Jan. 2005 Jan. 2006 Jan. 2007 Jan. 2008 Jan. 2009 Jan. 2010 Yellowstone National Park

Jan. 2011

Jan. 2012

Jan. 2013 Jan. 2014 Jan. 2015 Jan. 2016

Jan. 2017

Grand Teton National Park

Yellowstone needs infrastructure aid Last year Yellowstone experienced the highest visitayear it cost $91 million to operate Yellowstone, and about tion level in history, a 21 percent increase over two years, $36 million for operations came from the national park systo about 4.26 million visitors. Even more astounding? tem. The delta is filled by a variety of sources, including Over the same two years bus traffic increased 46 percent, capital funding, donations, entrance and other fees, and putting many different kinds of strain on the park. the like. Add in concessionaires’ expenditures and YelOur region is a destination for an increasing number lowstone spends about $120 million a year on operations of visitors, and park visitation has roughly doubled from and improvements. Since we don’t expect our operating 50 years ago. We think visitation will continue to grow. So dollars from the feds to increase any time soon — again, what can and should we be doing to meet increasing denot a complaint — we’ll work on earned revenue, increasmand? ing revenue from visitors. Fees are never We start with science. Yellowstone has popular, but visiting your national parks begun a social science program that resultis still one of the best deals anywhere, a ed in significant changes between 2015 and damn good bargain.

2016. Despite increased visitation, things Please understand, though — we’re felt right — we didn’t have hourslong delimited on what we can charge. We can’t lays at entrances, didn’t have some of the do demand pricing, for summer is when problems with foreign travelers, didn’t people travel — last July alone we had have some of the problems with congestion 991,000 recreational visitors. So we look at in the park. revenue, we look at budgets; we’re trying Our issues extend beyond Yellowstone’s to look at what we can do best to provide jurisdiction, for more infrastructure is bethe services you want. ing built outside the park. Pressures range What else are we going to do? Things from increasing growth and visitation to we’re looking at include limiting the numsmall amounts of private land adjacent to ber of people visiting the park, working on the park to the challenges of starting and our reservation system and providing mass Dan Wenk running a successful business in a highly Superintendent of Yellowstone transportation. In fact, we’re working with constrained, highly competitive, often exone of the best transportation companies National Park pensive area. One result is demand pricing in the world. We’re also looking at congesin this ecosystem. I’m not casting any aspersions, but intion in areas like Old Faithful. We’re trying, but it’s hard. creased prices produce a corresponding increase in the We learned from winter use that unless we have the cost of doing business within YNP — during summer, the science, the knowledge, the proof about things like how least expensive hotel unit is close to $200. visitors or vehicles affect Yellowstone, we’ll never find the Inside the park we’ve made incredible improvements right solution. We’ve been doing social science for about such as the new lodges and 400 new units at Canyon. two years, and hopefully the understanding will allow us We’ve also reverted employee cabins at Mammoth and to come forward with programs based on the best availOld Faithful back to visitor use, and are building new emable science and visitor experience. ployee dorms to house our workers. The biggest problem One last thing. We have a lot of problems in YNP with with increasing park staff is lack of employee housing. visitor behavior; things like people falling into hot pots or Just in Yellowstone — and this isn’t a complaint, just fact putting bison in a car. I thought this happened because — 110 of our 562 employee housing units are functionally people didn’t know, didn’t get the message. But when we obsolete, and we have a $65 million need for employee had social scientists asking people why they broke the housing. I’m personally ashamed of the kind of accomrules they told us they knew the rule, but made a calculamodations we provide our employees, so we’re making a tion that the risk was worth it — they’d get that picture concerted effort there. nobody else had and nothing bad would happen to them.

The secretary of the interior has talked about a $12.5 I don’t know what to do about that — I really don’t. It’s billion infrastructure program for the national parks. We callous disregard for rules and regulations, and I don’t hope it’s successful, to allow us to provide better services know how we handle that, especially with a transient to our visitors. population turning over every day or two. That doesn’t YNP has one of the system’s larger park budgets. Last even translate to the next week, and it’s a tough problem.

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

29

HOUSING

H

ere are three big things to know about housing in Jackson Hole.

• 1. Teton County doesn’t have a housing supply problem. It has a problem with how it uses its housing supply.

So why does the community have a housing problem?

Basically because two out of every five new homes built since 1970 are currently classified as “vacant” by the Census Bureau. In Detroit, this would mean “abandoned.” In Teton County, Wyoming, this means “second home or short-term rental.”

As a result, Teton County has gone from having 78 percent of its homes occupied by residents in 1970 to 62 percent today. And while this ranks Teton County as the only Rocky Mountain ski county where over 60 percent of its housing stock is being used by residents, it also means that nearly 5,000 of the county’s 13,000 homes sit idle for some, if not much, of the year. And given Teton County’s

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

mean household size of 2.6 people, this means that, without having to build another structure, the county currently has enough housing for another 13,000 or so residents.

• 2. Teton County’s proportion of second homes and short-term rentals is growing much faster than in peer counties.

Where Teton County stands out, though, is in how its additional housing is being used.

In the first 15 years of this century, in the typical Rocky Mountain ski county, the amount of vacant housing (i.e., second homes and short-term rentals) grew about three times faster than the amount of housing occupied by full-time residents — in Steamboat and Aspen, vacant housing grew about six times faster; in Park City it was barely twice as fast.

In Teton County, Wyoming, though, between 2000 and 2015, the number of vacant homes grew 14 times faster than the number of homes occupied by resi-

dents. This means that, for all practical purposes, those wanting to call Teton County their primary home are not only competing against other people sharing that desire, but people able to afford multiple homes. This is not a battle wanna-be locals are winning.

• 3. When compared to other communities and the nation as a whole, Teton County’s residential property tax rates are quite low.

2015 Census data show the median property taxes paid on the median Teton County home amounted to 0.5 percent of that home’s value. In the United States as a whole, median home property taxes were over twice as high: 1.2 percent of the median value for homes with a mortgage, and 1.1 percent of the median value for a home without a mortgage. (The difference is due to state laws such as California’s Proposition 13, which limits property taxes on older homes.)

Local housing prices are comparable to those in San Francisco and

Relative Growth: Population and Housing by Use Since 1970, Teton County’s housing stock has grown much more rapidly than its population.

The county’s workforce housing problems are not a function of the quantity of housing, but instead the type of housing it has built and how it is used. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Big 3 #1 - Rel. Pop & Housing G

1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200

1970

1980

1990

Vacant homes

Total housing stock

2000

2010

Occupied homes

2015

Population

Growth of Total Housing Units/Population in Rocky Mountain Ski Counties 2000-2015 Since 2000, all Rocky Mountain ski counties except for Summit, Colorado, have seen housing stock grow faster than residents (blue dots). Teton County’s growth in second homes versus primary homes is 14 to 1. No peer county has a ratio above 6 to 1. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Big 3 #2 & 3 - Ski Town Houing

15

12

9

6

RYAN DORGAN

3

Crews break ground on Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust’s Redmond-Hall affordable rental project in April 2017.

Such projects are few and far between.

New York. The tax rates are not comparable, though: in both of those locales, property taxes rates are 60 percent or so higher. (Again, the exception is in California, where the many people who purchased their homes many years ago pay far lower property taxes than their newly arrived neighbors.)

Arguably San Francisco and New York compensate for levying property taxes lower than the national average because they generate enough revenue from other sources, including income taxes and higher sales taxes.

Combine Wyoming’s fiscal problems with how much lower Teton County’s property taxes are than those of the nation as a whole, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see elected officials try to close that gap.

Eagle, CO

Pitkin, CO

Routt, CO

San Miguel, CO

Growth: Vacant homes / occupied homes

Summit, CO

Blaine, ID

Summit, UT

Teton, WY

Growth: Total housing units / population

Home Property Tax Levels Teton County’s property tax rate is roughly half the national average. It’s lower than New York City’s, and for homes with a mortgage, lower than San Francisco’s. Some homes in San Francisco without a mortgage have a lower rate because of Prop. 13. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Big 3 #4 - Property Taxes

1.2% 1.0% 0.8% 0.6% 0.4% 0.2%

United States

San Francisco, CA Homes with mortgage

New York, NY

Teton, WY

Homes without mortgage

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

31

Counties Median Home

Total Housing Units, by Area and Occupancy, 2015

Top 20 Counties Median Home Price

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

COUNTY Nantucket County, MA New York County, NY Marin County, CA San Francisco County, CA San Mateo County, CA Falls Church City, VA Santa Clara County, CA Teton County, WY Dukes County, MA Pitkin County, CO Arlington County, VA Honolulu County, HI Santa Cruz County, CA Kings County, NY Orange County, CA Alameda County, CA San Miguel County, CO Maui County, HI Westchester County, NY Alexandria City, VA

MEDIAN HOME VALUE 2015 $902,500 $848,700 $815,100 $799,600 $776,300 $718,900 $698,600 $689,000 $660,800 $620,700 $607,700 $580,200 $578,800 $570,200 $553,600 $543,100 $512,800 $509,700 $506,900 $502,500

The town of Jackson has the most homes, primary occupancy homes, and second homes of any part of Teton County. Nearly all homes in Rafter J are primary occupancy; roughly seven-eighths of the homes in Teton Village are second homes or short-term rentals. Source: U.S. Census Bureau 5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

Jackson

Hoback / South Park Moose Wilson

Wilson

Occupied homes

Teton Village

Rafter J

Alta

Rest of county

Second homes and vacant homes

4. Year Home Built & HomeValues NOT Home Values

Commuters sleep in Victor, Idaho

We are a regional community and our bigger issues, school bond measures for new facilities. Our district such as housing and transportation, are ones none of has had two bond failures in the last three years, an isus can solve on our own. We need collaboration and sue we need to deal with as our community grows and regionally focused initiatives. our existing school facilities are further taxed.

What has changed in Victor over the One other thing is that I am a compast year? A year ago we had just admuter. The challenges I face driving opted a new form-based code intended over the pass five, six, seven days a to stimulate private sector development, week are things my fellow residents both residential and commercial. The also deal with. Eighty percent of Vicmarket has really responded, and we tor households with a working adult currently have upwards of 400-plus resihave at least one adult working in Teton dential units in various stages of the apCounty, Wyoming, How can we regionplication pipeline. We believe this growth ally adapt and grow to deal with those will lead to additional investment in our issues? These are critical questions for downtown core, allowing businesses on people on both sides of Teton Pass.

Main Street in Victor to thrive.

Victor’s biggest opportunity lies with I continue to believe that Teton Counour outdoor amenities and proximity to ty, Wyoming’s Housing Authority should Jackson Hole. at least consider that your taxpayer dolWithin about 5 miles of Victor’s city lars may get more bang for their bucks core are between 12 and 16 Cache and Jeff Potter in Teton Valley, Idaho, especially if comGame creeks providing motorized and Mayor of Victor, Idaho bined with other initiatives to improve non-motorized access. This give us a commuting over Teton Pass. Please know our door is tremendous opportunity to be a world-class outdoor open for such efforts. recreational community, attracting businesspeople inVictor’s population is about 2,000; our county is terested in relocating employees for lifestyle benefits. about 10,000, or roughly the size of the town of JackPlus we have fiber-optic internet, so communications son. Victor’s annual budget, however, is much smaller are no longer a challenge. So Victor will continue to proportionately than Jackson’s. Our resources are be attractive for both employers and employees interlimited, but we have wonderful people who work hard, ested in our region. and as Victor grows we intend to continue to provide Please remain open-minded about Victor and the quality services to our residents, similar to the servicgreater Teton Valley being a large part of the region’s es Jackson provides to it residents. housing solution. I know challenges exist, especially What keeps me awake at night? National issues that related to critical services. But reality falls somewhere translate in a negative way in Idaho, particularly rebetween where we are now and our best intentions, so lated to our public lands, and the struggles Idaho concontinue to look to our community to be part of the sotinues to have supporting public education. Wyoming lution as we work together. has America’s second-highest per-student spending; Victor is largely a blank slate, and we have a lot of Idaho has the second-lowest. Plus Idaho is one of two agricultural land that is not open space, that is not benstates requiring a two-thirds supermajority to approve eficial to wildlife and is available for a variety of uses.

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Sale Price of All Residential Properties Sold, 1992-2016

Year Home Built, 2015

Teton County’s overall real estate market peaked right before the recession. In the past two years, the market has fully rebounded in price, but not in overall sales. As a result, dollar volume is still well below its pre-recession high. Source: Jackson Hole Report by David and Devon Viehman

Teton County’s housing stock doubled in the 1980s, and doubled again 1990-2009. The first half of this decade had the lowest level of building since the 1940s. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

4. Year Home Built & HomeValues NOT Home Values

$2,000,000

2%

4%

4%

1% 20%

7%

$1,500,000

14%

$1,000,000

13,146 HOUSING UNITS

$500,000

26%

23%

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

Total sales volume (x $1,000)

2006 Mean price

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2010 or later 1980-1989 1950-1959

2000-2009 1970-1979 1940-1949

1990-1999 1960-1969 1939 or earlier

When landowners meet LDRs, it gets heated In fiscal year 2017, Teton County expects to collect yourself, “Did I leave any room for wildlife?” Finally and spend $16 million in general sales tax revenue, $7.8 ask yourself, “How would I like the community to supmillion in property tax, $2.2 million from the federal port me in achieving my desired reconfiguration?” government in lieu of property taxes it doesn’t pay, and Now draw a large screw, and label it “LDRs,” for land another $11 million in other revenues. development regulations. LDRs restrict With this, we’ll continue to fund baprivate uses of property for the greater sic services such as fire, sheriff, public good of the community. Yet if you owned health, the library and the like. What we a large rural parcel, how would you feel won’t be spending money on is capital if the county wrote about 700 Byzantine projects SPET has historically funded, pages of LDRs that dictate what you can because in November voters rejected our do? Would you feel screwed? Is there a request to convert the SPET sixth cent better way to achieve workforce houstax into general revenues. ing and open space?

What did I intend when I asked you to I would like to see economic responapprove that sixth cent for general revsibility for open space and workforce enue? To protect our community charachousing shifted away from the rancher ter. Here’s how. and toward the millions of people who Take pen and paper and draw a verwant to see expanses of rural open tical rectangle. Divide it in three parts, space, ranching, wildlife and a diverse and pretend each is the floor of a buildcommunity in Teton County. My intent Mark Newcomb ing you own in downtown Jackson. Fill for making the use of the sixth cent Chairman of Teton County in each floor with its most lucrative use. more flexible than SPET was to compenI see an art gallery on the first floor, real Board of County Commissioners sate private property owners for buildestate offices on the second floor and luxury towning workforce housing and complete neighborhoods, homes on top. for preserving wildlife-friendly open space. I believe Now draw another rectangle representing a large we would do well to consider maintaining a source of rural parcel in the county. What’s that property’s most public funds for these ends. lucrative use? Not ranching.

I think the concept of compensation rather than Now ask yourself, “How much community benefit LDRs alone is one of the ways we can address our bigdoes the three-story building provide? The large rural gest challenges. The private sector needs to lead the parcel? How much workforce housing? How much way; this is important and merits discussion. How open space?” Then ask: “How much more workforce might the private sector compensate private property housing does the community need to staff and mainowners for providing both workforce housing and open tain my new development?” The answer is zero for the space? I don’t know. But I’d also like to challenge the first three questions, and something well above zero private sector to consider transportation solutions to for the fourth. avoid a non-functioning road network and WYDOTNow ask: “How many cars did I just add to our netimposed widening. work of two-lane roads?” And if you put nothing in If you did create a drawing, take it home, put it on your large rural parcel but workforce housing, ask your refrigerator and keep thinking about it.

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

33

EDUCATION

H

ere are three big things to know about education levels in Teton County.

• 1. It’s easier for people with lower levels of education to find work in Teton County than in the nation as a whole.

Tourism is Teton County’s largest employment sector, and tourism’s business model is to employ large numbers of people at low wages. In addition, many of the jobs in tourism-related industries — e.g., lodging, restaurants, and retail — are relatively low-skilled, requiring less education and training.

As a result, 94 percent of Teton County residents with no more than a high school degree are employed, versus only 66 percent of all Americans.

• 2. Because of Teton County’s reliance on low-paying tourism

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

jobs, the typical Teton County resident earns less than the typical American with the same education level.

Because of Teton County’s large number of low-paying tourism jobs, regardless of education level, someone working in Teton County earns less than his or her counterpart nationally. This is even true at the highest levels of education — i.e., people with a bachelor’s degree or higher — because there simply aren’t that many jobs in Teton County that require high levels of education. For those with the highest levels of education, though, the wage gap between the U.S. and Teton County has closed since 2010, reflecting the growing ease of working remotely.

• 3. Among Teton County’s adult residents, one-sixth have no more

RYAN DORGAN

Annel Hernandez is congratulated by family after receiving her diploma from Central Wyoming College-Jackson at the Center for the Arts in May 2017.

than a high school education.

Three-fifths of Latino residents have the same education level.

Over half of Teton County’s adult residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Education levels differ wildly, though, between the county’s two major ethnic groups. Among Teton County’s white adults, 58 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while 17 percent have no more than a high school degree. In contrast, among Teton County’s Latino adults, 22 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while 61 percent have no more than a high school degree.

Educational Attainment vs. Employment: 2015 Teton County has 1.33 jobs per resident, over twice the national average of 0.59. Essentially anyone who wants a job can find one. This is especially true for those without college degrees; many tourism-related jobs do not require high levels of education. Source: U.S. Census Bureau 100% VISIT THE WORLD’S PREMIER

NATIONAL MUSEUM of WILDLIFE ART

80%

60%

40%

20%

High School Graduate

Some College United States

Bachelor’s Degree or higher

Teton County

Average Income by Education Level, 2015 Tourism’s business model requires hiring large numbers of people at low wages. Because the largest share of Teton County’s jobs are in tourism, the county’s average wage per job is lower than the nation’s as a whole. This is true for all education levels. Source: U.S. Census Bureau $80,000

40%

$70,000

35%

$60,000

30%

$50,000

25%

$40,000

20%

$30,000

15%

$20,000

10%

$10,000

5%

-$10,000

< High School Degree United States (left)

High School Degree

Some College

Bachelor’s Degree

2010-2015 Change: United States (right)

Teton County (left)

Graduate Degree

Thomas Hill (British, 1829 – 1908), Great Falls of the Yellowstone—detail, c. 1884. Oil on canvas. 30 x 20 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art.

-5%

2010-2015 Change: Teton County (right)

Educational Attainment vs. Ethnicity: 2015 17 percent of Teton County’s white adult residents have only a high school degree, while 58 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree. For Latino residents, the figures are 61 percent and 22 percent, respectively, essentially the inverse of the white population. Source: U.S. Census Bureau 4%

54%

TETON COUNTY ----16,823

LATINOS ----2,080

2% 15%

17%

24% WHITES ----14,085 58%

< High School Degree

20%

22%

18%

High School Degree

41%

www.WildlifeAr t.or g

26%

2820 Rungius Road Jack son, Wyoming Some College

Bachelor’s Degree or higher

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

35

Teton County School District Enrollment by Grade Level in 2003-2016 Since its 2006 nadir, total enrollment in Teton County’s public schools has risen from 2,222 to 2,835, or 28 percent. The fastest growth was in the elementary grades; the slowest in the high school. During the last few years, though, the higher grades have grown more quickly, suggesting a demographic bubble is working its way through the district. Source: Wyoming Department of Education 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008 Elementary

2009

2010

Middle School

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

High School

Schools prepare kids for success In my opinion, public education is the most imporWhat keeps me awake? That across the state, Wyotant element of our democracy. If our country focused ming will go backward. And I suppose many of you feel on public education, most of our problems could be that way about our country in general. Wyoming has solved. made terrific strides to improve education, and it’s reThe school district is the second-largest employer ally paying off. I’d hate to see us go backward and stop in Teton County, with 495 employees and a $47 milvaluing education at its current level. Education may lion budget, run by an elected board of be the most expensive part of state fundunpaid officials. Last year was the first ing, but it’s the most important. time we had a reduction in state funding Locally what keeps me awake at — $400,000 or 1 percent. That was parnight is kids who can’t read in the third tially offset because we are one of only grade, kids who are hungry and kids two counties in Wyoming with increasing who are homeless. We have 55 homeless enrollment, and state funds are based on in our district. It gives me hope knowing enrollment. In fact, Wyoming’s $16,000 our staff puts our kids first every single per student ranks second, behind Alaska. day, and I believe our strategic plan and Thirty-one mils on your property priorities will continue to improve our tax bill go to schools. That isn’t enough district. to fund $16,000 per student, so we get What can individuals do? Read to another check from the state, a lot of your children. Early and often. Do it for which comes from natural resources. friends. For neighbors. As a volunteer This allows us to pay our teachers well, in schools or day cares. It’s a very inKate Mead which we need to do because of our cost teresting statistic, but only 15 percent Chairwoman of Teton County of America’s prison population can read of living. Our first-year teachers make $64,000, which may be one of the highat the third-grade level. So you can see School District No. 1’s Board est first-year teacher salaries in the nahow critical it is that all children be able of Trustees tion. Yet because of Wyoming’s financial to read. woes we are very worried about our financial future Teton County School District’s biggest opportunity — it’s not clear how Wyoming’s Legislature will treat is our biggest challenge: graduating students prepared education. for the new economy. We have the highest graduation What we do know is that in March we’ll begin conrate in the state, and that’s because we consciously structing the Munger Mountain Elementary School. chose to target a 100 percent graduation rate. CurBecause our enrollment is growing we need a new rently we’re at about 98 percent and we certainly have school. We have two entire grades of children in moduchallenges: Nearly 40 percent of our kindergarten stular classrooms, which are not a good educational envidents enter school not speaking English. Getting those ronment. The new school will replace all elementary children all the way through high school is very hard school modular units. work, but we’ve jumped into it and are doing a great This fall we’ll reconfigure Jackson and Colter eljob. ementary schools. Jackson has been grades K-2 and Education is alive and well here. Teton County is a Colter 3-5. In hindsight, that configuration is not eduplace of lifelong learners, and my big takeaway mescationally preferable. It also raises security concerns sage for you is to keep learning. That rubs off on our — with a mix of ages older kids can help younger kids children. should there be a problem. So starting this fall Jackson Please keep that up, challenge your children, chaland Colter will be K-5. So will Munger. lenge yourselves, always to become more educated.

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Teton County School District Enrollment by Ethnicity: 2003-2016 In 2003, 86 percent of Teton County School District students were white, 12 percent Latino and 2 percent other ethnicities. Today enrollment is 65 percent white, 31 percent Latino, and 4 percent other. The pace of change has slowed since 2010. Source: Wyoming Department of Education 3,000 2,500

PAWS Test Scores: 2011-2016 Percent of students scoring “proficient” or higher Source: Wyoming Department of Education 4TH GRADE - TETON COUNTY

2,000 1,500 1,000 500

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Math

87%

87%

87%

50%

49%

59%

Reading

85%

83%

84%

69%

66%

72%

Science

65%

84%

68%

63%

55%

61% 2016

4TH GRADE - WYOMING 2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

White

2010

Hispanic

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Other

Teton County School District Graduation Rate: 2007-2016 The Teton County School District traditionally graduates a higher proportion of high school students than the statewide average. Since a recent low of 81 percent in 2012, for the past three years the rate has been 96 percent. Source: Wyoming Department of Education

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Math

81%

82%

81%

47%

51%

55%

Reading

84%

83%

78%

64%

60%

65%

Science

55%

63%

58%

53%

51%

54%

2016

8TH GRADE - TETON COUNTY 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Math

77%

85%

87%

64%

59%

64%

100%

Reading

87%

87%

87%

63%

59%

66%

80%

Science

64%

72%

68%

60%

53%

61%

8TH GRADE - WYOMING 60% 40% 20% 2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

Wyoming

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Math

71%

73%

67%

50%

47%

48%

Reading

77%

78%

76%

58%

52%

54%

Science

51%

51%

44%

47%

42%

42%

2015-16

Teton County

A Few Tips To Make the Most of Your

Summer Break

DON’T TAKE A BREAK FROM LEARNING • Read • Participate in summer enrichment camps & activities STAY ACTIVE • Hike,Bike, Swim • Get a summer job or volunteer BE SAFE • Always wear a helmet when biking, skateboarding, etc.

• Wear Sunscreen BE HEALTHY • Eat Well •Take Advantage of healthy free meals for all children under the age of 18 at Colter Elementary School. BREAKFAST 8:00 to 9:0 am and LUNCH 11:00 to 1:00 pm: Monday-Thursday, Starting June 26th and going through August 10th Meal Program is closed July 3rd and 4th.

Have Fun!

Remember- the 2017-2018 school year starts Tuesday, September 5th

Teton County School District #1

Our mission is to ensure that all students have the foundation for success and are challenged to reach their full potential.

690 S Hwy 89, Suite 200 Jackson, WY 307.732.0303 www.dianenodell.com 2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

37

ELECTIONS

H

ere are three big things to know about elections and politics in Jackson Hole.

• 1. There is a clear political divide between voters in the town of Jackson and those in the rest of Teton County.

Residents of the town of Jackson make less money than people living in the unincorporated parts of Teton County. They are also more politically liberal: - In the November 2016 presidential election, 72 percent of town residents voted for Hillary Clinton, versus 61 percent of residents in the unincorporated county.

- In that same election, 51 percent of town residents voted for the 1 percent “community priorities” tax, versus 44 percent of residents in the unincorporated county.

- In May 2017’s SPET election, 59 percent of all the votes cast by town residents for all 11 measures were “yes” votes, versus 51 percent of the votes cast by unincorporated county voters.

Taking an average of the three votes, town voters are about onesixth more likely to support a Democratic candidate or pro-tax initiative than are voters in the unincorporated county. Combine that with the fact that, in any given election, unincorpo-

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

rated county voters will outnumber town voters by anywhere between one-third and one-half, and a Democratic candidate or pro-tax measure will need to win handily in the Town of Jackson in order to win overall.

For example, in both the November 2016 and May 2017 tax elections, only 40 percent of unincorporated county voters supported the various housingand transportation-related tax measures. Combine this with the county’s larger electorate, and to win in November 2016, the “community priorities” tax would have needed 65 percent of the town vote (it got 51 percent). In May 2017, for all of the housing and transportation measures to have won would have required them to receive a collective 63 percent of the town vote (in total they won barely 50 percent).

• 2. In 2016 and 2017, voters in both the town and unincorporated county strongly supported taxes related to health and safety projects, generally supported improvements to “amenities” such as local facilities and infrastructure, and clearly opposed housing and transportation measures.

Between the November 2016 “community priorities” tax measure and the 10 SPET measures on the May 2017 ballot, Teton County has con-

BRADLY J. BONER

Casey Newman, of Moran, fills out her SPET ballot with her 16-month-old son, Irving, at Teton County Library during a special election in May 2017.

ducted an interesting political science experiment regarding voters’ current feelings toward spending tax dollars.

The two measures involving safety and health — building fire stations and a new nursing home — passed handily. The three measures related to the quality of local infrastructure — Central Wyoming College, pedestrian improvements, and the Rec Center remodel — also passed, but received far more tepid support, particularly in the town.

With one exception, what voters didn’t like is anything related to housing and transportation. Between the “community priorities” tax and the five housing and transportation-related SPET measures on the May 2017 ballot, only one of the six measures — funding housing for Parks and Rec employees — won countywide.

• 3. When it comes to community priorities, the views of local elected officials are greatly at odds with those of the electorate.

Politicians need two types of political skills. To win an election, they need strong relative skills; i.e., to win

Town vs. County: 2016/17 Voting Patterns The mean and median incomes of town of Jackson residents are lower than those for residents of unincorporated Teton County, and town voters are more liberal than those in the unincorporated county. Source: Wyoming Secretary of State

A. Big Thing #1

80% 70%

TWO MUSEUMS

60%

for one

GREAT

50%

PRICE!

40% 30% 20% 10% For SPET 2017

For General Sales Tax 2016 Unincorporated county

For Hillary Clinton 2016

Town of Jackson

Town vs. County: 2016/17 Sales Tax Voting In the last two sales tax-related votes, residents of both the town of Jackson and unincorporated Teton County clearly embraced health- and safety-related measures. They rejected housingand transportation-related ones, but not as strongly. Source: Wyoming Secretary of State

B. Big Thing #2

80% 70% 60%

From then 'Til Now!

50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Housing and Transportation

Amenities Unincorporated county

an office, Candidate A needs to have better political skills than Candidate B. Once in office, though, winning public support for a particular policy requires absolute skills. This notion was borne out in the results of the last two tax-related elections, where officials talented enough to win office were not successful in persuading voters to support their priorities.

Why the gap between what local elected officials feel are the community’s priorities — i.e., funding for housing and transportation — and what their constituents support? One reason may be that voters don’t feel Teton County has housing and transportation problems. That seems improbable, though, because few Teton County residents are unaffected by our workforce housing issues, and all of us are affected by traffic problems.

So why the strong “no” votes in both November and May? Likely because while voters recognize the

Total county

Health and Safety

Preserving and sharing the History of Jackson Hole!

Town of Jackson

problem, they disagree with the proposed solution. Or, perhaps more accurately, they weren’t presented a solution that made sense to them.

In this argument, advocates did a bad job in explaining how proposed new housing and transportation would help solve the problem, rather than making it worse. Voters weren’t given a compelling narrative, one that made sense at a visceral level. No “This is what we’re proposing, and this is how it will help solve the problem,” narrative, much less advocacy to support it.

Instead, what voters got something along the lines of “To address the housing shortage and traffic problems, we’re going to build more housing and add more buses.” No specifics. No explanation of how the tax-based measures fit into a larger vision. Just a “trust us” message without any accompanying advocacy. And since these are not times in which a “trust us” message plays well, voters opted to do otherwise.

HOMESTEAD & RANCHING MUSEUM: 225 N. Cache St.

INDIANS OF THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE: corner of Deloney & Glenwood Tuesday thru Saturday 10am-5pm 307-744-2414

225 N. Cache Street | Jackson, WY 307-733-2414 | www.jacksonholehistory.org

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

39

Voter Registration vs. Votes for President: 2012 and 2016 Between 2012 and 2016, the number of registered Republicans in Teton County stayed flat, the number of registered Democrats soared, and the number of unaffiliated voters grew modestly. Even Teton County’s Republicans did not think highly of Donald Trump. Source: Wyoming Secretary of State

#4-TC Votes v. Regis.-2012&16

8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 2012 (Obama)

2012 (Romney) Registered Democrats

2016 (Clinton) Votes for Dem

Registered Republicans

2016 (Trump)

Votes for GOP

Conservation District works to protect county’s ecosystem The annual convention of Wyoming’s Conservasystems in order to detect long-term trends. But just tion District Association was in Riverton right after assembling it is not even half the battle — then you November’s election. Most supervisors and staff are have to make it useful and available to the public and multi-generation ranching folk, not the most liberal to policymakers, a tremendous amount of work. group, and I was curious to see how much they’d be One big uncertainty keeps me up at night, but not celebrating the results. It was interestevery year. Every four years we have to ing that there was pretty much none. go before the voters to get our mill levy Mostly they just said, “Yeah, we’ve been renewed. That’s the bulk of our funding, through this before. I’ll believe it when but it’s actually a very good thing, for it I see it. Maybe it will be nice. Meantime keeps us honest. We have to be totally we’ve got things to do in our backyard, attuned to what the public wants and and they aren’t going to get done by needs. If not, we’ll hear about it. themselves.”

The other thing local funding does, of When people talk about downsizing course, is insulate us from the goingsgovernment we know what that means: on in Cheyenne and Washington. This Roles and responsibilities shift from the isn’t true of most other agencies in our feds to the states to the locals. In the proregion, and for many decades we have cess conservation districts have taken on collaborated and partnered with each a large number of different roles from of them. Why? Because if something what they were originally mandated to absolutely has to get done it’s not goDavid Adams do. For instance, when it comes to moniing to get itself done. If a federal agency Chairman of Teton County toring water quality or stream health, it’s or any other government unit does not the conservation districts in Wyoming Conservation District’s Board of have the resources to do it, then we’re that do the vast bulk of the work. there to help.

Supervisors Conservation districts started out as My take-away thought for you is that soil conservation districts, a New Deal program that unless you think you can really go to Washington and was and remains an incentive program. It wasn’t reguget something done, there is no place like home. I’m latory. Today the Teton Conservation District still has thinking of the Flat Creek Watershed Improvement a number of those same incentive programs — thank District, where the residents along Flat Creek orgaGod we still don’t have a regulatory function. Right nized to deal with flooding. Or the stakeholders group now we have cost-share programs for improving irrion the West Bank, dealing with the nutrient problems gation, stream restoration, weed control and wildfire in Fish Creek. These are people looking in their backmitigation, and this year we hope to roll out one that yard and applying their energies to real problems for encourages the proper maintenance of residential sepreal solutions. As Mayor Johnson [of Driggs] said, find tic systems. something you can do something about and concenAnother major area we’ve been moving into is longtrate on that. Don’t worry too much about things you term environmental monitoring, including monitoring can’t change. I’m hopefully optimistic that if we keep water quality, hydrology, vegetation, wildlife — it’s a that kind of focus and continue to communicate and massive amount of data. You need long-term and excollaborate, we can preserve those parts of our valley tensive data sets to notice the natural variation of the that are so valuable to us.

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Wyoming’s Voter Registration, 2017

Votes for President 2016

In May, 2017, 67 percent of Wyoming’s registered voters were Republican, 18 percent were Democrats, and 14 percent unaffiliated. Teton and Albany were the only counties with more than 30 percent Democrats (37 and 32 percent respectively) and fewer than 50 percent Republicans (39 and 45). Source for both graphs this page: Wyoming Secretary of State

Statewide Donald Trump received 6 percent more votes than there were registered Republicans. Hillary Clinton received 16 percent more votes than there were registered Democrats. In Teton County, the percentages were -27 percent and 48 percent respectively.

#5-TC v. WY Votes-2012&2016

Teton Albany Sweetwater Laramie Carbon Fremont Natrona Sheridan Platte Uinta Goshen Hot Springs Washakie Park Lincoln Sublette Converse Big Horn Weston Johnson Crook Campbell Niobrara State of Wyoming 0%

12% 31%

TETON COUNTY ----12,795 VOTES

57%

10%

22% WYOMING ----248,945 VOTES

68%

20%

40% Democrats

60% Republicans

80%

Unaffiliated

100%

Other

Clinton

Trump

Other

JACKSON HOLE IS THE LAST PLACE YOU’D E XPEC T TO FIND IMPAIRED S TRE AMS In the past, watersheds in the Upper Snake River could absorb the nutrient pollution from Teton County’s small population. As Jackson Hole grows there are more nutrients entering our rivers and streams from wastewater treatment facilities, septic systems, and runoff from fertilizers and manure.

EFFECTS OF NUTRIENT POLLUTION: Nutrient pollution damages

the environment and harms water quality. Too many nutrients can lead to excessive algae and aquatic plants that harm habitat and diminish aquatic insect populations.

HOW IS FRIENDS OF FISH CREEK ADDRESSING NUTRIENT POLLUTION? • • •

Establishing restoration goals and measurable standards through science-based research Empowering collaborative stakeholder solutions Developing and implementing best management practices

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

We can all take action to reduce nutrient pollution through the choices we make around our homes, on our farms, with our pets, in lawn care and in transportation.

• Visit fishcreekfriends.org for information on implementing best management practices at home • Make a difference by donating at fishcreekfriends.org

FISHCREEKFRIENDS.ORG 2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

41

WYOMING

H

ere are three big things to know about Wyoming.

• 1. For as much as Wyoming “hates” government, we’re pretty dependent upon it.

The disconnect is not really our fault; it’s just the nature of having the nation’s smallest population spread out over a very big geographic territory.

Despite what crazed Objectivists might say, the simple reality is that some form of government is necessary for any society to function.

Equally true is that it’s hard for small organizations to achieve economies of scale. Add them together and throw in Wyoming’s size, and there’s a lot that needs to be done to simply keep things going (the other lightly populated states with lower percentages of government jobs are geographically much smaller).

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Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

• 2. Wyoming is the way America was: It’s both a marketing slogan and a description of the state’s economy.

Economies evolve. They start as hunter-gatherer societies, become agrarian, add in resource extraction, develop “value-adds” such as manufacturing, and then develop increasingly large service sectors.

During the earlier stages, there are a few basic industries: farming, mining and other extractive activities, and of course government. Currently, in the United States, roughly 15 percent of all jobs fall into one of those three categories. In Wyoming, it’s 31 percent.

• 3. Wyoming’s economy is akin to both a third-world commodity exporter and an off-shore tax haven.

When it comes to sources of per-

sonal income, Wyoming ranks first among all states in two categories: the percentage of income residents earn from mining and the percentage of income residents earn from investments.

The mining income figure isn’t surprising, for regardless of boom or bust, Wyoming has clung fiercely to its dependence on pulling minerals out of the ground. This has rewarded the state when times are good, harmed it when times are bad, and too-often blinded it to the benefits of having fewer of its eggs in the extractives basket.

To be fair, though, the state’s economy is actually far more diversified than almost anyone realizes.

This is because of the large amount of money Wyoming residents earn from investments. Wyoming leads the nation in the percentage of income earned from investments because of

U.S. States’ Populations vs. Govt. Jobs/All Jobs In 2015, government — federal, state, and local — accounted for 19 percent of Wyoming’s jobs.

The national average: 13 percent. Of 30 states with a higher percentage of government jobs than the average, only two had populations exceeding 10 million people. Source: U.S. BEA

Government employment / all employment

25%

20%

Wyoming

15%

Best Fit Line

10%

5%

5

10

15

20 Population (in millions)

25

30

35

40

U.S. vs. Wyoming: Jobs by Industry A similar situation exists with jobs. In 2015, fully 30 percent of all Wyoming jobs were concentrated in three industries: farming (4 percent), mining (8 percent) and government (19 percent). In the nation as a whole, these sectors accounted for just 15 percent of all jobs. Source: U.S. BEA

19% 29%

1%

44% 1% WYOMING

UNITED STATES 12% 1%

68%

10%

16% BRADLY J. BONER

Across the state, like in Crook County where Devils Tower looms over the landscape, a great deal of income comes from investments.

its exceptionally favorable laws regarding income taxes, trusts and the like. That roughly 30 percent of Wyoming residents’ income comes from investments, however, gets no notice because Wyoming doesn’t tax investment-related income, and therefore doesn’t measure or report it (the data in the accompanying graph come from the federal government). Given the state’s current economic woes, an interesting question is whether Wyoming will continue to keep looking to the shrinking mining industry to support state government, or whether it will look to tax a much bigger and much more stable source of residents’ incomes.

All other income

Government

Mining

Investments

Farming

U.S. vs. Wyoming: Income by Source In 2015, Wyoming residents earned 29 percent of their total income from investments, 16 percent from government jobs and 10 percent from mining. In the nation, these figures were 19, 12, and 1 percent. The state’s economy evokes that of a third-world country. Source: U.S. BEA 1%

1% 4% 8%

13%

19% UNITED STATES

WYOMING 85%

All other jobs

Government

70%

Mining

Farming

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

43

Wyoming’s and Counties’ Median Home Value - 2015 Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Wyoming Counties’ 2015 Ethnicity In 2015, 84 percent of Wyoming residents were white, 10 percent Latino, 2 percent Native American, and 4 percent a melange of all other ethnic groups. Sixteen of Wyoming’s 23 counties had a higher proportion of white residents than the state as a whole. Source: U.S. Census Bureau

2015 MEDIAN HOME VALUE $194,800

RELATIVE TO WYOMING

Teton County

$689,000

354%

Johnson County

Sublette County

$275,600

141%

Hot Springs County

Sheridan County

$228,000

117%

Lincoln County

Johnson County

$227,700

117%

Weston County

Park County

$221,300

114%

Sheridan County

Albany County

$216,100

111%

Niobrara County

Campbell County

$212,200

109%

Park County

Crook County

$205,800

106%

Platte County

Lincoln County

$201,700

104%

Converse County

Sweetwater County

$190,900

98%

Sublette County

Converse County

$190,300

98%

Big Horn County

Laramie County

$190,000

98%

Campbell County

Fremont County

$186,500

96%

Natrona County

$185,600

95%

Weston County

$178,200

91%

Uinta County

$176,700

91%

Washakie County

$160,800

83%

Niobrara County

$157,900

81%

Platte County

$155,500

80%

Hot Springs County

$151,600

78%

Goshen County

$148,700

76%

Carbon County

$146,200

75%

Big Horn County

$141,400

73%

Wyoming

Wyoming Crook County

Uinta County Natrona County Goshen County Albany County Washakie County Teton County Sweetwater County Laramie County Carbon County Fremont County 20%

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40% White

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NAME: Hole Compass Jackson Hole CompassJackson 2017 Edition SIZE: 3.4542” x 4.916”

60% Hispanic

American Indian

80%

100%

Other

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Wyoming and Counties Per Capita Income: 2015 In 2015, Wyoming’s per capita income was $56,081. Teton County had the state’s highest, $194,861, highest in the nation and 3.5 times greater than the Wyoming average. At $36,964, Big Horn County had the state’s lowest per capita income. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Wyoming Teton County Natrona County Sheridan County

Wyoming Coal Data

Converse County

Source: U.S. Energy Information Agency

Campbell County Hot Springs County Carbon County

2008

PRODUCTION (IN TONS) 466,319,331

Sublette County

2009

432,481,322

$9.88

$4.27

Park County

2010

442,061,036

$13.02

$5.76

Sweetwater County

2011

438,380,012

$13.76

$6.03

Niobrara County

2012

401,457,074

$13.76

$5.53

Platte County

2013

387,995,072

$10.52

$4.08

Weston County

2014

395,665,000

$12.21

$4.83

Johnson County

2015

375,773,000

$11.49

$4.32

Crook County

2016

297,493,000

$9.49

$2.43

Laramie County

AVERAGE PRICE $13.15

ANNUAL VALUE (IN BILLIONS) $6.13

Washakie County Goshen County Fremont County Uinta County Lincoln County Albany County Big Horn County $50,000

$100,000

$150,000

$200,000

GIVING BACK FOR THE FUTURE Celebrating 10 Years

Celebrating 50 years of inspiring curiosity, engagement and leadership through transformative place-based education.

(307) 733-8687 info@1PercentTetons.org 1% for the Tetons is a project of the Charture Institute

Join us for our 50th Anniversary Celebration! with Sally Jewell, Former Secretary of the Interior August 4, 2017, 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Center for the Arts Learn more at www.tetonscience.org or call 307.733.1313

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

45

REGION

H

ere are three big things to know about the greater Jackson Hole region.

• 1. For much of the 20th century, Teton County, Wyoming, was less populous than Idaho’s Teton Valley and Wyoming’s Star Valley.

Even though the populations of Idaho’s Teton Valley and Wyoming’s Star Valley were in decline for much of the 20th century, they were still more populous than the more geographically isolated Teton County, Wyoming. Teton County, Wyoming’s population really began to grow after the opening of the Jackson Hole Ski Area in 1964, and as that growth has occurred, it has spilled over Teton Pass and down the Snake River canyon, reversing the slides experienced in those two locales.

• 2. Since 1970, Teton County and

46

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

its neighboring counties have been on a population growth path similar to the one San Francisco’s neighboring counties began in the 1950s.

Following World War II, the populations of the counties surrounding San Francisco began to grow, as changes in technology, the economy, transportation, mores and values led to the post-war boom of suburbia.

The same basic thing happened some 20 years later in the Tetons region, where the Jackson Hole Ski Areadriven growth marked the beginning of the suburbanization of the Tetons region. We may think ourselves invulnerable to the process, or wish it were otherwise, but the Tetons region is no more immune from the suburbanization process than has been any other area with a dominant commercial center. In that light, perhaps the only thing distinguishing the Tetons region is low population numbers,

making cost-effective mass transit improbable, if not impossible.

• 3. Over the past 60 years, Teton County, Wyoming, has been growing more politically liberal, bringing Teton County, Idaho, along with it. Lincoln County has been heading in the opposite direction.

In 1960, roughly half the residents of Lincoln County, Wyoming voted for John Kennedy for president. Just onethird of Teton County, Wyoming, residents did the same. Over the next 30 years, these two counties, as well as Teton County, Idaho, became increasingly conservative. In 1992, things began to shift, however, with Bill Clinton becoming the first Democrat to win in Teton County since before 1960 (even Barry Goldwater won Teton County, Wyoming).

Since then, Republicans have won only the “native son” Bush-Cheney

Greater Tetons Region Decennial Population In 2016, Teton County, Wyoming’s estimated population was 23,191. Its total growth between 2000 and 2016 was 8.9 percent. Teton County, Idaho’s estimated population was 10,960 (7.9 percent), and the estimated population of Lincoln County’s Star Valley was 13, 586 (6.4 percent.)

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

Teton, WY

1980 Star Valley, WY

1990

2000

2010

2016

Teton, ID

Suburban Population Growth Patterns Since 1970, Teton County, Idaho and Wyoming’s Star Valley have become bedroom communities for Jackson Hole. Their growth rates have been similar to, and in many cases greater than, the growth experienced by San Francisco’s suburbs following World War II. 600

San Francisco area

Teton, WY area

500

400

300

200

RYAN DORGAN

100

PacifiCorps’ Naughton Plant and the adjacent Westmoreland coal mine are seen amid the rolling landscape southwest of Kemmerer.

ticket in 2000. Beyond that, Teton County, Wyoming, has become an island of blue in the sea of red that is Wyoming, America’s most reliably Republican state. As Teton, Wyoming, has become more Democratic, the increasing number of Jackson Hole residents moving to Idaho’s Teton Valley has made that county’s voting patterns more Democratic as well. Heading in the opposite direction, though, is Lincoln County, Wyoming. It is increasingly problematic for Teton County residents located in Wyoming House of Representatives and Senate districts dominated

by Lincoln County voters to feel adequately represented in Cheyenne.

1950

1960

Santa Clara

1970 San Mateo

1980 Marin

1970

1990 Contra Costa

Alameda

1980

1990

Teton, WY

2000

Teton, ID

2010

Star Valley, WY

Greater Tetons Region Politics: 1960-2016 Through 1988, the voting patterns of all three Tetons-region counties were very similar. Since then, Teton County, Wyoming has become increasingly liberal, pulling Teton County, Idaho along with it. During that same time, Lincoln County has become increasingly conservative.

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 1960

1964

1968

1972

1976

1980 Teton, WY

1984

1988 Lincoln, WY

1992

1996

2000

2004

2008

2012

2016

Teton, ID

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

47

Idahoans want to work together I am a county commissioner in Teton County, Idaho. us all, and TWUA represents farmers, irrigators, municiTeton Valley is still a small town. We look after each palities, the county and conservation organizations, all other, as I was reminded yet again last week when my working to replenish Teton Valley’s aquifer. Our aquifer phone went dead and a stranger loaned me his extra has been diminishing, and there are proven ways to fix it, phone sight unseen. ones that can significantly help both our The same thing happens online. We water resources and the needs of downhave a strong and caring Facebook comstream farmers. munity where people find hats they’ve lost Or the Teton Food and Farms Coalition. at Targhee, hunting licenses they’ve lost in The University of Idaho extension educathe woods and, of course, lost pets. tor is coordinating everyone involved: Our I mention this because people in Teton valley’s cities, our farms and farmers, our Valley say we’re a divided community. I disnonprofits and restaurants. The idea is to agree, at least when it comes to what really grow an economy based on food and farmmatters. ing, helping maintain agriculture as an imThe perception is that half of us are oldportant part of our future economy. timers, connected to the valley’s pioneer How about the Bates River access projranching families, while the other half are ect? The county is working with numernewcomers who came for the outdoor expeous nonprofits, some of which historically riences and lifestyle. This view gets repeathaven’t worked well together. Yet we’ve ed over and over, and people start to believe all come together to secure 80 acres on Cindy Riegel it: “The old-timers own all the land and feel Teton River to improve a river access County Commissioner in Teton the a certain way about it, while the newcompoint and develop a park. Thanks to the County, Idaho ers want to take away what the old-timers Trust for Public Lands for helping make have.” this project happen.

That’s not true and we need to stop saying it. I want One final example is the Teton Creek Corridor project. to share examples of people reaching across these false Again several nonprofits are involved, as well as the counboundaries, stories of great people actively fighting ty and the city of Driggs, all cooperatively looking to build against this divide. a bike path along the Teton Creek corridor from Driggs to Take the Teton Water Users Association. Water unites Ski Hill Road.

THANK YOU

www.sustainabledestination.org

The Riverwind Foundation and our partners in the Jackson Hole & Yellowstone Sustainable Destination Program deeply appreciate our Sponsors and Supporters for contributing to our work: • Training and assisting over 200 businesses; Inventorying sustainability activities of over 120 local stakeholders; Creating or enhancing 43 local green collar jobs • Doubling RRR Business Leaders to 160 and Increasing TripAdvisor Green Leaders to 25 • Creating the Jackson Hole Sustainability Code of Conduct and first annual Jackson Hole Sustainability Report Card • Building our on-line library of sustainability information resources and tools

RECOGNITION AND ACTION TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY CONTINUES: • Town Council and County resolution passed for Jackson Hole to be a world-leading sustainable community and destination • Jackson Hole as a TOP 100 Green Destination and National Geographic Destination Leadership Finalist for the World Legacy Awards

48

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Our new commissioners have talked about wanting to bridge the “divide” in our community, and I will hold them to it. First, though, I have to convince them the divide doesn’t really exist. We have the same values, and the “divide” is a false premise we need to throw out. It’s our job as community leaders to blur the divide and emphasize the interdependence and commonality that exists within our community.

Let me mention one other false divide — between two sides of Teton Pass. There’s tension and negativity, and you hear people on the Idaho side say “I would never want to live in Jackson” just as you hear the same from people who live in Jackson Hole.

My point is that we need to acknowledge and celebrate the interdependence between the two sides of the Tetons. I would like to include Star Valley as well. All three areas are equally important parts of our region, and it’s important to integrate and celebrate our interdependence, and really continue working together.

Population: 2010 and 2016 Source: US Census Bureau

United States Idaho Wyoming Teton County, Idaho Lincoln County, Wyoming Sublette County, Wyoming Teton County, Wyoming

2010 (APRIL CENSUS)

2016 (JULY ESTIMATE)

2010-16 GROWTH

2015 MEDIAN AGE

308,745,538 1,567,582 563,582 10,170 18,106 10,247 21,294

323,127,513 1,683,140 585,501 10,960 19,110 9,769 23,191

5% 7% 4% 8% 6% -5% 9%

37.6 35.5 36.8 35.2 38.1 38.1 38.0

2016 Presidential Voting Wyoming had the largest percentage vote for Donald Trump of all states. Teton County was the only Wyoming county Trump lost; Lincoln (76 percent) and Sublette (78 percent) both cast higher percentages for Trump than the statewide average. Source: Dave Leip’s Presidential Atlas 100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

United States

Wyoming

Idaho

Teton, WY Clinton

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SWEET HOME JACKSON HOLE. SEE STEPPING OUT.

Jackson, Wyoming

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

One dollar

s

Smack is back, police suspect

ALMOST LAST ROUNDUP

It’s not widespread, but cops point to several recent heroin overdoses and arrests in Jackson.

By Emma Breysse

SOFIA JARAMILLO / NEWS&GUIDE

Participants get ready while others chat Aug. 13 before the Jackson Hole Rodeo. The final three rodeos of the season are tonight, Friday and Saturday at the Teton County rodeo arena.

St. John’s race is packed Including incumbents, the field for four trustee seats totals seven.

By Ben Graham The race for four seats on the St. John’s Medical Center board of trustees is shaping up to be a crowded and competitive one.

Three challengers — Susan Crosser, Frank Lyons and Dina Mishev — have applied to run. They join four incumbents: Joe Albright, Barbara Herz, Elizabeth Masek and Michael Tennican.

The filing period for the race ended Monday. The general election is scheduled for Nov. 4.

Crosser is the only nonincumbent who joined the race out of worry about how the hospital is being run.

“The community has been subjected to bad governance for way too many years,” Crosser said.

She mentioned the overbudget hospital expansion project that was built without a staff housing plan and based on patient volume projections that were

far off the mark.

Crosser also pointed to the 2012 decision by trustees to continue paying departed Chief Executive Pam Maples $25,000 a month for consulting services that she didn’t provide and accused the board of an overall lack of transparency.

“I gave up going to the dog and pony show because it was clear that nothing of substance actually takes place during the public board meetings,” Crosser said.

If elected, Crosser said she would work to bring issues that should be discussed in public to the public.

Trustees hold an hourlong executive session before every public board meeting. Executive sessions are allowed under Wyoming law to discuss litigation, personnel matters, land purchases or matters of national security, according to state law.

“If something occurs in executive session that I believe the public needs to be informed of, I would consider it my job to inform them,” Crosser said.

The 57-year-old Wilson resident also has complained

Bringing the ’80s back has taken on a more sinister connotation now that local law officers agree that smack is back in Jackson Hole.

Police have spent the past year chasing rumors that only recently have become more concrete. Three arrests in the past month seem to provide proof that heroin is re-entering Jackson’s drug community after a long absence.

“We’ve been contacted over the past year to a year and a half by concerned people within the medical and counseling communities that they’ve been seeing an increase in the number of people with symptoms of heroin overdose and addiction,” Sgt. Tom Combs of the Teton County Sheriff ’s Office said. “There have been rumors for the past year, but it’s just now that it’s been getting to the point where we’re seeing it, too.”

Jackson physician Brent Blue saw his first cases of heroin overdose in at least 30 years during the last months of 2013, he said earlier in the year.

Private practice doctors as well as those staffing the emergency room at St. John’s Medical Center tipped off police that the heroin hiatus might be at an end, putting the highly addictive opioid on officers’ radar, Sgt. Russ Ruschill of the Jackson Police

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Wilsonites sue to kill political contribution limit They claim law violates U.S. Supreme Court’s cash-is-speech ruling.

By Michael Polhamus A Wilson couple have sued the state of Wyoming to strike down limits on how much money donors can give to political candidates during an election cycle.

State law prohibits donors from giving more than $25,000 to candidates over a two-year period. Wilson residents Daniel and Carleen Brophy are approaching that limit, and have sued Wyoming Secretary of State Max Maxfield to go beyond it.

The case follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that scuttled national campaign finance limits of the same type.

“I consider this a fairly open-and-

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shut case,” said the Brophys’ lawyer, Steve Klein of the Wyoming Liberty Group. “The state certainly could fight it, but given the Supreme Court ruling, it’s very hard to overcome.”

Klein said political donations are a form of speech, as did the majority of justices in the April 2 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“Money is a fundamental element of speech, especially in the political arena,” Klein said.

28A 30A 34A

Scenic flights criticized King plan loved, hated Genzer won’t run

That means political donations are protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment, he said.

Through the state’s donation cap — known as an aggregate contribution limit — the Brophys are unconstitutionally prevented from exercising their right to free speech, Klein wrote in his complaint to Wyoming’s U.S. District Court.

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2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

49

Median Home Values and Occupancy Rates Source: US Census Bureau NUMBER PERCENT OCCUPIED MEDIAN OF HOMES YEAR-ROUND HOME VALUE Idaho 87% $160,500 675,421 Wyoming 85% $189,300 265,195 Teton ID 65% $220,700 5,496 Driggs ID 80% $166,500 908 Victor ID 78% $181,200 972 Rest of Teton ID 57% 3,616 Lincoln WY 73% $194,700 8,992 Star Valley 74% $208,700 6,189 Afton WY 75% $180,400 896 Alpine WY 67% $253,700 436 Rest of Star Valley 75% 4,857 Southern Lincoln WY 71% 2,803 Kemmerer WY 75% $167,400 1,339 Rest of southern Lincoln 1,464 67% Sublette WY 61% $284,400 5,815 Pinedale WY 66% $232,700 976 Rest of Sublette WY 60% 4,839 Teton WY 60% $675,000 13,034 Jackson WY 75% $540,700 4,456 Rest of Teton WY 53% 8,578

Per Capita Income: 1969-2015 In 2015, Teton County, Wyoming’s per capita income was $194,861. In its three most proximate counties, the figures were: $31,081 in Teton County, Idaho; $39,683 in Sublette County, Wyoming; and $48,881 in Sublette County, Wyoming. Added together, the per capita incomes in those counties equaled 61 percent of Teton County, Wyoming’s figure. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis $200,000

$150,000

$100,000

$50,000

1969

1972

1975

United States

1978 Idaho

1981

1984 Wyoming

1987

1990 Teton, ID

1993

1996

1999

Lincoln, WY

2002

2005

Sublette, WY

2008

2011

2014

Teton, WY

Driggs offers great economic opportunities continue to make, the investment by the city in infrastrucThey say being a mayor gives one the bully pulpit. ture, community and opportunity, the incentives Driggs What they actually mean is it gives us the chance to be and Idaho currently have available to growing and relobullied to a pulp. We politicians take a lot of heat — most cating businesses make last year’s bold claim somewhat of it is deserved. I’ll start today by dishing out a little bit outdated. This year I’ll update my assertion: The city of to the politicians in the room today. I ask you: When was Driggs presents the greatest economic opthe last time you set foot in Teton Valley or portunity in — wait for it — the universe.

Alta?

Switching gears slightly, what keeps My point is that we policymakers must me up at night? Many of my greatest wor— absolutely must — address our challengries lie outside my influence or control. es at the regional level if we are to enact We’re overdue for a recession or market meaningful and lasting improvements for correction, which I believe will result from our communities. the actions and inactions of policymakers.

Last year I asserted that Driggs presWhen rote ideology becomes the driver of ents the greatest economic opportunity in decisions — instead of facts, figures and the northern Rocky Mountain region. To function — when partisan politics takes back up that statement I presented a launprecedence over people, the result is seldry list of reasons. All these still hold true, dom admirable. and today I’ll give you a new laundry list — Many were disheartened with the outimprovements we’ve made this past year. comes of recent elections. To them I say: Transportation: Added a START bus “Focus on things where you can make a route; added a Teton Valley liaison to the Hyrum Johnson difference.” It’s easy to dwell on things we START board; acquired property to build a Mayor of Driggs, Idaho cannot control. We must focus on where Driggs transit hub; constructed an indoor we can make a difference. bus storage facility; added routes so the Driggs-Targhee We can all make a difference in our communities, shuttle runs every half-hour. where our voices count and our hands are badly needed.

Housing: Progress in worker housing; advances in creAnd the most fundamental place we can make a differating a joint Housing Authority (which can legally cooperence is in our own mindset, our own outlook. Look for the ate across city and state lines); applications and interest best in people. Be a force for productive dialogue and confrom developers to address housing needs; adoption of a structive collaboration. This may seem a Sisyphean strugnew form-based land use code in Driggs; financial incengle, I know, but progress must sometimes be measured in tives to encourage desired development. centimeters rather than yards.

Economic and community development: Driggs’ reThe single point I hope to leave with you today is that gional kitchen incubator is now open; local crowdfunding I believe we can change our world for the better by startplatform created and yielding success; aquatic facility ing in our own neighborhood. Changing our world begins launched; major strides in greenway project along the with upgrading our own mindset, our dialogue with our Teton Creek corridor; a new urban renewal district in neighbors. I challenge you to look for the good in every inDriggs; a multimillion-dollar upgrade of our water delivdividual, every interaction, every instant. Let us improve ery infrastructure this year; and a complete overhaul of our world a few feet at a time by lifting our own spirits and our water utility billing structure. attitude and then lifting those around us.

That’s just this year. The progress we have made and

50

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

PEERS

H

ere are three big things to know about Jackson Hole compared to the U.S. and other prominent Rocky Mountain ski counties: Eagle, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel, and Summit, Colorado (the locations of Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge respectively); Blaine, Idaho (Sun Valley); and Summit, Utah (Park City).

• 1. Teton County, Wyoming, has the greatest income inequality of any county in America. While more pronounced than in the nation as a whole extreme income inequality is not the norm for most ski-oriented communities.

In 2014, 4 percent of all U.S. households earned an adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more, accounting for 34 percent of all income earned by American taxpayers.

That same year, in the eight major Rocky Mountain ski counties, the figures were roughly double: 8 percent of all households earned $200,000 or more, and they accounted for 67 percent of all residents’ income.

Notable differences exist between the Rocky Mountain ski counties, though. The wealthiest residents of Breckenridge, Steamboat and Vail earn less than 50 percent of their counties’ combined incomes; the wealthi-

est residents of Aspen earn nearly 79 percent; in Jackson Hole it’s nearly 90 percent.

• 2. In Teton County and its peer counties, there is a good deal of similarity between those at the lower end of the economic scale, but great disparities between those at the high end.

In all eight Rocky Mountain ski counties, as well as the nation as a whole, those reporting an adjusted gross income of under $200,000 make, on average, about the same amount of money each year: in 2014, the low was $45,987 in Telluride; the high was $55,406 in Park City.

At the high end of the scale, however, there is a much greater range: in Steamboat Springs in 2014, households reporting an adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more averaged $478,979; in Teton County, Wyoming, the average was $2,084,758.

The reason for this is not wages.

Here again, in the eight counties and the nation as a whole, with one exception, the range isn’t great: 2014’s lowest mean wage income in peer counties was in Sun Valley ($39,547); its highest in Jackson Hole ($58,838). And even the outlier wasn’t that far out: Park City’s mean 2014 wage income was $70,569, which was a function of Park City es-

BRADLY J. BONER

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, seen here in summer, employs a large number of people each winter. The income inequality in Jackson Hole outpaces other ski towns.

sentially being a bedroom community for executives employed in Salt Lake City.

Instead, the difference is in nonwage income; i.e., investments. In 2014, the typical American taxpayer earned 45 cents in non-wage income for every one dollar in wage income. There were similar ratios in Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Park City: 65 cents, 76 cents, 77 cents, and 77 cents respectively. In the other peer counties, though, wage income was less important than investment income: in Telluride, residents earned $1.05 in nonwage income for every dollar in wages; in Jackson Hole, it was $3.23.

• 3. Compared to residents of peer counties, a smaller percentage of Teton County residents make charitable donations, but the average amount donated by Teton County’s wealthier residents is much larger than other in counties.

In the United States in 2014, 22 percent of all households earning under $200,000 claimed charitable donations.

See PEERS on 52

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

51

PEERS

Returns with AGI >$200,000: % of All Residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Returns and Income Income inequality in all major Rocky Mountain ski counties exceeds the national average. Teton County, Wyoming, leads the nation in income inequality: 11 percent of households earn 88 percent of income. In Summit County, Colorado, 6 percent of households earn 40 percent of all income.

100% 80% 60% 40% 20% Teton, WY

Pitkin, CO

Summit, UT

Blaine, ID

San Miguel, CO

Percent of all income

Eagle, CO

Routt, CO

Summit, CO

United States

Percent of all returns

Mean Income per Return; Incomes of under $200,000 vs. Incomes of $200,000 or more In Teton County, Wyoming, in 2014, the mean income of households earning $200,000 or more was $2.1 million, 62 times greater than the $33,600 earned by households making under $200,000. The national ratio was 8 to 1, reflecting the high-earning households makiing $531,000 versus $68,000. $2,500,000

100

$2,000,000

80

$1,500,000

60

$1,000,000

40

$500,000

20

Teton, WY

Pitkin, CO San Miguel, CO Blaine, ID

Mean income: AGI >= $200,000 (left)

Eagle, CO

Routt, CO

Mean income: AGI < $200,000 (left)

Summit, UT

Summit, CO United States

Ratio: >= $200,000 / $200,000 (right)

Continued from 51

In the peer counties, the figures ranged from 17 percent in Teton County to 29 percent in the LDS-influenced Summit County, Utah. Among those earning $200,000 or more, the national figure was 86 percent; in the peers the range was 82 percent in Telluride to 91 percent in both Sun Valley and Park City.

(Teton Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 85 percent was secondlowest.)

As with other economic measures, mean per-return donations for those earning under $200,000 were pretty similar both nationally and in the eight peer counties: $746 nationally; $455 to $1,221 among the peers (Telluride and Park City respectively). Where things really diverge, however, was among the well-to-do: Among those earning $200,000 or more, the national per-return average was $16,629; the low peer was $11,204 (Telluride again), and the high peer was Jackson Hole, at $102,453.

That Telluride lags so far behind in charitable giving stands in sharp contrast to its wealth. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also notable that fully one-seventh of Teton Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s well-to-do residents donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make enough charitable contributions to warrant itemizing them on their tax returns.

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52

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Mean Income per Return, by Income Type Teton County, Wyoming, residents earn roughly three-quarters of their collective income from investments. Nationally, Americans on the whole earn only 31 percent of their collective income from investments. In other ski counties, the percentages range from 65 percent (Aspen) to 39 percent (Breckenridge). $200,000

4

$150,000

3

$100,000

2

$50,000

1

Teton, WY

Pitkin, CO

Summit, UT

Blaine, ID

All other income (left)

San Miguel, CO

Salary and wage income (left)

Eagle, CO

Routt, CO

Summit, CO

United States

Ratio: Non-wage / wage income (right)

Mean Donations per Return for Those with Incomes >=$200,000 In 2014, among the major Rocky Mountain ski counties, a similar proportion of wealthy households itemized charitable donations, ranging from 82 percent in San Miguel, Colorado, to 91 percent in both Blaine, Idaho, and Summit, Utah. Teton County, Wyoming, stood out in its mean donation per return: at $102,453, Teton’s mean donation was nearly twice that of second-place Pitkin, Colorado. $120,000

120%

$100,000

100%

$80,000

80%

$60,000

60%

$40,000

40%

$20,000

20%

Teton, WY

Pitkin, CO

Eagle, CO

Blaine, ID

Mean donation: AGI >= $200,000 (left)

Routt, CO

Summit, UT

San Miguel, CO

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2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

53

DIRECTORY Town Council

Up for re-election: 2020

150 E. Pearl Ave. P.O. Box 1687 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-3932 TownOfJackson.com

Smokey Rhea (D) srhea@tetonwyo.org First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018

Pete Muldoon — Mayor pmuldoon@townofjackson.com First elected: 2016 Up for re-election: 2020 Jim Stanford — Vice Mayor jstanford@ci.jackson.wy.us First elected: 2012 Up for re-election: 2020 Don Frank — Councilor dfrank@ci.jackson.wy.us Appointed: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Bob Lenz — Councilor blenz@ci.jackson.wy.us First elected: 2006 Up for re-election: 2018 Hailey Morton Levinson— Councilor hmortonlevinson@townofjackson.com First elected: 2012 Up for re-election: 2020 Bob McLaurin — Town Manager bmclaurin@ci.jackson.wy.us

Town Officials Tyler Sinclair — Town and County Planning Director tsinclair@ci.jackson.wy.us 307-733-0440 Todd Smith — Chief of Police tsmith@ci.jackson.wy.us 307-733-1430 Larry Pardee — Public Works Director lpardee@ci.jackson.wy.us 307-733-3079 Audrey Cohen-Davis — Town Attorney 307-734-1689 acohendavis@ci.jackson.wy.us

Board of County Commissioners 200 S. Willow St. Jackson, WY 83001 P.O. Box 3594 commissioners@tetonwyo.org 307-733-8094 Mark Newcomb (D), Chairman mnewcomb@tetonwyo.org First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Natalia Macker (D), Vice Chair nmacker@tetonwyo.org First appointed: 2015 Up for re-election: 2020 Greg Epstein (D) gepstein@tetonwyo.org First elected: 2016

54

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Paul Vogelheim (R) pvogelheim@tetonwyo.org Appointed: 2010 Up for re-election: 2018 Alyssa Watkins — Administrator awatkins@tetonwyo.org 307-732-8402

Other Teton County Elected Officials 200 S. Willow St. Jackson, WY 83001 TetonWyo.org Donna Baur (D) — Treasurer 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 585 Jackson, WY 83001 dbaur@tetonwyo.org 307-733-4770 First elected: 2006 Up for re-election: 2018 Brent Blue, M.D. (D) — Coroner 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 1727 Jackson, WY 83001 bblue@tetonwyo.org 307-733-2331 (24-hour) First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Sherry Daigle (R) — Clerk 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 1727 Jackson, WY 83001 sdaigle@tetonwyo.org 307-733-4430 First elected: 2002 Up for re-election: 2018 Andy Cavallaro (D) — Assessor 200 S. Willow Street P.O. Box 583 Jackson, WY 83001 acavallaro@tetonwyo.org 307-733-4960 First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Annie Comeaux Sutton (D) — Clerk of District Court 180 S. King St. P.O. Box 4460 Jackson, WY 83001 asutton@tetonwyo.org 307-733-2533 Appointed: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Stephen Weichman (R) — County and Prosecuting Attorney 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 4068 Jackson, WY 83001 sweichman@wyoming.com

307-733-4012 First elected: 1998 Up for re-election: 2018 Jim Whalen (R) — Sheriff 180 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 1885 Jackson, WY 83001 jwhalen@tetonwyo.org 307-733-4052 First elected: 2006 Up for re-election: 2018

County Department Heads Darren Brugmann — START Director P.O. Box 1687 Jackson, WY 83301 StartBus.com dbrugmann@startbus.com 307-733-4521 Erika Edmiston — Weed & Pest 7575 S. Highway 89 Jackson, WY 83001 TCWeed.org ewells@tcweed.org 307-733-8419 Valerie Maginnis — Teton County Library 125 Virginian Lane P.O. Box 1629 Jackson, WY 83301 TCLib.org vmaginnis@tclib.org 307-733-2164, ext. 128 Mary Martin — UW Extension 255 W. Deloney Ave. P.O. Box 1708 Jackson, WY 83001 mmartin@uwyo.edu 307-733-3087 Sean O’Malley — Engineer 320 S. King St. P.O. Box 3594 Jackson, WY 83001 somalley@tetonwyo.org 307-733-3317 Heather Overholser — Integrated Solid Waste & Recycling 3270 S. Adams Canyon Road P.O. Box 9088 Jackson, WY 83002 hoverholsen@tetonwyo.org 307-732-5766 Jodie Pond — Environmental & Public Health 460 E. Pearl Ave. P.O. Box 937 Jackson, WY 83001 jodie.pond@wyo.gov 307-732-8461 Kaitlyn Mangis — Teton County Fair 305 W. Snow King Ave. P.O. Box 3075 Jackson, WY 83001 TetonCountyFair.com kmangis@tetonwyo.org 307-733-5289

See DIRECTORY on 55

DIRECTORY Continued from 54

Tyler Sinclair — Town and County Planning 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 1727 Jackson WY 83001 tsinclair@tetonwyo.org 307-733-3959 April Norton — Jackson/Teton County Affordable Housing 260 W. Broadway Suite B P.O. Box 714 Jackson, WY 83001 TetonWyo.org sstoker@tetonwyo.org 307-732-0867 Vacant — Fire Chief 40 E. Pearl Ave. P.O. Box 901 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-4732

Judiciary Tim Day — 9th District Court Judge 180 S. King St. P.O. Box 4460 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-1461 Appointed: 2010 Up for retention: 2019 Melissa Owens — Town of Jackson Municipal Court 150 E. Pearl Ave. P.O. Box 1687 Jackson, WY 83001 mowens@ci.jackson.wy.us 307-733-3932, ext. 1152 Appointed: 2014 Up for Retention: 2018 Jim Radda — 9th Circuit Court Judge 180 South King St. P.O. Box 2906 Jackson, WY 83001 jlr@courts.state.wy.us 307-733-7713 Appointed: 2010 Up for Retention: 2017

St. John’s Medical Center Board of Trustees 625 E. Broadway P.O. Box 428 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-3636 TetonHospital.org info@tetonhospital.org Michael Tennican — Chair mtennican@tetonhospital.org First appointed: 2009 Up for re-election: 2018 Barbara Herz — Vice Chair bherz@tetonhospital.org First elected: 2006 Up for re-election: 2018 Scott Gibson —Treasurer sgibson@tetonhospital.org

First appointed: 2011 Up for re-election: 2020 Liz Masek — Secretary lmasek@tetonhospital.org First appointed: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Joe Albright jalbright@tetonhospital.org First appointed: 2009 Up for re-election: 2018 Dr. Bruce Hayse — Member bhayse@tetonhospital.org First elected: 2008 Up for re-election: 2020 Cynthia Hogan – Member chogan@tetonhospital.org Appointed: 2015 Up for re-election: 2020 Dr. Paul Beaupre — CEO pbeaupre@tetonhospital.org

Teton County School District Board of Education 1235 Gregory Lane P.O. Box 568 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-2704 TCSD.org Kate Mead — Chairman kmead@tcsd.org 307-733-5163 First elected: 2008 Up for re-election: 2020 Janine Teske — Vice Chairman jteske@tcsd.org 307-739-0951 First elected: 2002 Up for re-election: 2018 Bill Scarlett — Treasurer bscarlett@tcsd.org First elected: 2016 Up for re-election: 2020

Gillian Chapman — Superintendent gchapman@tcsd.org 307-733-2790

Teton Conservation District Board of Supervisors 420 W. Pearl Ave. P.O. Box 1070 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-2110 TetonConservation.org info@tetonconservation.org Dave Adams — Chairman First elected: 2002 Up for re-election: 2018 Bailey Schreiber — Vice Chair Appointed: 2015 Up for election: 2020 Tom Campbell — Treasurer First elected: 2012 Up for re-election: 2020 Sandy Shuptrine — Secretary First elected: 2010 Up for re-election: 2018 Bob Lucas — Supervisor First elected: 1996 Up for re-election: 2018 Tom Segerstrom —Executive Director tom@tetonconservation.org

State of Wyoming — Legislature Dan Dockstader (R) — Senator SD16 dan.dockstader@wyoleg.gov 307-885-9705 (home) First elected: 2008 Up for re-election: 2020 Leland Christensen (R) — Senator SD17 leland.christensen@wyoleg.gov 307-353-8204 First elected: 2010 Up for re-election: 2018

Joe Larrow — Trustee jlarrow@tcsd.org First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018

Mike Gierau (D) — Representative H16 mike.gierau@wyoleg.gov 307-734-9446 First elected: 2010 Up for re-election: 2016

Betsy Carlin — Trustee bcarlin@tcsd.org 307-413-5810 First elected: 2016 Up for re-election: 2020

Marti Halverson (R) — Representative H22 marti.halverson@wyoleg.gov 307-883-0250 First elected: 2012 Up for re-election: 2018

Keith Gingery — Trustee kgingery@tcsd.org 307-734-5624 First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018

Andy Schwartz (D) — Representative H23 andy.schwartz@wyoleg.gov 307-413-6464 First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018

Annie Band — Trustee aband@tcsd.org 307-690-0972 First elected: 2016 Up for re-election: 2020

1250 E. Airport Road P.O. Box 159 Jackson, WY 83001

Jackson Hole Airport

See DIRECTORY on 56

2017 Edition Jackson Hole Compass

55

DIRECTORY Continued from 55

307-733-7682 JacksonHoleAirport.com Jim Elwood — Airport Director jim.elwood@jacksonholeairport.com Jim Waldrop — President Jerry Blann — Vice President Rick Braun — Treasurer Mary Gibson Scott — Secretary John Eastman — Member

Parks & Recreation 155 E. Gill Ave. P.O. Box 811 Jackson, WY 83001 307-739-9025 TetonParksAndRec.org Steve Ashworth — Director sashworth@tetonwyo.org 307-732-5752

Pathways 320 S. King St. P.O. Box 1687 Jackson, WY 83001 307-732-8573 Brian Schilling — Director bschilling@tetonwyo.org

Travel and Tourism Board 200 S. Willow St. P.O. Box 550 Jackson, WY 83001 TetonWyo.org/travel info@4jacksonhole.org Alex Klein — Chairman Appointed: 2014; term expires 2019 Up for reappointment: 2018 Keely Herron — Vice Chair Appointed: 2015 Up for reappointment: 2018

Shoshone National Forest 808 Meadowlane Ave. Cody, WY 82414 307-527-6241 FS.usda.gov/shoshone

David Vela — Superintendent 307-739-3411 Appointed: 2014

Craig Trulock — Acting Supervisor

Bridger-Teton National Forest 340 N. Cache St. P.O. Box 1888 Jackson, WY 83001 307-739-5500 www.fs.usda.gov/btnf

Matt Mead (R) — Governor 307-777-7434 Governor.WY.gov First elected: 2010 Up for re-election: 2018

Tricia O’Connor — Supervisor 307-739-5500 Appointed: 2014

National Elk Refuge 675 E. Broadway P.O. Box 510 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-9212 fws.gov/refuge/national_elk_refuge nationalelkrefuge@fws.gov Brian Glaspell — Refuge Manager Appointed: February 2017

Yellowstone National Park P.O. Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190 307-344-7381 NPS.gov/yell yell_visitor_service@ nps.gov Dan Wenk — Superintendent yell_superintendent@nps.gov Appointed: 2011

Wyoming Game and Fish Jackson Regional Office

Mike Halpin — Treasurer Appointed: 2013 Up for reappointment: 2017 Brian Modena — Secretary Appointed: 2016 Up for reappointment: 2018

Doug McWhirter — Regional Wildlife Management Coordinator 307-733-2321

Chip Carey — Secretary Appointed: 2011 Up for reappointment: 2016

Jon Stephens — Jackson North Game Warden 307-733-2712

Aaron Pruzan — Member Appointed: 2011 Up for reappointment: 2017

Kyle Lash — Jackson South Game Warden 307-733-4995

Stephen Price — Member Appointed: 2011 Up for reappointment: 2017

1405 Hollipark Drive Idaho Falls, ID 83401 208-524-7500 FS.usda.gov/ctnf

Jackson Hole Compass 2017 Edition

Wyoming Executive Branch State Capitol 200 W. 24th St. Cheyenne, WY 82002

420 N. Cache St. P.O. Box 67 Jackson, WY 83001 307-733-2321 WGFD.wyo.gov/Regional-Offices/ Jackson-Region

Kate Sollitt — Executive Director 307-201-1774

56

Grand Teton National Park P.O. Drawer 170 Moose, WY 83012 307-739-3300 NPS.gov/grte

Caribou-Targhee National Forest

Garth Smelser — Supervisor

Edward Murray (R) — Secretary of State 307-777-7378 SOSWY.state.wy.us First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018 Cynthia Cloud (R) — Auditor 307-777-7831 SAO.wyo.gov First elected: 2010 Up for re-election: 2018 Mark Gordon (R) — Treasurer 307-777-7408 Treasurer.state.wy.us First appointed: 2012 Up for re-election: 2018 Jillian Balow (R) — Superintendent of Public Instruction 307-777-7675 Edu.wyoming.gov First elected: 2014 Up for re-election: 2018

U.S. Legislators John Barrasso (R) — U.S. Senator 307 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Barrasso.senate.gov 202-224-6441 First appointed: 2007 Up for re-election: 2018 Mike Enzi (R) — U.S. Senator 379A Senate Russell Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 202-224-3424 1110 Maple Way, Suite G P.O. Box 12470 Jackson, WY 83002 307-739-9507 Enzi.senate.gov First elected: 1996 Up for re-election: 2020 Liz Cheney (R) — U.S. Representative 416 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Cheney.house.gov 202-225-2311 P.O. Box 4403 100 East B St., Room 4003 Casper, WY 82602 307-261-6595 First elected: 2016 Up for re-election: 2018

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