The Blog at MSPC

Growing up in the era of pagers and pay phones, I survived cell phone-free until college. As a mom to a teenage boy, I tried to stave off phone use as long as possible. Debates on appropriate screen time, talks about cyberbullying, and warnings about predators have become the norm. For most students, cell phones are an integral part of everyday life, and thus, their use in school has become a contentious issue. Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are each addressing cell

This new nuclear expansion by Meta and other tech companies sends a message to every major company with large energy needs. The nuclear landscape is different from what it has been in the past.

As one Idaho justice noted during oral arguments, lawmakers are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time when it comes to education policy.

While workers in Wyoming have the ability to opt out of union membership, requiring them to proactively send dues instead of having them automatically deducted from paychecks ensures that they want to belong without doubt.

Civic education doesn’t belong to one type of school or region. It belongs to everyone. Our hope is that teams will come from across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Eastern Washington, so students can meet peers from different communities, compete respectfully, and go home with a deeper appreciation for how our system works.

The Fast Track Permits Act is a great start to making housing more affordable and attainable in Wyoming. And in coming years, legislators should continue to find ways to allow more people across the income spectrum to enjoy home ownership and build generational wealth.

The Wyoming Legislature is considering a bill that would require hospitals in the state to post prices. The language of SF 57 would essentially force hospitals to list prices for services and materials, which would allow patients to become informed consumers of health care.

Wyoming legislators are right to address the necessity of upholding the principles of federalism in the 2026 Legislative Session in the form of SJ 2.

Wyoming just took an important step toward modernizing how work and benefits fit together. Lawmakers have introduced Senate File 41, a bill that would authorize the creation and use of portable benefit accounts for independent contractors—accounts that can pay for benefits like health insurance and retirement, without affecting a worker’s classification.

We have dozens of policy recommendations for lawmakers to consider. These reforms can be acted on even with the challenging budget situations across the states. Here are a couple of our top recommendations for Idaho, Washington and Wyoming lawmakers

History is rarely kind to policies that treat property rights as expendable. Housing affordability will not be achieved by suffocating peaceful uses of private property, but by expanding supply and allowing markets to respond to demand.

Teacher compensation should move beyond outdated salary schedules and begin rewarding what matters most: results for students.

As we prepare for the start of the 2026 Legislative Session in a few weeks in Idaho, Washington and Wyoming (there’s no legislative session next year in Montana), it’s a good time to look back and reflect on the many exciting things that occurred in 2025. Here are just a few that stand out

Did you know that Wyoming is only one of four states in the U.S. with a completely government-run workers’ compensation insurance system? Wa

As statistics refute themselves, regulations harm more than protect, and trade barriers exasperate challenges facing domestic producers, the government’s role in farming is only adding to the red.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises  v. Raimondo is reshaping federal land use in Wyoming and policy throughout the United States.

Calls to abolish the property tax are growing louder across the country as elected representatives respond to constituents' increasing concerns about rising property assessments and tax bills. Wyoming is one of the states currently having this debate. What happens there next could be a lesson for lawmakers in other states.

With a federal government shutdown upon us and even more importantly, ballooning national debt jeopardizing the solvency of Social Security and Medicare in less than 10 years and other basic government functions, states must start preparing for changes in federal support.

In Teton County’s twisted logic, forcing residents to pay higher building fees to support “workforce housing” is the solution to its chronic housing shortage for lower-income residents. The fees apply even if those building include plans for rental units that would ease the problem.

While funds may be temporarily paused for the nearly 4,000 families approved to receive education savings account funding in Wyoming pending judicial review, they should not lose hope.