Al Simpson and Warren Morton helped boost the mineral severance tax rate in Wyoming, leading to the establishment of the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund. With the downturn in the energy market, attention is returning to Wyoming’s tax structure and how revenues can be increased and costs cut. (Casper College Western History Center)
Yes, you recognize the guy on the left as a younger Al Simpson, and many of you will recognize the late Warren Morton standing there with him.
They were a proud pair in the mid-1970s who, together with Tom Stroock, an oil man from Casper like Morton, crafted legislation to boost the mineral severance tax rate in Wyoming, and amend the state constitution to allow a permanent trust fund to hold revenues from that tax. That history is retold on WyomingHistory.org. To zero in on more recent debates about Wyoming’s tax structure, see the Pete Simpson Forum hosted by Al’s brother Pete.
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