Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dale Steenbergen says that while voters may have decisively rejected a proposal to create a position of City Administrator in Cheyenne, the problems that the proposal was meant to fix still need to be resolved.

Voters by a margin of almost 2-1 rejected the City Administrator in a November 10 special election, and Steenbergen says of the result ''the voters have spoken". The chamber had been a major supporter of the proposal, which was also endorsed by most members of the Cheyenne City Council.

But he says that still leaves a variety of problems facing city government, including declining revenues, problems with city streets, local businesses closing and dealing with ''the drug pressures coming up from Colorado''.

Steenbergen has also said several times that he thinks the city over-regulates businesses, making it harder to start or operate a business in the city that it should be.

Steenbergen says low energy prices and the decline in oil industry jobs present a problem for Laramie County as well as the rest of the state. He says one positive for the local economy is that although the area is certainly hurt by the decline of the oil industry. Laramie County's economy is more diversified that that of much of the state and better equipped to deal with job losses in one section of the economy.

But even so Steenbergen says declining revenues are a problem that is likely continue for a while, especially since Governor Matt Mead is proposing big cuts in state money for local governments for the next biennium

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