Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, is preparing to try and secure another $5 million for the Wyoming State Shooting Complex.

At a Thursday meeting of the complex’s joint powers board in Cody, Laursen said he intends to put forward a budget amendment in the next session that would bring the complex’s total amount of state funding to $15 million.

Laursen said the idea — hatched during a separate, legislative meeting — would be to have the board use $2.5 million to help develop the complex with the other half helping cover operations as the complex gets started. It’s expected to open as early as the fall of 2026. 

The Wyoming State Shooting Complex is being planned as a “world class” shooting complex at the level of other state shooting complexes such as the Cameo Shooting and Education Complex near Grand Junction, Colorado.

The complex south of Cody is expected to offer everything from trap and skeet to pistol, rifle and the chance to shoot more than a mile within the 2,000 acre site, which is geared toward all walks of life, from tourists and locals to professional shooters.

The Legislature set aside $10 million for the project in 2023 and a state task force picked Cody as the winning site last year. However, lawmakers needed to give final approval before the funding could be released. During the 2025 General Session, both chambers agreed to provide the original $10 million plus an additional $3.5 million.

Those plans were derailed, though, when the Legislature scrapped the entire supplemental budget. Legislators scrambled to still provide $10 million to fund the complex via a last minute vote, with the idea that more money would be sought in the future.

Of the additional $5 million that Laursen is proposing, $2.5 million would come from the state tourism budget, and $2.5 million from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Those funds had been set aside in the initial 2023 legislation, but were never touched, as the funding approved last winter was drawn from a different pot of money.

The earmarked cash “does go away in June of ‘26 so we need to do something this session,” Laursen said, adding, “It should be simple.”

Laursen said he didn’t imagine he could get more general funds, just the $5 million from the other departments that had been included in the 2023 bill. However, joint powers board member Bryan Mick said he was perfectly OK not trying to “take a third bite out of the apple.”

Laursen said he would soon reach out to the Legislative Service Office to move forward with the proposal and have it ready for the Wyoming Legislature’s 2026 Budget Session in February.