Politics in the Park: Property taxes, data centers and maternal care dominate House candidate forum
CASPER, Wyo. — Divisions emerged Wednesday as eight Republican candidates vying for four Wyoming House seats sparred over how deeply to cut property taxes, how quickly to let data centers into Natrona County,. . .
CASPER, Wyo. — Divisions emerged Wednesday as eight Republican candidates vying for four Wyoming House seats sparred over how deeply to cut property taxes, how quickly to let data centers into Natrona County, and what to do about the mounting affordability crisis. Robert Hendry and Rep. Jayme Lien are competing for a seat in House District 38. Rep. Elissa Campbell and Pete Fox square off for District 56, Rep. Bill Allemand and Peter Boyer for District 58, and Neil Jeske and Rep. J. R. Riggins for District 59. The forum, which was moved to the second floor of CitiWerks due to forecasted thunderstorms, was hosted by the Natrona County Republican Party and the Natrona County Republican Women. The event wound down with audience questions posed to candidates on maternal and mental health care, uranium enrichment and factional fighting inside their own party. Property taxes and the “backfill”Moderators asked Fox whether the 50% residential exemption would be good for the Cowboy State. Fox said he wants the Legislature to seek a balanced bill. “For every 25% that we reduce the property tax, the state loses $100 million,” Fox said. A legislative bill could pair the reduction with a proper backfill, he said, “rather than just slashing our budget another 50%. ”Rep. Allemand backs the full 50% cut and grounded it in older constituents who cannot afford to stay in their homes. “I’m very bent out of shape over this because I got three of them in my district who are faced with that problem,” he said. “Our old people cannot stay in their homes. Our young couples cannot buy homes. ”He added that data centers arrive without paying sales tax on some of their equipment, and should be made to pay. Rep. Lien also supports the cut, but she said she’d replace the revenue with a gross receipts tax on electricity exported out of state, which she estimated would raise about $3 billion. She rejected the notion of raising the sales tax. Boyer proposed the opposite. “Phase sales taxes up as property taxes come down,” he said. “With enough overlap that revenue never drops. Special districts, including the county fire district, have already taken a hard hit. ”For Jeske, the fix is limiting the state to constitutionally mandated functions. One department gave away $255 million last year in what he called “corporate welfare. ”Rep. Campbell warned that counties without commercial or industrial tax bases could cease to exist under the cut, and raised the prospect of an 8% sales tax or a state income tax. Rep. Riggins, who sits on the revenue committee, said the panel meets after the election and will draft a reform bill whether or not the measure passes. Hendry expects it to pass. He pointed to data centers, solar farms and wind development as the tax base that would cover the gap, and warned that a weakened fire district would drive homeowner insurance costs up. On data centersThe data center question came from the audience and went to Jeske first. “Are they getting subsidies?” Jeske asked. “Have they done long-term environmental impact studies? What are the benefits for Wyoming? I think those are three good questions to start with. ”Rep. Riggins said no candidate has been given resource figures by Prometheus Hyperscale, the company behind the project east of Casper. Water use can be metered in real time, he said, if a company will provide a number. Rep. Lien would require disclosure of what goes into the water as well as how much comes out, and asked how ratepayers would be protected from electricity costs. She said she has begun putting those questions to the company. According to Rep. Campbell, federal permitting and the state industrial siting process already ask those questions, though she said the process could take in more local input. Fox called power demand the larger issue, putting the project east of town at 1. 5 gigawatts, or “two Dave Johnston power plants. ” Closed-loop cooling, he said, uses little water. Rep. Allemand said he cannot find a source he trusts. “Do I go to the CEO of Prometheus or somebody else? No, cuz they’re going to lie to me,” he said. “Do I go to the internet? No, because it’s going to lie to me. ”He wants the state to slow down. For Boyer, the use case matters. He said he would not support facilities running Flock cameras or facial recognition. Maternal and mental healthModerators asked Rep. Allemand about physician shortages, maternal care and suicide prevention in a state they described as a “maternal desert. ”Rep. Allemand, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said the appropriations committee is working on it and that the state health director has been in talks with the White House over a rural health initiative. Geography is the main constraint. “You can’t have an OB doctor when there’s only three pregnancies in the town in a year,” he said. Fox said Wyoming has secured $205 million a year for five years under theRural Health Transformation Program. He proposed a hub-and-spoke system anchored in Casper, with the money spent against a ranked list of needs. Rep. Campbell traced the shortage to population decline. Thirty percent of babies born in Wyoming are covered by Medicaid, she said, and reimbursement rates are low. Midwives and new obstetricians often cannot get hospital privileges, so they go elsewhere. Rep. Lien, who said she had four children and adopted a fifth in Casper, pointed to malpractice insurance costs and midwife staffing. The county lost doctor privileges when the hospital was sold, she said. Hendry would protect the university and community college programs that prepare doctors and nurses. He noted that an obstetrician cannot practice in a town without an operating room ready to receive patients, or the insurance drops out. Rep. Riggins proposed a landing site for air transport in every small community. Boyer said he has no complete answer, and that the state’s size makes rural health care a permanent struggle. A stronger economy is the only durable fix. “No offense any doctors out there, but doctors like money just like the rest of us do,” he said. Uranium and nuclearModerators asked Rep. Riggins whether he supports uranium mining, enrichment and nuclear development. He said Wyoming is already in the business through TerraPower, and that the public may not grasp what the project involves. “I almost get the thought that people don’t know that’s actually going to be using fuel rods, just like any other reactor,” Rep. Riggins said. Rep. Campbell said yes to all three, and that the state loses out by having no enrichment capability. Wyoming has said no to opportunity before, she said, and paid for it. Hendry would enrich domestically and sell abroad. He recalled local kids working the uranium mines in the Gas Hills and Shirley Basin before coal took over, and said the ore always left the state unenriched. Reps. Lien and Allemand both said the decision belongs to voters, and both backed a 2026 House resolution that would have put spent fuel storage and enrichment on the ballot. It failed. “Where I have a problem is when it’s shoved down people’s throats with money that is coming out of Wyoming taxpayers’ pockets,” Rep. Allemand said. For Fox, each of the three components needs clearer definition: what material would be enriched, and where reactors would sit. “Daisy chain nuclear reactors down the North Platte River doesn’t sound too cool to me,” he said. Boyer framed it as national security, citing China’s long-term ambitions to “dethrone us from our position as a superpower. ”Party friction and representing Natrona CountyAsked how he would work within the legislative body, Boyer described splits inside the Republican Party. “We’re talking at each other, not talking to each other. And we’ve all tribalized,” Boyer said. “Even within the conservative party, there’s tribalism. ”Rep. Allemand said legislators get along in Cheyenne and that the conflict is at home. He pointed to a Casper billboard calling for the Freedom Caucus to be removed, and said he is a proud member. Fox said the Republican Party has grown so broad that voters cannot tell candidates apart, and that a stronger Democratic Party would reduce the friction. Hendry put it as Republican against Republican, with five to seven Democrats in the entire Legislature. Members should not take their orders from a cell phone, he said. For Jeske, the answer is treating people with dignity and respect. “You never know what somebody’s going through,” he said. Asked earlier how she would work within the Legislature for Natrona County residents, Rep. Campbell said she calls local officials who know the subject before taking a position. “It’s all about the relationships that we have and being able to reach out in a moment’s notice and have conversations with those people,” Rep. Campbell said. Rep. Lien, who took the forum’s opening question on the role of the Legislature, said she weighs constituents above lobbyists. The Constitution “and the Republican Party platform are how I would cast every vote,” she said.