Politics in the Park: Ten candidates spar over taxes, cost of living, data centers
CASPER, Wyo. — Ten Republicans running for five Wyoming House seats took the stage at Washington Park on Wednesday. The candidates are vying for seats in House Districts 35, 36, 37, 57 and 62. Property taxes,. . .
CASPER, Wyo. — Ten Republicans running for five Wyoming House seats took the stage at Washington Park on Wednesday. The candidates are vying for seats in House Districts 35, 36, 37, 57 and 62. Property taxes, cost of living, water and a wave of proposed data centers drove the afternoon’s conversation. Property taxes and the cost of livingRep. Tony Locke, the House District 35 incumbent, said the problem is spending rather than taxation. His answer pointed to the question hanging over the conversation: How do you cut property taxes and slow unwanted development without draining the mineral revenue that pays for Wyoming’s schools, roads and towns?Locke said families are tightening their budgets and government should do the same, and that he has run bills to extend tax exemptions to large employers and core industries. Ross Schriftmanargued the money is already banked. Schriftman, a House District 37 candidate and longtime pro-life and health care advocate, said a state treasury account holds roughly $30 billion in mineral revenue. “A property-tax break would be a small share of the budget,” he said, “not a reason to cut local services. ”Jeanette Ward, a former state legislator running in House District 57, backed a Freedom Caucus plan to phase property taxes out over a decade by capping spending growth and banking the savings. Two candidates warned against leaning harder on energy. Donna Rice, a House District 37 candidate, estate-planning attorney and secretary of the Wyoming Republican Party, said the state “can’t punish success” by shifting more burden onto oil and gas. Rep. Julie Jarvis, the House District 57 incumbent and a former teacher and principal, said residents already pay a larger share of property taxes than the industry does. Rep. Art Washut, who has represented House District 36 since 2019, said the Legislature’s promised backfill for local governments is not written into the property-tax measure voters decide in November. “Fire districts on a single mill levy and homeowners on Casper Mountain,” he warned, “could see insurance costs climb if the cut passes and lawmakers decline to backfill the lost revenue. ”Brian Costellotied the squeeze to the state’s future. Costello, a House District 37 candidate who spent 25 years teaching and coaching, said Wyoming ranks last in the country at keeping its young people, and linked that to the cost of housing. Data centersData centers drew the longest back-and-forth of the night. The candidates mostly avoided a flat yes or no. They pressed instead on transparency, water and who gets to decide. Rep. Kevin Campbell, the House District 62 incumbent, made transparency his line. Campbell said government should not pick business winners and losers, but that big projects must disclose their chemicals, water use and operations. Ward said any center should mitigate its water and power draw and promise not to process surveillance data. “We don’t need to be building our own digital prison,” she said. Jarvis said she added the question to a survey she’s mailed to every registered voter in her district, and that responses are running about even. “When the final survey comes in, I’ll let you know,” she said. Rice and Costello dug into the mechanics. Rice described a cooling design that trucks in water mixed with alcohol, runs it in a closed loop and ships it out of state to recycle, easing the draw on local supplies. Costello said the newest centers can use less water than a 100-acre pivot and generate their own power from Wyoming gas, and he pushed for decommissioning bonds so the state is not left holding dead servers. Anthony “Edis” Allenwanted them kept away from homes and ranchers’ pastures. “Build it by the airport, build it by the refinery,” said Allen, a U. S. Marine Corps veteran who owns the Martinizing Dry Cleaning stores in Casper. Representing Natrona, and outside moneyOn working inside the chamber and resisting outside money, the answers turned on relationships and clean hands. Washut described being handed a volatile House investigation last session and steering it to a close. “I was the go-to guy,” he said, noting that members on both sides thanked him afterward. Christopher Dresang, the other House District 35 candidate and a Casper native, said he would put “Natrona first” and resist any move to shrink the county’s voice to a single representative. Schriftman said he has taken no money from outside Wyoming and urged other candidates to do the same. Several others made the same pledge. Locke, for instance, said he refuses money from political action committees to avoid being beholden to their lobbyists. “I’m not a joiner,” he said. “I have core values and principles, and I answer to my constituents. ”Nuclear power and public landsThe final question paired uranium with the sale of public lands. The candidates lined up against selling Wyoming’s ground. Ward said she is open to nuclear power but wants voters to decide by constitutional amendment whether Wyoming stores nuclear waste. Campbell called himself “a huge proponent of nuclear” but said he hates the waste, making the case for thorium fuel over uranium. Locke said Wyoming should never become the national storage site for out-of-state waste, a caution several candidates echoed. On land, the answers were blunt. “I oppose that. Full stop,” Dresang said. Costello compared a sell-off of public lands to a rancher selling calves to buy steaks, and said a 640-acre parcel that recently sold for about $1 million would cover state government for “about five minutes. ”Winding downIntroductions, seven questions and closing statements filled nearly two hours, with two more “Politics in the Park” forums to come before the primary on Aug. 18.