Clear, 59° F
Park County voters may have some outsized representation on issues involving the judicial branch and agriculture over the coming two years.
For the 66th Legislature — which encompasses the …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here.
If you already have a web account, but need to reset it, you can do so by clicking here.
If you would like to purchase a subscription click here.
Please log in to continue |
|
Park County voters may have some outsized representation on issues involving the judicial branch and agriculture over the coming two years.
For the 66th Legislature — which encompasses the 2021 and 2022 sessions — four local lawmakers will sit on the Judiciary Committee while three of them will sit on the Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee.
Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, has served on the two panels for the past two years and he’ll now be joined by Sen.-elect Tim French, R-Powell. French had asked for one committee he was familiar with, and got it with a seat on the ag committee.
“That’s kind of my world,” noted French, a longtime farmer on Heart Mountain, adding, “I feel I can do good work there.”
He had also hoped to land on a committee he knew very little about and got that wish as well.
“Judiciary’s a whole new ballgame for me,” he said, but he plans to watch recordings of all of the committee’s meetings from the past year to get familiar with the topics of discussion.
Rep.-elect Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, also landed a spot on the judiciary committee as she had hoped. Williams has experience as a law enforcement officer and as a prevention specialist and said she’s excited to bring that perspective to the committee, which generally deals with criminal laws, the court system, correctional system and related topics.
“It’s a pretty diverse group with some great backgrounds,” she said. Williams has already begun digging into the work the committee has been doing and the bills it’s endorsed since the last session.
State Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, has long served on the ag committee and, just like Kost and French, he’ll now add judiciary as well. Laursen moved to judiciary from the Revenue Committee because its meeting times conflicted with those for ag.
As an employee for the state engineer’s office with a background in farming and irrigation, Laursen said he doesn’t know anything about judiciary, “so it will be good to learn.”
On the Revenue Committee, Laursen had been a consistent no vote on all the tax-raising bills.
“I think the state’s got to cut — and we are cutting,” he said.
Laursen’s no votes likely would have continued in 2021-22, as he’s taken a pledge to oppose all new taxes.
“I don’t think we need to tax yet, so it was good to have us” on the revenue committee, he said, referring to more conservative members.
A legislative split
Laursen and others who are calling themselves the Wyoming Freedom Caucus made unsuccessful runs for Republican leadership positions in the 66th Legislature; he ran for Majority Floor Leader against Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale.
“We threw some names out to give them a choice,” Laursen said, adding, “We got some [votes], but not a whole lot.”
According to reporting from WyoFile.com, the split was generally 32-18, with the Freedom Caucus members on the short end of the vote.
Laursen added that, given their dwindling numbers in the Legislature, he believes there are too many seats for Democrats on the body’s powerful Management Council. With the five Democrats and eight Republicans currently on the panel, “you just don’t get anything done,” he said.
The Management Council from the 65th Legislature recently indicated that much of the 2021 session should be delayed due to the pandemic, though the specifics will be left up to the new leaders of the 66th Legislature, who take office in January.
Laursen and a couple other lawmakers unsuccessfully pushed for the session to go forward on the original schedule, citing the negative impacts that a delay could have, particularly on those in the ag industry.
French specifically encouraged the council to not host the session in April or May — a time that “is absolutely essential for anybody in ag, including myself.” However, he believes the Legislature will ultimately meet in person at the end of February or early March, which would be workable.
“We’ll get through it. This thing will turn around,” French said of COVID-19, adding that, “‘til then, I’m just studying and watching.”
Williams added that, “I think there’s some exciting bills out there that will make it to the body as a whole, eventually, when we do meet.”
In another committee change among local lawmakers, Rep. Jamie Flitner, R-Greybull, has been named the new co-chair of the Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee. Flitner, whose district includes Garland and Frannie in Park County, is also moving from the Education Committee to the Labor, Health & Social Services Committee.
Meanwhile, Rep. Sandy Newsome, R-Cody, is moving to education from the Transportation, Highway and Military Affairs Committee, while continuing to serve alongside Flitner on Travel, Recreation and Wildlife.
Although Newsome will give Park County a continuing presence on education issues, it won’t be like it was over the past two years, when Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, and Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, co-chaired the committee; Coe opted to retire this year after decades in the Senate, while Northrup made an unsuccessful bid for Coe’s seat, losing to French in August’s Republican primary.
Both French and Williams — who’s moving into Northrup’s seat — are set to be formally sworn into office in early January.
