(Riverton, WY) – The two candidates running to represent Wyoming House District 33 in this year’s election shared contrasting views on an array of topics during a recent candidate forum in Riverton.
They began, however, by agreeing, with both candidates listing property taxes among the topics that represent the most important issues facing the residents of HD 33.
“When I’m knocking on doors, that is one of the things that I hear about over and over,” incumbent Republican Sarah Penn said. “We’ve watched our property taxes go up … to the point where it’s unaffordable, where people are being taxed out of their homes.”
The way to address higher property taxes, Penn said, is to “get our spending under control so that we are focusing on the things that (are) the proper role of government.”
“Then, we apply any surplus that we have to pay down peoples’ property taxes,” she said. “It’s not a difficult scenario.”
Democratic candidate Ivan Posey, who was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation, said the property tax issue has “always been in the forefront” in HD 33.
“It’s nothing new to try to develop a system within the legislature to address that,” he said, expressing his view that property tax reductions should be “needs-based” and come with a “residency clause.”
The legislature passed a 50 percent “homestead” exemption this year for homeowners ages 65 and older who have paid property taxes for 25 years or more, but Posey said that move will cause a decrease in local revenues that will “affect (the) services that are provided” to community members, from public education to county road maintenance.
“It’s more of a serious problem than people would think, of just cutting the tax,” he said. “It’s really going to (have) ramifications. … We need to be careful, as a legislature, how we continue to do that.”
Penn didn’t think the homestead exemption would have much of an impact on local revenues, however.
“A 50 percent reduction in those assessments equates to about $5 million per year,” she said. “What does that mean to schools? That’s about .2 percent of their revenue. … I think that they can absorb a .2 percent reduction in funding (if) it means keeping our seniors in their homes.”
Later, Penn pointed out that funding isn’t necessarily an issue for HD 33 public schools on the Wind River Reservation, which benefit from both state and federal support.
Instead, Penn suggested that the challenges those schools face must be addressed starting “at home.”
Posey recommended incorporating more “cultural methods of teaching” at reservation schools in order to bolster student achievement.
It wasn’t the only time he advocated for more education about Tribal values and issues during the forum – within public schools and elsewhere.
“(We need) continued education to learn more about each other,” he said. “There’s still a lack of understanding on both sides of how systems work.”
He referred, for example, to the “age-old issue” of “taxation without representation” on the Wind River Reservation, explaining that, while the State of Wyoming collects taxes on Tribal oil and gas revenues, “we get very little back in terms of services.”
“(We) continue to pay tax as Tribal citizens and sometimes don’t get the return for that,” Posey said. “We need a way on the reservation to have a system that captures those taxes to utilize for services.”
Healthcare
Both candidates also agreed that Wyoming residents need better access to medical care.
Penn said she would like to approach the issue by considering tort reform – a strategy that could “entice” medical providers to Wyoming by decreasing their legal liabilities.
She would also like to develop legislation providing “conscience protection” for healthcare providers in the state.
“This bill would look at ensuring that healthcare providers are not going to be required to participate in procedures or do things that they feel morally opposed to,” she said.
Another issue Penn said she “would like to continue working on” in the Wyoming Legislature involves “medical freedom” and giving state residents “the ability to have good conversations with their doctors and make decisions for themselves.”
When it comes to pregnancy, however, Penn said the situation involves “two lives,” and it is important to “support the lives of both individuals” involved.
“Who gets to make the personal health choice for that baby?” she asked. “Until that child is old enough to make its own decision, we should be tasked with protecting that life.”
Posey said he is “pro-life” as well, but he doesn’t think “it’s the government’s role to make the decisions for a woman in terms of reproductive (health).”
“I believe that it’s still a woman’s choice,” he said.
When asked about his views on mental health and substance abuse treatment, Posey said it’s important to provide patients – especially those recovering from addiction – with job training and a “safe place to stay,” expressing support for “local efforts to address those” issues in the community as opposed to at a “treatment center.”
Penn said she would prefer a focus on the “roots” of the “mental health crisis” plaguing the state and the nation, “rather than simply treating the symptoms.”
She pointed, for example, to “an emerging body of research” showing a link between diet and mental health.
“(It) is not my priority … for government to get more involved in funding mental health,” she said. “My priority is to say, ‘Let’s educate people on realities. Let’s help people … become more healthy and thereby have hopefully less need of mental health service.’”
She didn’t think the government should be more involved in funding early childhood education, either.
“I think early childhood education is wonderful, I think it’s necessary, (and) I think it belongs with parents and in the home,” she said. “Kids at that age need to be home. … I don’t support sending our children off unless it’s a parent’s choice, but not funded by taxpayers at the young ages.”
Posey said he would support early childhood education as a legislator, explaining that two of his children participated in preschool programs and, as a result, were “prepared by the time they got to kindergarten.”
“I think that it does have a place in our society,” he said.
Posey is in favor of Medicaid expansion, too, while Penn said she has “concerns” about the “offer” from the federal government to cover 90 percent of the associated costs for two years.
“What happens after two years?” she asked. “The federal government could change the rules.”
Plus, she said, Medicaid expansion wouldn’t address the issue of healthcare access in Wyoming, because “we don’t have providers,” and “it takes providers to have access.”
Penn is a nurse practitioner who has lived in Fort Washakie for 10 years with her husband, who works there as a teacher, and her three children, all of whom currently attend schools in Fremont County School District #1, and previously went to Fort Washakie and Wyoming Indian schools.
(Correction: The original version of this article stated Penn’s three children attended “schools on the Wind River Reservation,” and has since been updated.)
Posey, who also has three children, is the Tribal Education Coordinator at Central Wyoming College and the Director of the CWC Institute of Tribal Learning.
He was a member of the Shoshone Business Council from 1994 until 2002 and from 2004 until 2016, serving as Chairman for almost a decade, and he was appointed as Wyoming’s first Tribal Liaison in 2003.
To watch the entire forum, click here.