(Lander, WY) – Like most of the candidates who participated in this month’s Republican Party primary election forums, Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, cited federal overreach as one of the most important challenges currently facing the state.
The content of his answer was a little more nuanced than others’, however, demonstrating the experience he’s gained during his 10-plus years representing House District 54 in the Wyoming Legislature.
For example, after calling federal overreach a “very significant” problem in Wyoming, Larsen went on to talk about the “origin of the federal overreach,” which doesn’t always come from Congress.
“If these requirements (were) being passed by Congress as law, fine – let’s implement it and let’s follow them,” he said. “But they’re being imposed by rule and regulation through agencies.”
He referred to it as “bureaucratic creep,” when government employees look at “a rule or a law that may be a little ambiguous in their mind, and then make a personal interpretation of what that (means) and pass it on to you and say that’s the way it is.”
“They just can’t do that – they shouldn’t do that – (because they) don’t have the right to interpret that,” Larsen said. “The challenge we’re having (is that) we’re just seeing, on the federal agency side, so much of that interpretation of rule … that they don’t have any authority to do.”
The situation impacts agencies from the Department of Environmental Quality to the Department of Health, the Department of Family Services, and the National Forest Service, Larsen said, but the federal government also has a negative impact on the extractive energy industries in Wyoming – which results in a decrease in tax revenues for the state and local governments.
“We’re displacing those … resources (because) of federal intervention not allowing us to have oil and gas leases, putting a moratorium on coal, those sorts of things,” Larsen said. “If we could … remove those restrictions, (we could) increase production of energy.”
The revenue gained from an increase in mineral energy production in the state would “more than cover the cost” of the 50 percent property tax exemption the Legislature approved this year for homeowners ages 65 and older who have paid property taxes for more than 25 years in Wyoming, Larsen pointed out.
The mineral energy industry may take issue with that set-up, though, he noted, explaining that, while “industry doesn’t mind paying taxes, because they know they’re going to get a certain amount of services for those taxes, they don’t want you diverting their taxes to pay somebody else’s bill.”
“That makes them cranky,” Larsen said. “They don’t like that.”
An alternative suggestion is to diversify Wyoming’s tax base by better incorporating the renewable energy industry, he said.
“Our tax base has some cracks in it, and we really, at some point, need to address that,” he said. “If we’re going to use these various types of energy – wind, solar, and nuclear – to generate electricity, we ought to have a taxation on them to where they’re all on the same playing field.”
On the topic of nuclear energy, Larsen said he’s “really excited” to see the Natrium advanced nuclear reactor and energy storage system developing near Kemmerer – not only because the technology is “really pretty cool,” but also because the development provides an “opportunity” for Wyoming businesses to manufacture the products needed to run the future facility.
There’s also “real interest in enriching and developing nuclear fuel” in the state, Larsen said, and it would be great “if we (could) just use Wyoming uranium to do it all.”
“I think there’s real value-added industries that could come with this revitalization (of) the nuclear industry,” he said.
Larsen also fielded questions about healthcare, K-12 education, voting and elections, and more this week, expressing appreciation for the chance to share his views with the public during the candidate forum, which he called a “critical component of our system of government, where we come before you and explain to you why we believe what we believe.”
“To participate in this just really gives me an opportunity to answer questions (that) people want to hear,” he said, adding, “I don’t know why (my opponent) feels differently about that.”
Larsen’s challenger, Tina Clifford, was unable to participate in this month’s forum, which Larsen called “unfortunate” – not necessarily for Clifford, but “for you that are here, because … you’re going to hear what I have to say, but there’s silence (from her).”
“That’s why I think it’s so important that she be here,” he said, suggesting local voters contact Clifford to ask her the same questions that were posed to him during this week’s event.
To watch the entire forum, click here.
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