Wyoming State Senator Dan Dockstader (R-Afton) from Senate District 16 stepped into the SVI Radio studio to provide a legislative update. Sen. Dockstader discussed energy in Lincoln County, logging returning to the Forest Service lands, fire prevention, education and property taxes.

(0:00) Weekday wake up on SVI radio heading into this hour’s guest interview segment this morning (0:04) and a legislative report today from Senator Dan Dockstader of Afton Senate District 16. (0:10) Senator, good morning into October now and legislative work never does slow down, (0:16) does it? It just keeps on rolling right along. No, that’s what many people don’t realize just (0:20) because you’re not in session doesn’t mean you’re at work.

In fact, every month I’m (0:23) either in Cheyenne or Casper or somewhere in Wyoming related to this legislative responsibility. (0:29) Mostly Casper and Cheyenne. That’s where we try to hold most of our meetings.

Now we’ve got a (0:36) state office building in Casper works as kind of a central gathering place where we come together (0:42) and try to hold most of our meetings there because already set up for computers already set up for (0:46) audio. It’s completely set up to go we’re actually looking at doing something similar in Riverton as (0:51) well. And I’ve been put on a new subcommittee that will explore the possibilities of doing something (0:56) like that.

Part of the problem is Duke when we travel around the state and try to set up in (1:01) areas where it’s not traditionally set up for a legislative meeting. All you have to bring in all (1:07) the audio equipment, all the visual effects. Wyoming Public TV has to be there to make sure (1:12) that we can stream everything.

It’s rather complicated, but we’re one setting Casper, (1:17) Riverton, something central or Cheyenne, we’ve already got all the equipment in place, (1:22) everything ready to go to essentially run a meeting. Yeah, well, you and I both know how (1:27) much equipment it takes to do a video broadcast. So many suburbans have been loaded and unloaded (1:32) over the years for sports broadcast.

Absolutely. Well, appreciate your time on this update. (1:35) What’s been taking up the bulk of your attention in the interim here? Corporations assignment a (1:41) lot of election type bills under consideration like ballot drop boxes, should we have them or not? (1:48) Probably we’re going to move away from those with time, but also paper ballots, (1:52) things like that.

Corporations has been dealing with multiple bills related to elections. (1:58) I suspect that that will continue as we meet again this next week. Those meetings go long.

(2:03) That’s a main committee meeting assignment. And I think we’re probably going to see some changes (2:08) with the elections. We’ve called upon the county clerks to get more involved across the state to (2:14) put corporations and if they have displeasure over something, that’s their opportunity to (2:18) meet with us and say, you know, that’s that’s working.

Don’t don’t fix it. It’s not broken, (2:24) or perhaps we could tweak it. But I think you’ll see in this next legislative session, (2:29) a series of smaller bills dealing with smaller topics.

Maybe something like just as simply as (2:35) truly have a drop box out in front of the county clerk’s office and in front of the courthouse. (2:40) And the public is saying probably so. But there are some concerns too, (2:45) from those associated in running the elections.

Is it secure? Is it safe? (2:50) And are we running the process in a way that we don’t question it later, whether there was a (2:55) problem with the election count? What are you hearing from the the clerks, the county clerks, (3:00) when it comes to would like to hear would like to hear more from them. That’s just it. (3:04) They are coming forth.

But I’d like to know just exactly where they stand. If this is going to (3:10) cause them a lot of trouble to make these changes in the election process, we need to know. They (3:17) funneled through one major spokesperson at the meetings.

But I think the individual county (3:24) clerks in all 23 counties should probably step up and don’t be afraid to get involved across the (3:30) state. This will affect the elections for years to come. And if it’s going to cause a county (3:36) clerk’s office more problem, more work, we need to know up front.

And will it cost more money to (3:41) make these changes in the elections? Everything has a process. It’s been working well for a lot (3:46) of years. But there are a couple of instances that came up where they said, was it done properly in (3:52) this county? Well, that’s what the Corporations Committee has to decide.

We got to go back now (3:56) and reconsider this as we move into the election process. Or as we move into the legislative (4:02) process this winter, I think you may see some changes in the election process. (4:07) Senator Dan Dockstader, Senate District 16 in studio.

Dan, I know you spend a lot of time in (4:13) natural resources and energy. What’s been your focus there? (4:16) My passion. In the meantime, for folks who don’t follow at all in South Lincoln County, we do have (4:23) all of the legislative action has been taken, the money has been reserved to move a road for a coal (4:31) mine, which would keep people employed and keep a tax base in South Lincoln County.

Probably need (4:38) to hear some more from those folks in South Lincoln County. Is this something they’re concerned about? (4:42) They want to keep that coal mine. Everything is in place legislatively.

We put that together. (4:48) We need to hear from those who run the businesses in South Lincoln County. We need to hear from our (4:53) county commissioners.

We need to hear from those who are centered around that whole coal mine and (4:58) that power plant operation. Is this important enough for them to keep it and to preserve it (5:04) and to be involved? Everything legislative has been laid out. It’s now in their court.

(5:11) But yeah, it is a passion of mine, and I track it quite heavily. Talking about natural resources, (5:17) too, I’ve been put on a committee that assigns me to deal with the natural resources of Wyoming at (5:27) federal level, and we’ve been working with the Forest Service, specifically on the west side. (5:34) We’ve worked with all the forests, but we’ve been working with the state forester as well, (5:39) Kelly Norris, as we’ve tried to find a way that we can harvest the product in our forests more often.

(5:46) We’ve got a great example happening now with Adam Calkins in the south part of the Bridger-Teton, (5:51) where he’s saying we can take like these five-acre segments, start to trim those out, (5:56) cut those out, and move them on to the mill, process the forest. In other words, clean it up (6:03) and work on it. I love his approach.

I’ve been working hard on it. I’ve been working with the (6:07) state forester’s office. In my case, it’s the Bridger-Teton on the west side of the state.

(6:12) I’ve been visiting with Chad Hunson, and I think we can find an angle to get some of this (6:17) accomplished in certain areas. And Adam Calkins in the Kemmerer Ranger District has set an example (6:22) for us where we can start some of these smaller cuts. They’re profitable.

At the same time, (6:28) it helps us to clean up our roads and perhaps clean up some waterways too. It’s been a long (6:33) time coming. For years we have waited.

I go clear back to the days of Jerry Harmon, (6:37) county commissioner. He wanted to have this done. He was in the forest industry business.

(6:41) He saw an opportunity to keep the forest maintained. It was hard. We weren’t, we didn’t (6:47) have a listening ear for many years.

Now I think we do, and it’s time to go to work and get our (6:52) forest straightened up, cleaned up, and put people back to work and get some cash flow going (6:57) and use the product. What a concept, huh? So, and this kind of correlates in sync with the (7:05) management plan revisions for the service and the forest service and their long-term outlooks and (7:09) the community outreach and everything they’re doing. So it sounds like there may be a path in (7:13) place to have a robust logging industry return to Lincoln County.

And it doesn’t have to happen (7:18) overnight. It can take these smaller cuts and we can do it now because we have to go back out and (7:23) find mills that will process it. When we shut the forest down over the years, we lost great mills (7:30) like in Afton, Dubois, places like that.

But there is an opportunity for some of these smaller mills (7:36) to be up and functioning, employ people, use the product, and get back in action. I commend (7:43) District Ranger Adam Calkins on the south end of the forest for stepping up and doing this. We (7:47) toured this, Representative Scott Hiner and I toured his work a couple of weeks ago.

Very (7:53) impressed with what he’s doing. Also related to this, our plans to actually kind of clean the (7:59) forest up for fire prevention as we go. A lot of people don’t realize the Willow Creek fire on the (8:04) south end, prior to that being burnt, they had gone in and done some preservation work, cleared out (8:12) some of that forest just on the west side of US Highway 89.

So when that forest fire was burning (8:19) on that Saturday and moving towards 89, first of all that we had a fire break, a natural fire break (8:25) in US Highway 89. But Calkins and his crew, the Forest District Ranger, the District Ranger Adam (8:32) Calkins, he had gone in with a small crew and cleared out a lot of that area weeks ahead of time (8:38) with the idea that it could be used as a fire break should we ever need it. So that’s what (8:43) slowed that down on that Saturday, not just the highway, but also it slowed it down because he’d (8:49) gone in with a crew and cleared out a lot of that underbrush.

So that, three different things, (8:55) clearing out that underbrush, the highway, and then doing a fire retardant drop parallel to the (8:59) highway. That essentially brought that fire to a stop that Saturday night last summer. (9:04) Senator, while you’re on that topic, I think because you’re working so closely with the Forest (9:08) Service and saw the effects of that fire firsthand, I think I have to ask your comments on what’s (9:16) happened after the Willow Creek fire and the roads and the trails and you saw some of that (9:22) firsthand.

What’s been your take there? That was a concern that the crews went in there and (9:29) the idea is while we had crews, as I understand it, was to dig some holes and trenches and (9:36) fire lines out around there and stop the fire that way. They may have gone too far. They’re (9:42) coming back in now.

Well, they did go too far. They’re coming back in, filling it back in and (9:48) fixing it up a little more. They got a little aggressive while they had the equipment in there (9:52) and I appreciate the Forest Service cooperating after everybody showed up and said, (9:56) wait a minute, we went too far.

We still got to move cattle out of there. We got to have cattle (10:01) lines and all of that and they’ve come back in and they’ve rethought how they’ve done that on the (10:05) south Willow Creek area. I’ve suggested too at the same time they maybe rethink that area as they go (10:10) back in, rethink that area for recreational use.

If they’re going to rebuild those roads and those (10:16) trails, there’s an opportunity to allow a little more public access. If there’s one thing that (10:22) we repetitively hear, both here and at the national level, is people want access to their (10:27) forest. Legislative report from Senator Dan Dockstader this morning.

What else is drawing (10:32) your attention as you get ready for the session in a few months? I’ve got a couple of other (10:35) committee assignments along the way. I guess the longer you’re there, they put you to work in all (10:40) sorts of niches and places and one of them is a management audit committee where we go back in, (10:45) look at some of the work we’ve done, run an audit on it. Is it doing what it should be, (10:49) having committees come in or having agencies come in, review with them what they’ve been (10:54) doing.

Some of the bills we’ve done, we go back in and essentially do an audit and say, (10:57) is the right thing. I’ve got to slip over to Casper this week and follow up on management (11:02) audit. Also on select school facilities where we’re still building schools.

It hasn’t slowed (11:09) down. We’re still trying to find ways to put schools together or add construction. For example, (11:14) in Jackson, we’ve got a project called the Bronx Center.

They are growing and school facilities is (11:21) looking at that and some other projects across the state. So in addition to my main assignments, (11:26) I have what I call these niche side assignments that will take a day here and take a day there. (11:31) Throw a little travel time over to the east side of the state and maybe it takes two days or at (11:35) least a night time of travel.

Senator, and of course the big topic last couple of years, (11:40) something I have to ask is property taxes. Are you satisfied with the direction it has gone and what (11:47) changes might you anticipate seeing moving forward? I think you’re going to see a more (11:51) permanent resolve come into that, that 25% property tax that we passed. I know it caused (11:57) a lot of angst and concern with our county commissioners and others across the state saying, (12:02) well, that pulls away our chance to support the infrastructure work across the county.

Everybody’s (12:08) going to be okay. 25%, those adjustments can be made. We’d heard enough from people who are (12:14) paying those increased property taxes that we had to go back in and make that cut.

One of the things (12:20) that you’re starting to hear back is people have to show that they’ve lived in their place for say (12:25) eight years or so to get that tax. I think we’re going to get that resolved and cleaned up a little (12:30) bit more in this next legislative session. I think you’re going to see the 25% move in there on a more (12:37) permanent basis.

We have to be very careful to dissolve all the taxes altogether because yes, (12:42) we still have infrastructure to do. Some of these smaller counties count on that (12:46) for their infrastructure work, but it’ll be okay. I said that to my county commissioners, (12:51) it’ll be okay.

For example, Lincoln County in the last few years went through 112.6% (12:57) property tax increase. We have to cut those taxes back. Senator Dan Dock, Senator, legislative report (13:03) on the weekday wake up.

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