Rep. Justin Fornstrom was sworn in Tuesday as a state lawmaker, filling a vacancy in House District 10 left by John Eklund, who died in November after a battle with cancer.
House District 10 encompasses a central section of Laramie County and its southeast corner and includes the towns of Albin, Burns and Pine Bluffs.
Fornstrom, a Republican, is the former mayor of Pine Bluffs, where his family has been based for generations. A rancher and business owner, he graduated from high school in 1990 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming in 1995. Soon after college, Fornstrom started a farming operation with his dad and brother. He and his wife, Kara, have a daughter.
Fornstrom spent about 16 years on the Laramie County Fire Board, mostly as president, and was elected Pine Bluffs mayor in 2021.
WyoFile spoke with Fornstrom by phone on Wednesday following his swearing in.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. —Ed.
WyoFile: Starting about halfway through the term, how are you preparing for the job and the upcoming budget session?
Rep. Justin Fornstrom: Well, I’ve been working with [the Legislative Service Office], they do a great deal of training. I actually had training all day yesterday. None of it was about the budget, just about practical things. But they have a great deal of content, which I’ve just kind of really scratched the surface of, but intend to drill down here as we go. But a lot of good budget training, the interim committee work is all archived, and so they’re very helpful and that’s what they’re charged with doing. Any bit of background or help I need in that area, they’ve been very gracious about supplying, and to be honest with you, I’ve just really got rolling in that process. So I think I’m behind the eight ball, for sure, just on a time basis, but I fully intend to devote the time and get up to speed to the best of my ability, and look forward to putting in the work and being as informed as I can going to the session. In addition to that, just speaking to other representatives, lawmakers, people who are familiar with the process has been very helpful. So I look forward to taking input from wherever I can get [it] to do the best job I can for the people in House District 10 and the state of Wyoming.
WF: What encouraged you to serve in House District 10?
JF: Frankly, it hadn’t really occurred to me to do this. I had a great deal of respect for John as a legislator and a good man in general, a good community man, and a good family man. So it never really occurred to me that he wouldn’t be there, so I hadn’t given it a lot of thought. But after his passing, I got a lot of encouragement from people around me that felt like I would be able to do a good job. So there was some struggles, and a little bit in that decision making. But really it was just about an opportunity to serve a greater number of people and all those folks in House District 10, as well as the state of Wyoming, and maybe have an opportunity to influence some of the policies statewide. It was a general interest in it, but also a desire to serve. And so even as mayor, on the fire board, I’ve always had a desire to give back to the community or to the area, and maybe now the state, and so I put my name in and just kind of let things end up where they got.
WF: You mentioned serving as mayor of Pine Bluffs. What did you learn from the experience of serving in local government?
JF: Well, my background really is in management. So being a mayor is — much of it is a management job. But also, you get to learn the inner workings of various levels of government from the bottom up. And [I] spent a lot of time working with the county, some special districts, other municipalities, other organizations in the state, and understanding where money comes from for municipal government. And just really kind of honed some skills about budgeting and revenue and some of that, obviously, on a different scale than statewide budgeting, but the principles are similar. And learned a lot about how important those financial sources are to do good work for the people of your community, and what it takes to access those and figuring out how to best be responsible with those funds for the greater good of your community.
WF: Speaking of local government — in recent years, lawmakers have made several changes to residential property taxes, including a 25% cut. And there’s now a discussion to eliminate residential property taxes and to raise sales taxes to replace that resulting revenue loss for local governments. From your perspective, what do you think are some of the appropriate next steps for lawmakers to take?
JF: It’s pretty early on for me, but I can tell you I don’t want to speak to, nor do I know about all of the discussions that have taken place surrounding this. I more or less sat on the sideline and watched, so I don’t feel like I have the full set of information to understand everybody’s train of thought on this. However, I also know that these cuts are difficult for municipalities and county governments and special districts, for sure, and so I guess I would say that I would like to see maybe more discussions surrounding what those cuts look like. I mean, what do they actually look like to the people when they happen? I’m in the same boat on this, I’m a taxpayer, a citizen as well, and so I understand the sentiment and this kind of quick rise we had in property taxes, perhaps, is faster than anyone would have liked. And obviously, I see the need for certain areas of that to get some tax relief, but I also think, simultaneously, you have to inform the public about what that looks like, what reduced taxes looks like in terms of reduced services. And I don’t think you can have one conversation without having the other. But if the conversation is more or less just about cutting your property taxes, well, of course, myself and everyone else in the state is going to be in favor of that. Everyone would like to keep their taxes at least reasonable. Zero [residential property taxes] is also, as you mentioned, on the table. So if you don’t know how that’s going to impact your daily life in your community or your county, then that’s a pretty easy decision to make. But if you’re armed with more facts, perhaps we all come to a different decision about the need to completely eliminate property taxes.
WF: Switching gears a little bit — lawmakers have also spent a lot of time in recent years aiming to overhaul the state’s election system. From your perspective, do Wyoming’s elections need improvements?
JF: So my feeling is Wyoming has one of the safest, straightforward election systems in the country. I will say this, I’m not fully versed on everything that was put forward in the interim, and so I don’t want to speak to individual bills. But just on the whole, we have a safe system. I think we did the low-hanging fruit, and now we’re maybe starting to get into areas that are more difficult for the average person to understand why we’re still trying to shore up problems that aren’t readily seen. And that’s a pretty political answer, but I would say I just don’t want to comment a lot, because there’s quite a few additional proposed changes coming our way, and I would need to review all of those, and haven’t at this point, but I generally think we have a good, safe election system as it stands today. And so I would need to be more informed and probably convinced that we have continuing issues that need to be resolved.
WF: Generally speaking, are there areas that you would like to see lawmakers focus more of their attention on?
JF: Obviously, the budget, as a newtimer, is my primary focus — to learn, understand and make responsible votes about the budget. Then there’s our state’s energy sector, another spot where we have legacy energy sectors that we need to support and that’s a pretty complex issue. There’s a lot of things going on in that space, including a greater focus on nuclear. And as I’ve said in other forums, we’re blessed with our great natural resource of uranium in Wyoming. And how do we best use that? Does it all need to leave the state? Or should we be adding value to it here in Wyoming? And the jobs that that might create, I think that’s a pretty interesting topic. And how communities feel about uranium and nuclear energy can be controversial, and I think we need to take a really hard look at what that would mean to our state in terms of revenue and in terms of jobs, and so those are a couple issues. The last thing I would say is, what we do to promote business in Wyoming, those type of activities, and what the most effective way to do that, and the jobs that the businesses provide and quality of life for our citizens and hopefully potentially stop or reduce the out-migration of our young people by just having a really, really good climate for business and the jobs it does bring.
WF: What else would you like your constituents to know about you?
JF: Just that I’m a person that enjoys learning, enjoys hearing different perspectives, that I have a pretty even personality and like to make good, solid, informed decisions. And I come from an agricultural background and Speaker [Chip] Neiman was gracious enough to give me John’s [committee] assignments in Agriculture and Select Water. And so I feel like I bring some value to those. But I’m interested in other facets of what goes on in our state, and I do enjoy the process of understanding issues and feel like I am pretty even-handed and like to make decisions as such. And so my intention, in addition to the statewide issues, is that House District 10 has its own things going, and much of that is agriculture and just general citizen issues and other things. Really, my objective is to represent House District 10, much like John did. I can only aspire to do a good enough job to live up to his example as a legislator and as a family man, and all those things. That’s my objective.
If his position on nuclear power for WY is in the affirmative, he’s most likely already bought and paid for.
Politically vague in his wording, but “JOBS” always gets peoples attention, even if those temporary jobs will be constructing something that is a detriment to the community.