Is the Wyoming Freedom Caucus at war with local governments?

Is it just me, or does it seem like the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is waging a war on local governments? As a local official, I’ve watched its members push bill after bill aimed at stripping authority, funding and decision-making from the very communities they claim to represent. Instead of crafting pragmatic policies and working collaboratively with their local government counterparts, they are gutting budgets, undermining local control, and forcing Wyoming cities and counties into manufactured budget crises — with little regard for the consequences.

These legislators love to talk about local control — when it benefits them. But let’s be honest: They only like local control when they’re the ones in control. They would be up in arms if the federal government did to them what they are doing to us. If Washington, D.C., suddenly stripped Wyoming of its ability to govern itself and slashed its revenue streams, the Freedom Caucus would be on every news channel screaming about federal overreach. State government overreach is on full display but somehow the hypocrisy is going unnoticed.

With a fervent desire to provide property tax relief to homeowners, many in the Legislature have attacked the problem with all the finesse and precision of a jackhammer applied to a wristwatch repair. Even though Wyoming residents already enjoy bargain basement tax rates compliments of our energy sector, the Freedom Caucus has deemed it necessary to create sweeping cuts that provide only a marginal relief to most homeowners while kneecapping cities and towns (not to mention school districts, special districts and more). And the chaos is coming from all angles. On one hand, they are slashing property taxes, which has significant downstream impacts on municipal budgets. On the other, they are actively attempting to reduce and restrict the few mechanisms cities and counties have for raising their own revenue. Thus far, the most common advice I’ve heard any of them give on how local governments are supposed to manage these abrupt and severe revenue reductions is some variation of “figure it out.”

What strikes me most about this decision-making process is that not once have these legislators gone on record to explain which services they believe should be cut to match their unchecked revenue slashing. If you’re going to champion eliminating funding for local government, have the backbone to tell people what they’re going to lose. If you are leading some sort of tax revolution, complete the equation. Say what the revolution should include in terms of service reductions. Be honest with people about the actual impact of that policy. Instead, they continue to mislead their constituents, insinuating that property taxes can be cut and all that will need to happen is a trimming of the “fat.” Meanwhile, they will be leaving it to local governments to be the bad guys as we make the tough cuts in our communities while they take home the hero’s trophies for reducing taxes. That’s not leadership.

While the Freedom Caucus declares that it had a mandate from voters, apparently the rest of us who were elected in those same elections and on those same ballots are chopped liver. Here’s the thing — local government is the government closest to the people. We hear from our constituents year-round. We have our fingers on the pulse of our communities because we see and hear from people regularly. In Casper, we have a public meeting every single week. Local officials are in our communities every day, directly accountable for every pothole, every sewer main break and every gallon of clean water that is expected to appear when we turn on our faucets. If state lawmakers had to show up every week and explain these cuts to a room full of firefighters, business owners and parents, I guarantee the conversation would be very different.

It feels like this Legislature wants to “teach” local governments a lesson about fiscal responsibility — but we don’t need the lesson. Local governments already know how to live within their means. Cities, towns and counties are statutorily obligated to craft balanced budgets. We don’t get to run deficits. We are constantly making hard decisions to ensure that every dollar is spent efficiently while still providing the best level of service possible and responding to the shifting priorities of our constituents. When state lawmakers strip funding for critical services without backfill provisions, it’s not local governments that suffer, it’s local people.

If we were facing a financial catastrophe — coal mines closing, oil prices crashing, a banking crisis — that would be one thing. But that’s not what’s happening. There is no economic crisis forcing these cuts. This is a legislator-engineered catastrophe that will impact people’s lives in real ways, all for what? A so-called tax relief plan that amounts to about $60 a month for the average household. Wyomingites are not getting a windfall — they’re getting a gimmick and alongside that, a downgrade in public safety, infrastructure and quality of life. If these policies continue, the impact will be unavoidable: slower emergency response times, deteriorating roads and disappearing local services. These cuts aren’t about efficiency — they are an ideological experiment at the expense of Wyoming’s communities.

Maybe I’m wrong and our legislators aren’t actively positioning themselves in opposition to local governments. If that’s the case, they should listen to the local decision makers across the state who are trying to impress upon them what these policies will do to our communities. And they need to think through the full consequences of these decisions — from Cheyenne all the way down to our neighborhoods. Wyoming needs state lawmakers who support — not sabotage — our towns and cities.