Early candidate forums split candidates

Candidates start civil as they meet in initial stage of primary races, which culminate Aug. 16.

Jackson Hole News&Guide

Last week’s candidate forums were an early, civil start for politically similar candidates to distinguish their perspectives on Teton County’s top issues.

Hosted by Teton County Library and the League of Women Voters, which does not host debates in uncontested races, only Democratic candidates for House District 23 and Republicans running for Teton County Board of County Commissioners answered questions from local media. Uncontested candidates were invited to make a short statement.

Watch forum videos for Town Council and House District 23 and Assessor, Commission, Clerk of District Court. Here are a few highlights.

County Commission

With four moderate Republican candidates for county commission, no issue sparked more disagreement than how to approach water quality.

There’s no question it’s a critical issue, especially for Hoback where dangerous levels of nitrate have been recently documented, candidates agreed. But Tom Segerstrom and Alex Muromcew used their single-use time extensions to debate how the problem should be classified and addressed.

Muromcew began by condemning “inaction” from current electeds that he connected to a “crisis” of fecal bacteria in Fish and Flat creeks, algae blooms in the Snake River and undrinkable water in Hoback.

Segerstrom said the contaminants are misunderstood and, rather than a problem, water quality is an “emerging issue” for the majority of Jackson Hole that would take a lot of time and money to permanently fix.

Muromcew replied that the state was “squandering” federal ARPA money.

Segerstrom countered that “just because money is available doesn’t mean it’s fiscally responsible. Just because a project will require a lot of planning doesn’t mean that we should be hasty.”

Less controversial but also prevalent was the issue of property taxes.

Though county commissioners control only about 12% of property taxes, the countywide increase of about 40% this year thrust the subject to the front of most candidates’ campaigns.

Two candidates with elected board experience — Segerstrom and Kasey Mateosky — said that being on boards that recently lowered their levied tax mills was evidence they could do the same for the county.

Muromcew suggested cutting the county mill levy altogether.

It’s not going to be a huge amount of money,” he said. “But I think that’s an important gesture from the county government to the people to say, ‘Hey, we feel your pain.’”

As he did with water quality, Segerstrom differentiated himself from Muromcew with a gentler approach to taxation.

While Segerstrom said he was in favor of spending “scrutiny,” he said he would continue to support government services.

“The county government has to operate, and it does provide valuable services,” he said, “but the value for those tax dollars is what needs to be examined and reexamined.”

Peter Long said the property tax situation was an emergency.

“I think we ought to call it what it is,” Long said. “We have a property tax crisis.”

Long, running on a platform that prioritizes working families, said he’d bring the matter to Cheyenne, where the majority of property tax rates are controlled by state lawmakers.

On decidedly local issues, like development, forum candidates also split, again with Muromcew taking a strong stance.

While Long and Mateosky said the Tribal Trails Connector was a good example of a solution that’s taken too long, Muromcew, a member of the project’s original stakeholder committee, was adamantly opposed to any construction.

“During my entire time on that committee, I never saw any convincing data that this would actually solve any problems,” Muromcew said. “Spending $20 million on a half-mile of road that doesn’t solve anything is a pretty low priority for how we spend our tax dollars.”

The biggest piece of upcoming development, though, will not be the half-mile of road but housing in northern South Park. A “preferred” development plan is slotted to come before county commissioners next week.

As chairman of the county’s planning commission, Muromcew recommended the preferred option to commissioners, though he said he was “very disappointed” it had taken two years to get there.

That said, Muromcew also said he’d like see more density in the new neighborhood if it was possible, like four stories instead of a maximum of three.

That iteration of a plan isn’t the only one that’s taken a while, Long pointed out. When Long ran for commissioner two years ago he was the only candidate who supported the landowning Gill family’s plan to develop 312 units with 65% deed restriction.

That garnered a lot of public scrutiny and ultimately didn’t pass, which builder Mateosky said he thought was unfair.

“They offered a great deal,” Mateosky said, “and people thought they were shifty and turned it down.”

But following the scrutiny came a new preferred plan with more community input, which the Gills have said they’re happy with, though the neighboring Lockhart family has yet to respond to publicly.

This time around there’s more housing — 1,200 units — and 70% is suggested to be deed restricted.

Long and Mateosky said they’d push this preferred plan forward without more restrictions.