Tell us a little about yourself.

I am currently a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives for House District 48, which lies entirely within the City of Rock Springs, covering roughly the northern and easterly portions of the city.

I have practiced law in Rock Springs since 1997. I served on Rock Springs City Council from 2013 through May 2017.

What do you see as the most important issues in your candidacy and how will you address them?

We have to address both the economic downturn and the corresponding fiscal cliff that the State is facing. While trimming the size of government we have to nonetheless find ways to invest in ideas and technology. Over the long run, ideas and technology drive economic growth. The government has a legitimate role to play in deciding what that looks like.

I support, for example, creating small, decentralized “patent factories” across the state where individual inventors can be supported in the early phases of research and development. On the budget side, under current projections, if we do nothing, the $1.5 billion rainy day fund will be depleted to zero dollars by June 30, 2022. We will likely have to make painful decisions to both cut government programs and raise more revenue. Likely candidates for revenue enhancement are the repeal of many of the sales tax exemptions that we have enjoyed for the past 15 years. As for cuts, we have to look at both the general fund and K-12 education. The K-12 establishment, for its part, cannot continue to (1) pay school superintendents 25% percent more than the funding model calls for; (2) refuse to fill out the paperwork to get reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid reimbursable services provided by the school districts; (3) collect money from the state for health insurance premiums for ghost teachers who do not exist (yes, that really happens); and (4) oppose consolidation of the 48 school districts into 23 districts by county.

Fixing those problems are all common sense reforms that our budget crisis may make inevitable. As for the general fund, low hanging fruit includes: (1) cutting state employee travel budgets; and (2) enforcing the Medicaid Fairness Act I sponsored to recover Medicaid birth costs from high income single fathers. After that it gets hard. For example, the department of health is the largest single state agency but 90% of its budget are pass through funds to, for example, nursing homes.

To cut that agency’s budget by 20% you would have to evict old people from nursing homes – not a good idea. There will nonetheless have to be layoffs of some state employees. If we pull together and jointly share the pain, we can get through this and emerge stronger.

How can voters contact you?

Email clarkstith@wyolawyers.com, cell 307-389-7735