General Election: what are the issues?

The general election is coming up fast and voters this year will not only be asked to make their choices for national and state elected seats. A number of issues will also be placed before you on the ballot, ranging from retention of local judges to constitutional amendments and the renewal of local taxes.

These issues include:

Judge Retention

District Court Judges in Wyoming stand for retention every six years, and Circuit Court Judges face a retention vote every four years. Circuit Court Judge Matthew F.G. Castano and District Judges Thomas W. Rumpke and Thomas R. Perry will both appear on your ballot this November.

The Wyoming State Bar recently released the results of this year’s Judicial Advisory Poll, a questionnaire intended to obtain feedback from attorneys about judges’ performance and learn whether or not those attorneys think they should remain in office.

All active members of the Wyoming State Bar are invited to participate in the poll. This year 42.5% of those members participated. An attorney must affirm to the pollsters that he or she has appeared before that particular judge during the previous two years.

For this reason, the Wyoming State Bar cautions that the poll is not a contest between judges, as different attorneys will evaluate each judge depending on whether they have appeared before them. The poll is intended to assist judges in identifying areas of potential improvement.

When taking the poll, attorneys are asked to evaluate each judge in 11 categories on a scale of 1 (strongly disapprove) to 5 (strongly approve). The average score for that judge across all respondents is given alongside the average score in that category for all Circuit or District judges.

Matthew F.G. Castano: 100% of the 44 attorneys who responded to the poll favored the retention of Judge Castano for another term. Judge Castano received average scores in every category that were higher than the average across all Circuit Court judges standing for retention.

Castano was given particularly high scores in categories including knowledge of the law, open-mindedness and impartiality, attentiveness to arguments of counsel, how he addresses issues squarely posed, application of rules of evidence and procedures and how well his decisions are reasoned and how clearly they are expressed.

John R. Perry: 91.1% of the 90 attorneys who responded to the poll favored retaining Judge Perry, whose average scores were higher than the average across all District Court judges in every category of the questionnaire. Judge Perry was given particularly high scores compared to the average in categories including knowledge of the law, open-mindedness and impartiality, industriousness and promptness in performing judicial duties, application of rules of evidence and procedures and how well his decisions are reasoned and how clearly they are expressed.

Thomas W. Rumpke: 79.7% of the 118 attorneys who responded to the poll favored the retention of Judge Rumpke for another term. Judge Rumpke scored higher than the average across all District Court Judges in categories including knowledge of the law, industriousness and promptness in performing judicial duties, participation in law-related professional activities, integrity and ethics, application of rules of evidence and procedures, how well his decisions are reasoned and how clearly they are expressed and preparedness.

He scored below the average for open-mindedness and impartiality, attentiveness to arguments of counsel, courteousness and politeness and how he addresses issues squarely posed.

SPOT Tax

The Specific Purpose Sales and Use Tax (or SPOT), also known as the “sixth penny” or “one percent tax”, is not a new concept in Crook County. For the last 16 years, it has been used to address infrastructure needs such as roads, sewer and water, for which it’s often difficult to find other sources of funding.

SPOT has been used to raise extra revenue for counties and towns since it was authorized by the legislature in 1984. In this county, it has been approved each time it has appeared on the ballot since 2004.

SPOT is a little different to the first five pennies: instead of running for a certain period of time, it runs until a certain amount of money has been raised. Voters are asked to approve a specific dollar amount, which can then only be used for a specified set of projects..

Once that total has been collected, no matter how long that takes, the tax automatically switches off. This last occurred at the end of 2019, when the SPOT approved by voters at the 2014 election reached its $6.25 million goal.

SPOT is a countywide tax: it’s either approved for all entities, or none. Historically, each of the four towns and the county have been allocated an equal share of the revenue.

The projects that each entity has identified are once again focused on infrastructure this year, including needs such as roads, sewer and water.

Senior Services Mill Levy

For the second time, voters will be asked to signal whether they support a mill levy for Crook County’s seniors. Again, this is not a new concept to the county’s voters: the initial mill levy initiative was passed in 2018 and ran for two years.

At that time, a district was also formed and voters elected a board of trustees to determine the direction of the new district and oversee expenditure of the mill levy. If approved on this year’s ballot, the mill levy will run for an additional four years.

The mill levy is used to support the wide range of programs offered by Crook County Senior Services, ranging from home help to meals on wheels. It does this largely in the form of matching funds for the state and federal grants available for senior services.

A mill levy is calculated through property taxes. Roughly speaking, a property owner would pay around $10 towards the senior services district per year for every $100,000 of property value, if this mill levy is approved in November.

Constitutional Amendment

According to Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz, Constitutional Amendment A deals with an antiquated statute from the 1890s that puts a cap on how much communities are allowed to spend on fixing their sewer systems, she said. This can cause issues for towns as they attempt to upgrade or fix old systems, she explained during October’s council meetings, and the amendment is therefore a “housekeeping” issue to solve that problem.

For information about the candidates looking for your vote for the county’s districts and boards, see the back page.