R.J. Kost

After four years away from the Wyoming Legislature, R.J. Kost is hoping that local voters will be willing to return him to the body.

“The way that our Legislature and the way that governance and all is really going astray, so to speak, I just feel like it’s time to try to see if we can make a change,” Kost said Tuesday, as he announced his candidacy for Senate District 19. “How can we bring back some normalcy to the Legislature and our governance?”

The 73-year-old Powell resident served the district from 2019 to 2022, when he was defeated by now-Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell.

For his part, Laursen has not yet announced his plans. He told the Tribune in a Wednesday text from Cheyenne that he’s “deep in the [budget] session discussions working hard for my district and state right now.”

SD 19 covers eastern Park County and northern Big Horn County, including Powell, Garland, Byron, Deaver, Frannie, Lovell, Greybull and Shell.

Kost has deep ties to both counties, as he was raised on a farm near Otto, went to high school in Basin and has lived in Powell since 1982, working for decades as an educator for Park County School District 1.

Although he’s since retired, Kost has stayed busy — including as an elected member of the Powell Valley Hospital and Northwest College boards and as a governor-appointed member of the Wyoming State Board of Education.

“It’s a chance for me to try to give back to the communities that have been good to me,” he said of public service.

Debating budget cuts

Kost indicated he disagrees with some of the budget cuts put forward by the Legislature’s Joint Appropriation Committee.

“Are we making decisions that are really good for our state and our constituents, or are we just saying we’ve gotta cut?” Kost asked rhetorically.

He indicated he disagreed with proposals to remove $40 million from the University of Wyoming’s budget, defund the Wyoming Business Council and the draft recalibration of public school funding.

“To say we’re cutting the university because we don’t like what they’re doing, they haven’t even researched it. They haven’t even gone there,” Kost said, adding, “Do they really know what in the world the Business Council brings?”

While the state should be good financial stewards, and while there’s always room to evaluate programs and spending, he said he believes lawmakers also need to know the potential impact of reductions they make.

“Cuts just to be cuts are not appropriate,” he said. “Cuts with sound reasoning behind it always can be considered.”

Kost also contrasted the Legislature’s preliminary plans to put another $5 million toward a state shooting complex south of Cody — on top of $10 million allocated last year — with its tentative rejection of $3.28 million of state and federal funding for a summertime child food program known as SUN Bucks.

While not saying he’s opposed to the shooting complex, “I struggle with it [the funding], because of the situation we seem to be in,” Kost said.

Defending cuts

Laursen was one of the Joint Appropriations Committee members who supported the proposed budget cuts, telling the Tribune in a January interview that he doesn’t want to “build government.”

Laursen has taken a lead role in the push to eliminate the Business Council, saying it “picks winners and losers” by funding certain projects, “and then, you know, sometimes you look at who they pick, they don’t last too long …”

As for the proposed cuts to UW, Laursen said that “what they’re doing and what we’re wanting is two different things. So this might … send a message.”

He added that the university has “been supported very, very, very well by the state over a long, long time” and “we still support them.” Laursen said he believed the cuts were “doable” for UW.

Seeking a ‘happy medium’

The Senate has since restored the $40 million to the university while the House effectively reduced the cut to $25 million; representatives from the two chambers will soon meet to try hashing out those and other differences in a roughly $10 billion state budget.

In his Tuesday interview, Kost said he generally feels as though the conversation in the Legislature has become “this or nothing” while he believes in finding a “happy medium.”

“There’s not one way that’s right and another way that’s wrong,” Kost said. “There are options and ways to collaborate and come up with a better solution for everybody [rather] than not having a solution at all.”

He said lawmakers need to get back to “good legislative action to help the people of the state — and the important thing, I feel, is that’s all people.”

In the 2022 Republican primary, Laursen received 43% of the vote to move up from the state House. Kost finished second with a 31% share while former state Sen. Ray Peterson of Cowley — who Kost defeated in 2018 — collected 26% of the vote.

The official filing period for legislative and other partisan offices opens on May 14, with the primary election on Aug. 18.