WYOMING – As the Wyoming Primary Elections draw near, political signs are popping up like dandelions. Some signs have new names as area opponents toss their names in the ring, while other signs have returning names of officials seeking another term. 

Allen Slagle just happens to be one of those familiar faces and names. Slagle, the current Wyoming State Representative, House District 2, has tossed his name back in the hat for reelection. 

“My grandfather homesteaded in Niobrara County in 1920 and my family moved to Weston County in 1973, where I have lived ever since,” Slagle said. “My whole life I have been a rancher with strong ties to the land.”

Slagle, his wife, Ann, and their nine children believe they have been blessed to live in Wyoming where freedom is still a way of life. 

Slagle describes some of his “bedrock beliefs” as faith-based decision-making, pro-life, valuing life from conception to natural death, and pro-traditional families, as listed on his campaign materials. 

“There at the bottom just talks about where I’m coming from a whole philosophy of life and world view,” Slagle said as he pointed to his brochure. “All of my legislating comes from this foundation, I would say.” 

The brochure continues to list the solid beliefs Slagle plans on continuing, should be reelected as supporting the right to bear arms, protecting private property rights, and supporting constitutional authority. Slagle is also concerned about government spending.

“I truly believe we need limited government,” Slagle said. “Instead of growing government, I think we need smaller government that tends to be more fiscally responsible, so our budget doesn’t just keep growing and growing, year after year. Going along with that, I think we’re going to be working as a legislature, if I get voted back in, to actually put a cap on the amount of increase our government spending can be.”

Slagle explained the cap would start with the state’s current budget. 

“It would start with the budget we have right now because It’s more than adequately sufficient to run our state,” Slagle said. “It can increase any more than what our inflation goes up or our population grows and those would be the two factors that would allow it to grow otherwise it needs to stay at kind of the amount it is right now.”

Slagle noted he will continue to stand with the Representative Republic so that even the smallest communities have a voice, he explained. 

“The other thing the Representative Republic and my biggest issue with that is we have all gone to public school or many of us have gone to public school. I can’t say the same about my daughter because we homeschool, but we have gone to public school and we have been taught that we are a democracy,” Slagle explained. “But if you go back and look at our founding fathers and the documents that they had, they only reference democracy in very negative terms because were a Representative Republic where you have a representative that represents a group or an area of people. By doing that, if you just take the example of Wyoming, Niobrara County is our smallest county so if we actually had a representative and a senator that were just from Niobrara County then they would have, especially, if they did like our federal government does, have one senator, it would be one senator from all 23 counties. They would have just as much voice as any of other counties that have huger populations. It keeps it so the government can’t just go totally out of control. But when you totally just go by population and divide it up in districts like we do now, then your areas like Laramie County and Natrona County have a huge voice and anytime they want to they can out vote Niobrara County because already now, Niobrara’s voice is really thinned out,” Slagle continued. 

Being the representative for Wyoming House District Two, Slagle currently represents the lower half of Weston County, Niobrara County, and the north half of Goshen County, Slagle explained Niobrara County’s voice isn’t heard as much.

“Their voice is really quite diluted because I am one representative and I represent basically three counties,” Slagle said. “It makes for a long district to represent. There are definitely differences between Goshen County and up in Weston County and that makes some different issues. In Weston County, we have very little farming so issues that deal with farming are different down here in Goshen County than the ones up in Weston County. It’s just one of those deals where we spread out districts out this far, it makes it tough to actually, equally represent the whole district. I mean, you can do the best that you can but just by being divided up like that it makes it more difficult,” Slagle continued.

Another popular topic for Slagle is taxation and he noted during the current term, he has voted time and time again to decrease spending and stop the growing government.

“Taxation and really, that kind of goes a long with the limited government,” Slagle explained. “If we have a limited government, we need less funds to fund our government. One of the biggest areas that I have problems with is our property tax. We always talk about private property, but if we really own property, it shouldn’t be able to be taken away from us. But with taxation, basically what we are doing is when we buy property, we are just buying the right to lease the property from the state. Right now, if you don’t pay your taxes for four years, they can put your property up for tax sale and they can sell it and the person that buys it can kick you off the land. I have a real issue with that whole concept,” Slagle continued.

While Slagle recognizes the need to have funds available for infrastructure, he believes there are some legitimate concerns with the current taxation laws. 

“One of the other issues I have is and I think it is about the same here in Goshen County as it is in up in Weston and Niobrara County. Almost ¾ of each dollar we pay in property tax goes to our public schools. I think education is very important. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be educated. I just feel that we are a little overbalanced to the school side and under balanced to the infrastructures side which really, probably, affects the population as a whole more than the schools do,” Slagle explained. “That’s an area that I think really needs some attention.” 

In closing, Slagle expressed serving on the Wyoming Legislature for the last two years has been an honor.