Rep. Gerald Gay Announces Re-election Bid for House District 36

Rep. Gerald Gay announced he will seek his party's nomination for re-election to House District 36, which covers east Casper and Evansville.

"I'm slowly learning the value of experience in government," Gay said Tuesday.

If re-elected, he wants to apply that experience to problems with the Game and Fish Department and the Department of Transportation, which are supposed to be "enterprise-funded agencies," Gay said. "They are intended to raise their own money."

But these departments' revenue streams aren't sufficient, which means they need to come to the Legislature for additional funding, which means they cannot budget for the long term, he said. "I'd like to see them keep in mind that they're enterprise-funded agencies, but have a more steady flow of revenue to them."

However, Gay won't support personal tax increases to pay for those agencies, he said. "Fortunately for us, we have the extractive industries, they are the hidden taxpayers of Wyoming. They're big enough they're big enough that they can be pretty generous and make our state's budget."

Some bills he's introduced over the years have raised, if not rolled, eyebrows such as his  proposed constitutional amendment in 2011 that would forbid courts from considering international law or Sharia law when deciding cases.

Some of his stances, however, have been proven correct over time such as his opposition to Senate File 104 in 2013 that stripped Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill of many of her responsibilities. In February, the Wyoming Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional.

In other legislative business, Gay said he's working on wireless communications legislation to deal with computer hacking.

He served in the House in 2001-2002, 2005-2006, and from 2011 to now.

Gay, 58, grew up in Casper, graduated from Kelly Walsh High School and Casper College. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming. His work has taken him to Alaska, Argentina and Saudi Arabia, he said.