MEGAN LEE Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:00 am
For a guy who was appointed to office only a few days before reporting for duty as representative for House District 56, Tim Stubson - R, Casper, has already managed to leave his mark in the state Legislature.
The first-time politician sponsored two bills in his first legislative session - one dealing with inefficiencies with judicial proceedings and landlord-tenant laws, the other with getting better insurance rates for school districts - and both passed all the way through the House and Senate, becoming law.
"Right now I have a perfect record, although I'm sure that will change this session," Stubson joked.
In truth, his brief legislative record is impressive, considering the lack of job preparation he received. New legislators this year received six days of training. Stubson was in training for about two hours.
"It was a little bit condensed," he said. "But people need to be represented, whether you're thrown in there or not."
Stubson stepped onto the committees his predecessor had vacated - the corporations committee and the revenue committee.
Because he's an attorney and practices some corporate law, the corporations committee was a great fit, he said.
"It was a huge benefit, going in on a short leash like I did, that a lot of the issues were issues I was familiar with," he said.
And, Stubson added, a year of experience only means better chances of passing more laws through the Legislature.
"The relationships that you build with other legislators - that's how things get done," he said. "So having a year and building credibility with them will be beneficial.
This legislative session, Stubson plans to do as much as possible with his newfound credibility.
If doing an entire rewrite of the corporate statute - "to make sure Wyoming is competitive and a good place to do business, but also to protect shareholders" - wasn't enough, Stubson also plans to deal with health care issues, including small group health insurance coverage.
He doesn't support a bill to give health insurance to all state legislators.
"There's some benefit for legislators to be struggling with the same issues that constituents are," he said. "We don't want to be like Congress, where we take care of ourselves first."
Clean energy will be a big issue for the legislature this year, he said, and legislators need to be ready for the future.
"We are a state that lives and breathes carbon-based fuels, and we're in an environment where they're not welcome anymore," he said. "Carbon capture and sequestration, clean coal - those are becoming important things for us to look at and to consider."
In all, Stubson is sponsoring five bills, cosponsoring 10 more, and supporting another 10 committee bills.
"It's going to be a good year and I'm excited for it," he said.
Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0616 or megan.lee@trib.com