A message from county commissioner candidate Peter Long:
JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County’s rugged beauty makes this valley special. Our community makes it extraordinary.
That conviction is why I am running for Teton County Commissioner. From the outset, my purpose has been simple: to be a voice for our working class and to make Teton County a place that our hard-working men, women and families, and our children, can call home.
Sadly, politics as usual is quickly pushing the dream of owning a home and raising a family here further and further out of reach for most of us.
Over the past four years, the cost of living in Teton County has increased 74%. Individuals and families living without health insurance has jumped nearly 40%. Property taxes are up more than 50%. Meanwhile, homeownership rates are falling as our housing crisis worsens, and the percentage of our workforce that lives here continues to fall year over year.
Like many working-class families, I know what those numbers mean in reality. My wife and I grapple with them daily. As a fourth-generation Jackson Hole native, father and small business owner, I understand what it’s like to work multiple jobs and struggle with rising health care and child care costs—only to see the chance of owning a home here become more and more unattainable.
That’s why this election is so important. When you go to vote, you can decide whether we will settle for more of the same. Or, whether we will elect bold new leadership that will take on our biggest challenges with common sense solutions and that will stand up for our workers and small businesses. I am running for the latter.
As your Commissioner, I will fight to make our local government work for you—not the other way around. I will embrace good opportunities to zone more working-class neighborhoods that will create affordable housing and rental options. I will introduce incentives that will empower our community to be part of the solution to our housing crisis—like credits for renting locally and keeping rents low, and options to sub-divide ARUs and sell those as deed-restricted to our critical workers.
If elected, I will fight to remove the permitting costs and streamline the approval process for community child care facilities, which will create trusted day care options in the neighborhoods where we live. I will introduce an affordable, private health insurance plan that will significantly reduce costs for individuals and small businesses at little or no expense to taxpayers. (Other counties that have introduced this model have created savings of upwards of $800 per month for a family of three.)
If elected, I will be accountable and transparent with your tax dollars and ensure every expenditure serves our community’s most pressing needs. Above all, I will listen—to ensure your voice is heard and to give everyone in our community a seat at the table of our local government.
The challenges we face as a community are not Democrat or Republican issues. They are Teton County issues. I am running to represent all those who are working hard to keep there place here and to make this a place that we can be proud to hand down to our children and future generations.
My name is Peter Long, and I am asking for your support when you step into the voting booth. Together, we can make Teton County a place that our working class, and our kids, can call home.
To learn more about my candidacy and platform, please visit longfortetoncounty.com.
