Two Power County residents with decades of combined experience will face off for the District 2 commissioner seat as the May 19 election approaches.
Incumbent Kryst Krein will defend his Power County commissioner seat against challenger Chet Taylor in the May 19 election.
Krein was born and raised in Power County and is married with four children. A farmer and business owner his entire life, he has been actively involved in the community. Krein has served 17 years on the Power County Library Board, nine years on the local Farm Credit Service committee and more than 10 years coaching youth sports. He currently serves as chairman of the American Falls Aberdeen Water District and holds a seat on the Idaho Ground Water Association.
“I just like to be involved with our community, and I put the time and effort in to make sure that it’s done right,” Krein said.
Gov. Brad Little appointed Krein to his position about 10 months ago. In that time, Krein has immersed himself in the responsibilities and opportunities of the county commissioner role.
“I decided to run again because it’s really hard to get things done in just 10 months,” Krein said. “I’ve done a lot. I’m running on what I’ve already done, but there’s so much more that I can see doing going forward if I have that opportunity.”
One of the central issues in Krein’s campaign is lowering property taxes. During his tenure, he gave the sheriff’s department a 10 percent salary increase and other county employees a cost-of-living raise.
“We did that all while lowering the county’s portion of our tax base,” Krein said. “I have a lot of financial background, and so I’ve been going through the budget line by line, finding areas that we can trim while keeping our services available at a great level. That’s one of my favorite things to do — cooperating and working with the other taxing districts to become more efficient and effective. That’s my first thing — working to get those taxes lowered. A main component of that is also growth in our county. In Power County, we need more industries. We need more higher-paying jobs, and those industries and homes that will move into our area will relieve the tax burden on everybody else.”
Another pillar of Krein’s platform is cooperation — not only at the local level but with state representatives and senators, so that his constituents have a voice at the table.
Challenger Chet Taylor has significant agricultural business experience, having run a machinery and parts business serving local farmers for more than 20 years. After selling that business, he developed a sod farm, which he later passed to his sons, and began doing maintenance work for the county. He holds a business degree and has been involved in a family potato farm and warehouse operation.
“I think that in our county, we’re not troubled per se, but we’re not headed toward a good place,” Taylor said. “Our property taxes are the second highest in the state, and it just seems like we need more industries here.”
Taylor cited the loss of FMC Corp., which operated the world’s largest elemental phosphorus plant from 1949 until 2001.
“I think I can help get businesses here, because they want to come,” Taylor said. “I think that they get discouraged with our process to let businesses come in. Then they just go to other places in our area. The bottom line is, you need income, and the only way we’re going to get income is to allow industries to come in. I look at Lamb Weston out here — they’ll be paying 40 percent of all our property taxes by 2028 when the incentives go off. It’s almost 43 percent for one industry. If only we had one more industry. But it doesn’t seem like it’s happening right now, and I think I can change that.”
Taylor said the county talks about balancing the budget and cutting costs, and he believes progress is already being made.