University of Wyoming warns draft stormwater bill could let contested local fees return

Pat Crank, representing the University of Wyoming, urged the Select Water Committee to slow the bill’s progress. "This bill is not ready for prime time," he told members, arguing that the existing law already requires voter approval for many surface-water fees and that the draft’s reliance on a "just and reasonable" standard is vague and likely to invite litigation.

Crank warned that, as drafted, cities such as Laramie and Cheyenne could re-adopt ordinances similar to prior versions that prompted legal challenges, because the draft allows ordinary Title 15 rate-making (backed by an engineering methodology) to persist without triggering Title 16 election requirements unless a utility is expressly created. He urged clearer statutory limits — for example, exempting governmental entities from fees or more tightly defining permissible uses (maintenance/repairs vs new construction) — to prevent what he described as an effective tax on public institutions and a potential indirect burden on Wyoming taxpayers.

University technical representative Mike Smith confirmed internal coordination issues but said the university wants to remain engaged. Crank said the university has spent roughly $10–12 million in campus remediation to reduce campus runoff and that mitigation-credit language in the draft is welcome; his remaining concern was the draft’s potential to allow broad fee impositions with limited effective due process for ordinary citizens to contest complex engineering-backed rate decisions.

Why it matters: the university’s testimony highlights legal, fiscal and equity concerns raised by a stakeholder that argued the draft’s drafting choices could replicate the contested scenarios that led to prior ordinances and litigation in Laramie and Cheyenne.