Committee reviews draft bill to clarify municipal stormwater authority and rate-setting

Legislative Service Office attorney Josh Anderson walked the committee through working draft 0.7 of LSO 27-0015. "Before prescribing any rate for the diversion or management of surface water runoff, the city or town shall adopt an ordinance establishing an engineering based methodology to establish just and reasonable rates," Anderson read aloud, and he described the bill’s required ordinance elements: factors, data, assumptions, property classifications, calculations, credit/discount provisions for mitigation measures and a formal appeal process.

The draft clarifies the relationship between Title 15 (ordinary municipal rate authority) and Title 16 (surface water drainage utilities), explains that voter approval is tied to the financing mechanism (taxes, assessments, general-obligation bonds) rather than every rate, and preserves municipalities’ ability to use grants and nontax revenues without triggering Title 16 election requirements. Anderson described conforming language, forced definitions and an explicit carve-out so that lawful Title 15 rates and nontax-backed revenues are not swept into Title 16 voter-approval triggers.

Committee members asked for plain-language explanations. Senator Gary Crum and Representative Fornstrom summarized the intent as allowing cities to maintain and operate existing stormwater systems and to charge reasonable rates for maintenance or smaller capital work while reserving voter approval for tax-backed or large capital financing. LSO and municipal witnesses said the model ordinance is intended as a template, not a statewide mandate.

Why it matters: the bill aims to resolve ambiguity that previously produced competing local ordinances and litigation in places such as Cheyenne and Laramie. If adopted in some form, it would standardize rate-setting practices, require transparent engineering methods, provide mitigation credits and establish an appeal process — changes that affect property owners, municipalities and public institutions that use municipal services.