Acting to protect itself and the citizens of Laramie from an unlawful tax, the University
of Wyoming has filed an action in Albany County District Court to block the imposition
of a tax by the City of Laramie that would generate revenue for additional stormwater
infrastructure.
The request is for a declaratory judgment against the city’s Ordinance 1859, which
was adopted by the Laramie City Council in December 2024 without a public vote of
the city’s citizens.
“UW firmly believes that if the city wanted to impose additional taxes on city residents
and entities like UW, the ordinance and the proposed tax needed to be put in front
of the citizens of the city in an election, as required by state law,” says Kermit
Brown, chairman of the UW Board of Trustees. “No election was held prior to the City
Council passing the ordinance and attempting to impose this tax. The ordinance is
void and unenforceable against UW and other city residents.”
With a large volume of impermeable surfaces and associated runoff, the university
estimates that the proposed tax would cost UW well over $400,000 annually. Local business
owners and others also would face significant increases in their city utility bills.
UW has a long history of cooperatively managing stormwater with the city, including
construction of an extensive detention pond system on the east side of campus in the
late 1980s -- as well as recent construction of ponds and inlets at Jacoby Golf Course.
Both projects used prime UW-owned real estate to accommodate construction of infrastructure
to alleviate stormwater runoff for the city, including holding water to prevent flooding
of properties south of Grand Avenue. Today, the university maintains 13 detention
and retention ponds; two underground retention systems; and 12.2 miles of distribution
lines.
In 2020, through its campus utility master plan, UW recommended seven storm sewer
projects to improve stormwater infrastructure serving both the university and the
city. UW has completed four of those projects at a cost of $1.6 million, including
improvements on Bradley, 15th and Ninth streets -- all public streets owned by the
city.
“The cooperative work the university has done and continues to do with the retention
and detention ponds on UW property, along with all of the permeable landscaping and
grass areas provided by the university, should be offsets to any proposed taxes,”
UW President Ed Seidel says. “But there has been no assurance that UW’s past and continued
investments in this infrastructure will be properly acknowledged and credited.”
Seidel notes that UW has an overall positive relationship with city government, with
collaborations taking place on multiple fronts, including housing and economic development.
But the stormwater tax is an issue that must be addressed, and it has become clear
that a court action is necessary.
“We suggest that it would be prudent to reach an understanding that the City will forego trying to collect any additional taxes or pursue an enforcement of the taxes under the new Ordinance until the courts have the time to resolve the serious and consequential issues regarding this Ordinance,” UW Vice President and General Counsel Tara Evans wrote in a letter to City Attorney Robert Southard informing the city of the university’s court filing.
