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7 <br />Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2019 <br />It is not clear why stormwater utilities form quickly in some states like Pennsylvania and very slowly in <br />others. It has nothing to do with political leanings in a state as indicated in Figure 2. The only clear <br />obstacle is lack of clear state law allowing them to form, or state law like California’s Prop 218 aimed at <br />discouraging them. <br /> <br />Stormwater utilities continue to be challenged in court. Usually, but not always, the utilities win. They <br />can be set up with fee systems that are fair with a clear nexus between services rendered and fee. These <br />have minimum legal exposure. They can also be set up in a way that increases legal exposure. <br /> <br />The best SWU ordinances have teeth. These allow the SWU community to turn off water and/or power <br />for customers who refuse to pay. The worst ones only allow the utility to take non-paying customers to <br />court. In these cases the community may have to wait years until unpaid fees accumulate so that taking <br />the non-payers to court makes sense. Contrast this to the experience of Garden City, Georgia. A Georgia <br />attorney general wrote an opinion that state agencies were not required to pay stormwater fees. The <br />state Department of Agriculture wrote the Garden City utility that in accordance with the attorney <br />general’s opinion they would not be paying their stormwater fee. The utility wrote back that in <br />accordance with their ordinance they would be turning off water and power for the Department of <br />Agriculture. The Department reconsidered their decision. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />