September 28, 2020
First up in our Unpacking Your Ballot series: Wyoming Constitutional Amendment A, the Municipal Debt for Sewage Systems Measure.
What does it propose to do?
This amendment would provide more flexibility for local municipalities to address their own sewer projects. According to the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, it cleans up archaic language in the Wyoming Constitution, left over from 1890—a time before there were sewer districts in our state.
Ballotpedia puts your choices this way:
| A “for” vote supports the measure to remove the constitutional limit on debt that a municipality may incur for municipal sewer projects and to allow the legislature to establish rules in statute for additional debt for municipal sewage projects. |
| An “against” vote opposes the measure to remove the constitutional limit on debt that a municipality may incur for municipal sewer projects, thereby leaving in place the existing limit on debt for sewage projects of 4 percent of the assessed value of the taxable property within the municipality. |
How does a Constitutional Amendment get on the ballot?
Constitutional Amendment A was introduced as House Joint Resolution 2 by Republican Rep. Lloyd Larsen on January 7, 2019.
For that Joint Resolution to become a Constitutional Amendment, it must be passed by a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature. It was: The House approved HJ2 on January 24, 2019, by a vote of 45-12. The Senate passed HJ2 on February 21, 2019, by a vote of 27-3. That’s how it came to appear on this year’s ballot.
After it moves through the Legislature, a Constitutional Amendment must be approved by a majority of voters in the next general election. That’s where Wyoming voters come in! The total number of “for” votes are compared to the total number of voters—not to the total number of “against” votes. So leaving this question blank has the same effect as casting an “against” or “no” vote.
Questions? Leave a comment or drop us a line at info(at)equalitystate.org!
Look for more in our series, Unpacking Your Ballot, throughout September and October.