Dear editor:

On June 26, 2025, several others and I attended the hearing being held regarding the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Budget for the Shoshone Irrigation District (SID). Also in attendance were all of the commissioners of the SID along with their attorney. 

To be brief, when asked I presented my objections regarding the disparate impact that the proposed landowner fee had on the small landowners and farmers vs. the large landowners. The attorney for SID presented their material along with a very good summary of the case law regarding this matter. The SID attorney pointed out that in the late 1970s a very similar matter had been brought before the Wyoming State Supreme Court and at that time the court sided with the irrigation district and found that the Wyoming state regulations fully allowed the implementation of a minimum assessment. The court then held that the SID assessment was allowed and with that the court approved the FY2026 Budget as it was proposed. The court then addressed the objections that I and other attendees had raised and outlined that perhaps the only way for there to be challenges to the landowner fee in the future was to lobby the Wyoming State Legislature to change the current regulations. So, in summary, it was not a good day for the small landowners who are paying a much higher per acre fee than the large landowners. On the plus side, we were allowed to present our objections in court, and they are now part of the official record. Since I’m not an attorney, I may not have used the correct legal terms to describe the above, but I believe it to convey what took place.

In the July 1 newspaper, Mr. Duyck presented an interesting article outlining what is taking place in the Heart Mountain Irrigation District (HMID) regarding the challenges that they face and how the HMID has responded. There are some statements presented that I’m going to research before I can fully understand his position and before I can directly respond. At this time, since all my analysis and objections have been in regard to matters within SID, I admit to being puzzled as to why as a board member of HMID feels the need to put pen to paper.

Lastly, on Saturday, June 28, I received a response from SID on my Wyoming Freedom of Information Act, (WFOIA) request that was submitted almost two months ago. Based on the WFOIA regulations the response should have been made within 30 days. I need to talk to the WFOIA Ombudsman this week regarding several of the responses along the several other state and federal organizations as there are many issues that I need to further understand so that I can update everyone.

So where do we go from here, given the results of the hearing on June 26? First, I will obtain a complete listing of all the members the Wyoming Legislature along with phone numbers and email addresses. I plan to contact each and everyone of them to educate them on this matter in the hope of, one day, getting the current regulations to reflect the principals of our democracy.  Namely one vote per person, not the current one vote per acre, but more on this in further letters to the editor. 

Rob Stevens

Powell