For Pennsylvania municipalities facing a rising tide of costs from implementing stormwater management plans, the available funding options vary depending on where you are and what you are—but that could change as soon as later this year. The General Assembly has passed several laws that authorize certain municipalities and municipal authorities to impose “reasonable and uniform” fees to fund stormwater management plans—and several additional bills are pending that, if passed, would extend these funding mechanisms to municipal entities across most of Pennsylvania.

One of the first steps the Assembly took was to amend the Municipality Authorities Act, 53 Pa.C.S. Section 5601 et seq. (the Authorities Act), to authorize the formation of an authority for the purpose of “stormwater planning, management and implementation” and to permit the imposition of “reasonable and uniform” stormwater fees. These amendments, contained in acts 68 of 2013 and 123 of 2014, provided municipalities with a means to pay for stormwater management—although they did not provide much guidance on what is a “reasonable and uniform” fee, beyond stating that a fee may be based in whole or in part on property characteristics, and may take into account installation and maintenance of best-management practices that were approved by the authority.

More recently, the Assembly has sought to extend to municipalities themselves the new storm water powers that were granted to authorities. The Assembly started this process with the passage of Act 62 of 2016, which applies only to second class townships; companion bills covering other types of municipalities were also introduced in the Assembly during the 2015-2016 session, but failed to win passage before the expiration of the term.