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Eastern Laramie County Solid Waste Disposal District v. State Board of Equalization8/1/2000
2.09 in the district court, and the district court certified the matter here for review.
DISCUSSION
Standard of Review
The right of judicial review of an administrative decision is statutory. Basin Elec. Power Co-op., Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue, 970 P.2d 841, 847 (Wyo. 1998). When a case is certified to this Court pursuant to W.R.A.P. 12.09, we examine the decision of the administrative agency as if we were the reviewing court of the first instance. The authority vested in a reviewing court is set forth in Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 16-3-114(c)(ii) as follows:
(ii) [The reviewing court may] old unlawful and set aside agency action, findings and conclusions found to be:
(A) Arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law;
(B) Contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege or immunity;
(C) In excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority or limitations or lacking statutory right;
(D) Without observance of procedure required by law; or
(E) Unsupported by substantial evidence in a case reviewed on the record of an agency hearing provided by statute. Montana Dakota Utilities Co. v. Public Service Comm'n of Wyoming, 847 P.2d 978, 983 (Wyo. 1993); Ahlenius v. Wyoming Bd. of Professional Geologists, 2 P.3d 1058, 1060 (Wyo. 2000).
As its first issue, the District contends that Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 39-15-105(a)(iv)(A) (LEXIS 1999) creates an exemption for it:
(iv) For the purpose of exempting sales of services and tangible personal property sold to government, charitable and nonprofit organizations, irrigation districts and weed and pest control districts, the following are exempt:
(A) Sales to the state of Wyoming or its political subdivisions;
The issues raised by the District require us to interpret the language of that statute. As we stated in Olheiser v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Compensation Div., 866 P.2d 768, 770 (Wyo. 1994):
We have interpreted statutes on innumerable occasions, so our standard is well established. First, we determine if the statute is ambiguous by looking at the plain and ordinary meaning of the words contained therein. Parker Land and Cattle Co. v. Wyo. Game & Fish Comm'n, 845 P.2d 1040, 1042-43 (Wyo. 1993).
A "statute is unambiguous if its wording is such that reasonable persons are able to agree as to its meaning with consistence and predictability. * * * statute is ambiguous only if it is found to be vague or uncertain and subject to varying interpretations. * * * hether an ambiguity exists in a statute is a matter of law to be determined by the court." Parker Land and Cattle Co. at 1043 (quoting Allied Signal, Inc. v. Wyo. State Bd. of Equalization, 813 P.2d 214, 219-20 (Wyo. 1991). Island Richards v. Board of County Commissioners, No. 99-253, slip op. at 2, 2000 WL 676096 (Wyo., May 25, 2000).
The essence of the District's argument is that both the Department and the Board have incorrectly construed the statute by relying solely and very strictly upon the definition of "political subdivision" as set out in Witzenberger v. State ex rel. Wyo. Community Dev. Authority, 575 P.2d 1100 (Wyo. 1978). We do not read Witzenberger to require an entity to have all four of the "distinctive badges of a political subdivision," id. at 1113, in order to qualify as a political subdivision. A computer-aided search of the Wyoming Constitution and statutes reveals that the phrase "political subdivision" is used hundreds of times in dozens of contexts. Although it is somewhat contrary to the arguments presented by the parties, our conclusion will be founde
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