March 11th 2026 |
Photo – Courtesy of the Town of Medicine Bow
The Town of Medicine Bow will now round pennies on cash utility payments.
Due to their high production cost and limited real‑world value, President Donald Trump ordered the United States Treasury to stop minting new pennies shortly after taking office in February of 2025. As pennies fall out of circulation, they will become harder to find, forcing cash‑accepting entities to develop workarounds for the lack of one‑cent coins. In response to the growing shortage, Wyoming Democrat Mike Yin introduced a bill to standardize how cash transactions would work in a world without pennies. House Bill 71 would have required all entities that accept cash to round final totals up or down to the nearest nickel or dime. The legislature chose not to take Representative Yin’s bill up for consideration, leaving Wyoming businesses and municipalities to set their own rules for rounding pennies.
One such example is the Town of Medicine Bow. In January, the Medicine Bow Town Council began discussing whether to round cash utility payments.
The governing body suggested rounding totals ending in one, two, six, or seven cents to the nearest nickel. For example, a $20.07 utility bill would be rounded down to $20.05. Totals ending in three, four, eight, or nine cents would be rounded up.
Councilman Lee Cook questioned the legality of over‑ or undercharging residents for utility payments. Town Attorney Cameron Smith offered to research the matter and, during the February 9th meeting, reported that the town appears to be within its legal rights to round pennies. However, because Mayor Justin George and Councilwoman Kristi Wickizer were not present at that meeting, the governing body chose not to adopt an official penny‑rounding policy at the time.
The matter was discussed once again during Monday evening’s Medicine Bow Town Council meeting. Mayor George said that as the owner of J B’s Stop‑N‑Shop, he has had trouble getting enough pennies for his business. The mayor added that the town is dealing with the same problem.
Councilwoman Wickizer asked if the town had the authority to round utility payments. Attorney Smith responded that his review of state statutes showed the practice is legally permitted.
At the February 9th Medicine Bow Town Council meeting, Clerk and Treasurer Karen Heath said the town’s utility billing program, Caselle, is developing a software update that will automatically round pennies. At Monday’s meeting, Councilwoman Crystal Mayfield asked if Caselle had released the update. Treasurer Heath said it had not, but she can manually round utility payments in the meantime.
Attorney Cameron Smith said the town is reaching a point where penny rounding is becoming necessary. The question is whether to round all transactions or only cash payments.
Public Works Director Brian Lashley said other businesses are choosing not to round check or credit card charges. Lashley noted that over the course of a year, a pizza restaurant reported losing less than one dollar from rounding cash payments.
To avoid the appearance of bias against cash payers, Mayor George recommended rounding all financial transactions. However, the mayor acknowledged that he only rounds cash payments at his convenience store.
Councilwoman Kristi Wickizer pointed out that the town charges a five to seven percent surcharge on credit card utility payments. Because of that, Councilman Trevor Strauch said he supported rounding pennies only on cash transactions.
Councilwoman Crystal Mayfield disagreed, saying some residents may choose to pay with cash if it makes their bill a few cents lower.
Councilwoman Wickizer said she supported rounding all payments, but did not want to burden Treasurer Heath with the additional work of manually adjusting every transaction.
Following the discussion, the Medicine Bow Town Council voted to immediately begin rounding pennies only on cash transactions. Mayor George offered to provide signs for town hall explaining the new policy.
