Missouri § 66.405 - Water service line fee — voter approval required — administration (including St. Louis County).

§ 66.405. Water service line fee — voter approval required — administration (including St. Louis County).

1.  If approved by a majority of the voters voting on the proposal, a county of the first classification having a population of over nine hundred thousand inhabitants may, by ordinance, levy and impose annually, upon water service lines providing water service to residential property having four or fewer dwelling units, on a countywide basis, including both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of such county, a fee not to exceed one dollar per month or an equivalent rate collected at some other interval.

2.  The ballot of submission shall be in substantially ^* the following form:

3.  For the purpose of this section, a water service line may be defined by local ordinance, but may not include the water meter or exceed that portion of water piping and related valves and connectors which extends from the water mains owned by the utility or municipality distributing public water supply to the first opportunity for a connection or joint beyond the point of entry into the premises receiving water service, and may not include facilities owned by the utility or municipality distributing public water supply.  For purposes of this section, repair may be defined and limited by local ordinance, and may include replacement, repairs or relocation when made necessary by improvements to public right-of-way.

4.  If a majority of the voters voting thereon approve the proposal authorized in subsection 1 of this section, the governing body of the county may enact an ordinance for the collection of such fee.  The funds collected pursuant to such ordinance shall be deposited in a special account to be used solely for the purpose of paying for the reasonable costs associated with and necessary to administer and carry out the water service line repairs as defined in the ordinance and, if sufficient revenues are available, to reimburse the necessary costs of water service line repair, replacement or relocation made necessary by public right-of-way improvements.

5.  The county may contract with any provider of water service in the county to bill and collect such fees along with bills for water service and to pursue collection of such amounts through discontinuance of service as may be directed by the county.  The county may establish, as provided in the ordinance, regulations necessary for the administration of collections, claims, repairs, relocations, replacements and all other activities necessary and convenient for the implementation of any ordinance adopted and approved pursuant to this section.  The county may administer the program or may contract with one or more persons, through a competitive process, to provide for administration of any portion of implementation activities of any ordinance adopted and approved pursuant to this section, and reasonable costs of administering the program may be paid from the special account established pursuant to this section.

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(L. 1999 H.B. 450 merged with S.B. 160 & 82)

Effective 6-14-99 (S.B. 160 & 82) 6-29-99 (H.B. 450)

*Word "of" appears here in H.B. 450, 1999

---- end of effective  14 Jun 1999 ----

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