Vermont § 12 - Annual budget, apportionment, assessment, taxes

§ 12. Annual budget, apportionment, assessment, taxes

• (a) The Board of Water Commissioners of the District shall at each annual meeting present
  to the District its budget for the ensuing year, which shall include an estimate of
  the revenue from water rates and other sources, except taxes and the expenses for
  the ensuing year, and the District shall appropriate such sum as it deems necessary
  for such of said expenses as are not disapproved, which disapproval may not include
  interest on or principal of any indebtedness created or assumed by the District, together
  with the amount required to pay any balance left unpaid from the preceding year as
  will not be met from such estimated revenues, expressing said sum in dollars in its
  vote. (b) The Board of Water Commissioners may add any expense in excess of revenue to the next
  year’s budget. In which case it may not be disapproved, provided that such expense
  shall not be so included to an amount greater than 20 percent of such budget except
  to the extent a larger amount can be included, as determined by the Board, without
  increasing the rates charged by the District. Any such excess that is not so included
  shall be divided among the member towns as follows: one-third of such excess, or
  all of such excess until the water system has been in operation for at least one full
  calendar year, shall be divided among the member towns in the proportion that the
  population of each such town according to the last national census bears to the total
  population of the District, and the balance of such excess shall be divided among
  the member towns in the proportion that the total number of gallons sold by the District
  for distribution in each member town bears to the total number of gallons so sold
  for distribution in all the member towns in the calendar year in which the excess
  arose. Where one or more municipalities maintaining public water systems (the contained
  municipalities) lie within a member town (the containing town), the following rules
  shall apply: (1) a share based on population shall be computed for the containing town but not for
  any of the contained municipalities; (2) shares based on gallonage shall be computed as if each contained municipality were
  a separate member town and as if the territory of the contained municipalities were
  excluded from the territory of the containing town. (c) The legislative branch of each member town shall, upon receipt of the notice of the
  shares of the District expenses to be paid by the member town, assess upon the grand
  list of such member town, in addition to any tax previously voted thereon, a tax sufficient
  to raise the member town’s shares in such expenses. Where there are contained municipalities,
  the taxes to raise the population share of the containing town shall be assessed and
  collected by the containing town on a town-wide basis, and the taxes to raise the
  gallonage shares of the contained municipalities and of the containing town shall
  be assessed and collected by the containing town, but the territory of each contained
  municipality and the remaining territory of the containing town shall be treated as
  separate taxing Districts for the purpose of raising their respective gallonage shares.
  The taxes assessed under this act shall be collected as are other taxes of the assessing
  town and be deposited in the account of the assessing town. The legislative branch
  of the assessing town shall order the additional taxes to be paid over to the Treasurer
  of the District as collected by the 20th of the month after such taxes become payable.
  If by the end of its fiscal year a member town has failed to collect and pay over
  to the Treasurer of the District a sum sufficient to pay the member’s population or
  gallonage share of the expenses of the District, or the gallonage share of any contained
  municipality, the legislative branch of such member town shall assess a special tax
  of five percent on the applicable grand list, or such multiple thereof as is necessary
  to make up the unpaid balance of said share, which special taxes shall be collected
  as are other taxes of the assessing town. Upon the collection of said special taxes,
  the same shall be paid over to the Treasurer of the District. If by the end of its
  fiscal year a member town fails to pay any population or gallonage share of expenses
  of the District that it was to have collected, or fails to make up a deficit therein
  from the preceding year as above provided, the Board of Water Commissioners of the
  District may bring an action of contract on this statute in the name of the District
  to recover of the member town twice the amount due from it that remains unpaid, and
  upon judgment may levy its execution against any of the real or personal property
  within the town or the applicable taxing District as the case may be. (Added 1971, No. 135, § 12; amended 1971, No. 266 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 4 and 5.)