Vermont § 3349 - Annual budget; apportionment; assessment; taxes

§ 3349. 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 all of the expenses that are not disapproved (which disapproval shall 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 the sum in dollars
  in its vote. At its first annual meeting, the district shall likewise vote a sum sufficient
  to pay any unpaid balance of expense, as defined in section 3343 of this title, that has been incurred by or on behalf of the district. Immediately following the
  annual meeting, the board of water commissioners shall compute the share of each member
  town in the sums so voted and give notice of the amount to the legislative branch,
  as defined in section 1751 of this title, of each member town. (b) The expense of establishing, acquiring, maintaining, extending, improving, and operating
  a water system for a consolidated water district shall, to the extent that the expense
  will not be met from the proceeds of indebtedness or from water rates, rents, and
  other charges received from the use of the water system, be divided among the member
  towns in accordance with a formula agreed to by the member towns by vote at an annual
  or special town meeting or, in the absence of any such agreement, as follows: two-thirds
  of the expense shall be divided in the proportion that the total number of gallons
  distributed to the inhabitants of each member town of the district bears to the total
  number of gallons so distributed in all the member towns in the last preceding full
  calendar year of operation of the district, and the balance of the expense (or all
  of the expense 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 member town according to the last rental census bears to the total
  population of the district. (c) The legislative branch of each member town shall, upon receipt of the notice of the
  share in the district expenses to be paid by the member town, assess upon the grand
  list of the member town, in addition to any tax previously voted on the grand list,
  a tax sufficient to raise the member town’s share in the district expenses. The additional
  tax as so assessed shall be collected as are other taxes of the member town and be
  deposited in the member town’s account. The legislative branch of the member town
  shall order the additional tax to be paid over to the treasurer of the district as
  collected by the 20th of the month after the member town’s 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 share of the expenses
  of the district, the legislative branch of the member town shall assess a special
  tax of five percent on the grand list of the member town, or such multiple thereof
  as is necessary to make up the unpaid balance of the member town’s share, which special
  tax shall be collected as are other taxes of the member town. Upon the collection
  of the special tax, 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 its share of the expenses
  of the district, or fails to make up a deficit therein from the preceding year as
  provided in this subsection, the board of water commissioners of the district may
  bring a civil action on this statute in the name of the district to recover of the
  member town twice the amount of the share of the member town as remains unpaid, and
  upon judgment may levy its execution against any of the real or personal property
  within the member town. (Added 1964, No. 20 (Sp. Sess.), § 9, eff. March 10, 1964; amended 2019, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 264.)