2023 Vermont Statutes › Title 24 - Municipal and County Government › Chapter 91 - Consolidated Water Districts › § 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.)