42-5232 LEVY OF ASSESSMENTS. - Idaho Statutes

TITLE 42

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE -- WATER RIGHTS AND RECLAMATION

CHAPTER 52

GROUND WATER DISTRICTS

42-5232. Levy of assessments. (1) The secretary of the board shall be the assessor of the district, and on or before August 1 of each year shall prepare an assessment book containing a full and accurate list of all lands within the district that are subject to assessment under this chapter.

(2) At a regular meeting of the board between August 1 and November 1 of each year, the board of directors shall determine the amount necessary to be raised for payment of the annual payment on any and all indebtedness of the district for the following year. Money received in payment of such assessments shall be deposited in a separate fund to be known as the debt retirement fund.

(3) The board shall, in addition, determine the assessments necessary to pay, without limitation, the expenses of developing, operating or maintaining any mitigation plan established by the district and the cost of contracts with any person for mitigation plans, or evaluation of proposed contracts. Money received in payment of such assessments shall be deposited in a separate fund to be known as the mitigation expense fund.

(4) The board shall, in addition, determine the assessments necessary to pay maintenance and operation of the district not related to mitigation plans or purposes. These operation and maintenance duties include making the assessment book, giving notice of assessments and making collections thereof, and other duties, programs or projects of the district to the extent such duties, programs or projects are not attributable to mitigation plans or purposes. Money received in payment of such assessments shall be deposited in a separate fund of the district to be known as the operating expense fund.

(5) Any ground water user who becomes a member of a district for mitigation purposes shall be subject to no assessment beyond his proportional share of the costs, including administrative costs and other reasonable expenses, of any mitigation plan or actions or activities in furtherance of the district’s mitigation plans or purposes.

(6) No assessment made pursuant to this chapter shall be a lien against any municipal property.

(7) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, each member shall pay a proportionate share of the total of all amounts to be assessed for the purposes aforementioned, which share shall be based on the ratio which the quantity of water the water user is authorized to appropriate under the member’s ground water right(s) bears to the total quantity of water authorized for appropriation under the ground water rights of all water users in the district, provided, that the board shall be entitled to levy assessments that adjust a member’s proportionate share to take into consideration priority dates, consumptive use under the members’ respective ground water rights, other attributes of the ground water rights appurtenant to the assessed lands, and/or the benefits the member derives from a mitigation plan or other activity of the district. Any nonirrigator who is a member of a ground water district, or whose ground water rights are appurtenant to property located within a ground water district, and who has adopted and implemented a mitigation plan that has been approved by the director and that is not inconsistent with such a plan approved by the director and adopted and implemented by the ground water district, shall be entitled to an assessment credit for the contribution made by that nonirrigator’s mitigation plan towards the district’s mitigation obligation as determined by the director.