The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
(Cite as: 24 V.S.A. § 3349)
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§ 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.)