§ 15-1955. Proceedings for assessment and collection of cost.

1. Except as otherwise provided by law, all costs and expenses
necessary for the formation, improvement and maintenance of a drainage
improvement district shall be met from funds collected from the owners
of lands benefited or affected or from public corporations as provided
in title 19 of this article. The fiscal year shall start on the first
day of July.

2. On or before the first day of July each year the department shall
prepare and file for each existing or proposed district having
outstanding indebtedness or for which the borrowing of money has been
authorized, an itemized statement of the amounts that must be collected
on the tax roll to be prepared that year to meet the fiscal obligations
of the district for the following fiscal year, including retirement of
outstanding or contemplated evidences of indebtedness, interest thereon,
repayments to the drainage fund and all other costs of whatever name or
nature. Such statement shall set forth separately each project or parts
of a project or other items in such manner as to facilitate the
preparation of the tax rolls as herein provided. The total of each such
item shall further be subdivided to show the amount thereof to be paid
by each county, town, city or village and the amount to be levied on the
individual properties. This last amount shall be further subdivided to
show the total amount to be levied and collected in each county, town,
city or village, all as previously determined by the department.

3. Such statement shall be approved as to the various amounts by the
Comptroller. Certified copies of each statement shall be filed with the
Comptroller, with the clerk of the county legislative body, or such
other similar official as shall have been designated by the county
legislative body, the clerk of each town and the clerk of each city or
village affected thereby.

4. The amount shown on each statement to be due from any county, town,
city or village shall be by such municipality assessed, levied and
collected in the same manner as provided by law with reference to
general taxes and paid to the treasurer of the county, who shall
forthwith forward the same to the Comptroller to be paid by him into the
drainage improvement district fund applicable to such district or
proposed district or into the drainage fund. That portion of each such
item which is to be levied on the individual properties in any town or
city shall be handled as follows. The appropriate board of assessors
shall ascertain from the maps filed and apportionment of cost filed or
recorded, the various parcels liable for any part of such item and shall
enter in appropriate columns in the annual assessment roll before the
delivery thereof to the county legislative body the number of each such
parcel, the name of the owner as far as the same can be ascertained by
the assessors and the figure to be used in determining the amount to be
borne by each parcel, be it area, enhancements, modified enhancements,
assessed valuation or percentage, all as shown by the above-mentioned
maps or statements. Should a parcel have been subdivided, each division
shall be so entered separately and the area, enhancement or other
figures shall be subdivided accordingly by the assessors.

5. The county legislative body shall each year, at the time the annual
tax levy is made, levy upon each separate parcel so shown on the
assessment rolls an amount which shall bear the same relation to the
total to be collected as shown by the annual statement as the area,
enhancement or similar figure assigned to that parcel bears to the total
of all such areas, enhancements or similar figures. Should the board of
supervisors discover errors in the work of the assessors, they hereby
are specifically empowered to correct the same so that the full amount
shown by the annual statement of the department shall be assessed upon
the properties liable therefor and it shall be the duty of the assessors
to aid the county legislative body in making such corrections.

6. The amount so levied shall be collected and shall be a like lien as
general taxes until the amount thereof is paid to the county treasurer,
superior in force and effect to all other liens except unpaid general
taxes, provided, however, that the collection of such tax shall be
enforced only by sale of the land or property assessed. On or before the
first day of June in each year the county treasurer shall pay the amount
so to be raised in his county, as shown by the annual statement of the
department of the previous year, to the Comptroller who shall pay the
same into the drainage improvement district fund or into the drainage
fund as the case may be. The tax collectors and county treasurers
collecting and paying such taxes to the Comptroller shall be governed by
and have all the powers specified in the Real Property Tax Law, which
formerly were specified in articles 4 and 7 of the Tax Law for the
collection of taxes and sale of property by county treasurers for unpaid
taxes and redemption of lands.