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1978, ch. 739; 1999 Supp., sec. 15-17A; 2000, ch. 601.
(a) The Board may provide for the issuance of the County’s bonds under this title at any time or times for the purpose of refunding any bonds of the district, a body politic and corporate created by the County pursuant to the provisions of Title 9 of the Environment Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland; the Commission; and the County, acting pursuant to this title, which are then outstanding, including the payment of any redemption premium and any interest accrued or to accrue to the earliest or any subsequent date of redemption, purchase or maturity of the bonds. The authority of the Board to provide for the issuance of the County’s bonds under this section shall be deemed to be in addition to any powers provided in Section 24 of Article 31 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. Refunding bonds may be issued for any corporate purposes including, without limitation, the public purposes of realizing savings in the effective costs of debt service, directly or through a debt restructuring, or alleviating an impending or actual default. Refunding bonds may be issued in an amount in excess of that of the bonds to be refunded.
(b) For the purposes of determining whether refunding bonds issued under this section are within the debt limitation specified in § 14-602 of this subtitle, the amount of bonds or other obligations to be refunded shall be subtracted from, and the amount of refunding bonds to be issued shall be added to, the aggregate of the County’s outstanding bonds under this title.
1967, ch. 754, sec. 439R; 1976 Code, sec. 15-18; 1978, ch. 739; 2000, ch. 601.
Prior to the preparation of the definitive bonds authorized to be issued by §§ 14-602 through 14-604 of this subtitle, the County may, under like restrictions, issue interim receipts or temporary bonds, with or without coupons, exchangeable for definitive bonds, when such definitive bonds have been executed and are available for delivery. In addition, the County may, in anticipation of the issuance of any bonds, issue bond anticipation notes pursuant to the authority of, and in the manner prescribed by, Section 12 of Article 31 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. With respect to the bonds, coupons, temporary bonds, receipts or bond anticipation notes, which have matured, been exchanged or redeemed, the Board shall make arrangements for the mutilation and cremation of the instruments after an appropriate accounting. The Board may also provide for the replacement of the instruments which shall become mutilated or be destroyed or lost, upon receipt of the indemnification, and the payment of the expenses of replacement as the Board, in its discretion, may deem proper or requisite. Bonds may be issued under the provisions of this title without obtaining the approval or consent of any division, commission, board, bureau or agency of the State of Maryland and without any other proceeding or the happening of any other condition or thing than those proceedings, conditions or things which are specifically required by this title. In the event the Board shall determine to sell any bonds of the County authorized by this title at public sale, it shall comply with the provisions of Section 10 of Article 31 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, but in all other respects the provisions of Sections 9 to 11, inclusive, of Article 31 of the Annotated Code of Maryland shall not apply to bonds issued under this title. If the Board shall provide for the execution of any bonds in facsimile, it shall comply with the provisions of §§ 2-301 through 2-306 of the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. All bond proceeds, as well as all money held in sinking or reserve funds in the name of the County shall be invested by the Board in the manner prescribed by Section 22 of Article 95 of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
1967, ch. 754, sec. 439S; 1976 Code, sec. 15-19; 1978, ch. 739; 2000, ch. 601.
The County shall not be required to pay any taxes or assessments upon any project acquired, constructed or operated by it, under the provisions of this title, or on the income, and the bonds issued under the provisions of this title, their transfer and the income (including any profit made on the sale by any person other than the initial purchaser) shall at all times be free from taxation by the State of Maryland or any of its political subdivisions, or by any town or incorporated municipality or any other public agency within the State.
1967, ch. 754, sec. 439T; 1976 Code, sec. 15-20; 1978, ch. 739; 2000, ch. 601.
(a) For the purpose of paying the interest on and principal of the bonds issued by the County as in this title provided for the water and sewerage systems to be constructed, purchased, or established under this title, the Board may fix an annual assessment on all properties, improved or unimproved, binding upon a street, road, lane, alley, or right-of-way in which a water main or sewer has been built. The annual assessment shall be made on the front foot basis, and the first payment shall be collected during the year in which the construction is completed on the water supply or sewerage systems; or in which the systems are purchased or acquired. All sums collected by the Board for benefits levied against the property for water or sewerage construction shall be set aside as a separate fund to be known and designated as the Front Foot Benefit Assessment Fund.
(b) The Board for the purpose of assessing benefits shall divide all properties binding upon a street, road, lane, alley, or right-of-way, in which a water pipe or sanitary sewer is to be laid, into four classes, namely: agricultural, small acreage, industrial or business, and residential, and the Board may subdivide each of these classes in the manner as it deems to be in the public interest. Whenever any water or sewerage project in the service area has been completed and declared ready for service, the Board shall fix and levy an assessment for the remainder of the fiscal year on a pro rata basis upon all property in the service area abutting upon the water main or sewer, in accordance with the classification or subdivision, and it shall in writing notify all owners of the properties into which class and subdivision their respective properties fall and the charge determined on, naming also in the notice a time and place, when and at which time the owner will be heard. The notice may be mailed to the last known address of the owner, or served in person upon any adult occupying the premises or in case of a vacant or unimproved property posted upon the premises.
(c) The classification of and the benefit assessment made against any property by the Board is final, subject only to revision at the hearing. The Board may change the classification of properties from time to time as the properties change in the uses to which they are put. The benefit assessment shall be levied for water supply and sewerage construction, and shall be based for each class of property on the number of front feet abutting on the street, lane, road, alley, or right-of-way in which the water pipe or sewer is placed; provided, however, that in the case of any irregular shaped lot abutting upon a road, street, lane, alley, or right-of-way in which there is or is being constructed a water or sewerage system at any point, the lot shall be assessed for the frontage as the Board may determine to be reasonable and fair; and provided further that no residential property may be assessed on more than one side unless it abuts upon two parallel streets, that corner lots may be averaged and assessed upon the frontage as the Board may deem reasonable and fair, and that all lots in the residential and industrial or business classification shall be assessed even though a water main or sewer may not extend along the full length of any boundary; and provided further, that no land classified as agricultural by the Board shall be assessed a front foot benefit when it has constructed through it or in front of it a sewer or water main until such time as the water or sewer connection is made, and when so made and for every connection the land is liable to a front foot assessment for the reasonable frontage not exceeding three hundred (300) feet, or as may be determined by the Board, and shall be immediately assessed at the rate of assessment determined by the Board for agricultural land. Any land owned by a religious body on which there is erected a church or a parsonage and which is used exclusively for customary religious purposes, in the discretion of the Board, may be exempted from front foot benefit assessment for that frontage not exceeding 150 feet.
(d) Front foot benefit assessments for water and sewerage construction shall be as nearly uniform as is practicable for each class or subclass of property for any one year, and no benefit charge, once levied, may be increased; provided, however, that whenever the County acquires an existing system other than a municipal system, the construction of which has been added in whole or in part to the purchase price of land or lots abutting upon the system and which contribution the Board has determined to be a factor in the cost to the County of such system, the Board in its discretion may levy the lesser assessment as may take into account this factor.
(e) The amount of the assessment per front foot for each class of property for water and sewerage systems may be reduced from time to time by the Board in its discretion, if cost and conditions are deemed by it to justify the reduction but may be subsequently increased to the amount of original assessment in the event revenues prove to be insufficient. The benefit assessments shall be paid annually by all properties located as above specified for a period of years co-extensive with the period of maturity of the bonds out of the proceeds of which the construction was done.
(f) The Board may at any time permit a connection with a water main or sewer by a property owner whose property does not abut on a water main or sewer and who has not previously paid a benefit charge for the construction of the water main or sewer, provided, the Board classifies the property and determines a front foot assessment to be paid by the property owner as though the property abutted on a water main or sewer; and if the connection is made, the property owner and the property as to all charges, rates and benefits stand in every respect in the same position as if the property abutted on a water main or sewer.
(g) The annual benefit assessment or other charge as above specified is a lien on the property against which it is assessed until paid, any statute of limitations to the contrary notwithstanding, subject only to prior State and county taxes. If any property is sold for State or county taxes, or both, by the Director of Finance* of the County, and if after sale there is a surplus after all costs and expenses incident to the sale shall have been paid, the County, upon proper petition to the Circuit Court shall be allowed any balance from the surplus, and shall be a preferred lienor to the extent of its lien; and for the purpose of giving notice to the general public as to existing liens and charges against any property within Carroll County abutting on any water or sewer main, or connected to any water or sewer main the Board shall keep a public record of all names of owners of property, locations of property, lot numbers when of record, and the amount of the benefit assessments, water service charges, or other charges, that may become liens from time to time. The records shall be kept in the office of the Board as a public record, and when so kept shall be legal notice of all existing liens within Carroll County. The Board shall request the Director of Finance of the County to print a notice on the State and county tax bills that benefit assessments and other charges for water and sewer services must be paid in the office of the Board or elsewhere as the Board may designate.
[Editor’s Note: *Now known as the Comptroller, Department of the Comptroller.]
1978, ch. 739; 1999 Supp., sec. 15-20A; 2000, ch. 601.
(a) For the purpose of providing for the payment of the principal of and the interest on the bonds issued by the County under the terms and conditions of this title for the construction of drainage systems, there may be levied by the Board, on behalf of the County, a special assessment to be known as a drainage area assessment against all of the properties within the drainage area served by the system, whether immediately or remotely, which the Board may determine to be specifically benefitted by the system, based on the area or on the assessed value of all of the property belonging to any owner within the drainage area and so benefitted, which special assessment shall be uniform throughout the area affected. This special assessment shall be made on either an area basis or on an assessed valuation basis whichever is deemed more equitable and just by the Board, and the selection made by the Board shall be final and conclusive. The special assessment, if levied, shall be levied annually in an amount deemed equitable and just (taking into account the benefit to the properties in the drainage area) by the Board and shall be used to meet all or a part of the principal and interest requirements of the bonds outstanding, the proceeds of which were used for the construction, and related expenses, of the drainage system installed in the drainage area. Before the special assessment as provided by this section of this subtitle is levied, the Board shall mail to the owners of all properties within the drainage area or part of the drainage area on which it proposes to levy a special assessment, at the address of the owner as appears from the tax records of Carroll County, notice that the special assessment is to be levied and giving the property owners an opportunity to be heard at a time and place fixed in the notice. At the hearing, the Board may adjust the special assessment, maintaining however, the uniformity of the base rate or percentage of levy.
(b) In any event, the Board shall levy annually, on behalf of the County, an ad valorem tax on all legally assessable property in a drainage area in a sufficient amount, together with any drainage and assessments and any other funds available for the purpose, to meet the principal and interest requirements, when due, of any bonds outstanding, the proceeds of which were used for the construction, and related expenses, of a drainage system installed in a drainage area.
1967, ch. 754, sec. 439U; 1976 Code, sec. 15-21; 1978, ch. 739; 2000, ch. 601.
For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this title, the County may make a charge for every sewer and water connection. The funds derived from the charges may be used for payment of principal and interest on bonds, accumulating funds for capital improvements, for acquisition and construction of water and sewerage systems and the operation and maintenance of water and sewer systems and for the purchase of equipment and supplies necessary to the operation of the Board. Connection charges may be established from time to time by the Board. The connection charges may be based upon reasonable classifications as the Board may determine and the classifications may vary within any water or sewerage system and among any systems depending on any special circumstances which the Board finds exists. The charges provided in this section shall not be limited to the costs to the Board for making the connections. The Board is empowered to determine the manner in which the charges shall be payable.
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