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H. 4201
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Rep. Ceips
Document Path: l:\council\bills\dka\3513dw03.doc
Introduced in the House on May 13, 2003
Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary
Summary: Water and sewer systems
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Date Body Action Description with journal page number ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5/13/2003 House Introduced and read first time HJ-22 5/13/2003 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-22
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VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING CHAPTER 26 TO TITLE 6 SO AS TO PROVIDE A PROCEDURE BY WHICH A SPECIAL PURPOSE OR PUBLIC SERVICE DISTRICT MAY IMPOSE AVAILABILITY CHARGES FOR WATERWORKS OR SEWER SYSTEMS AND PROVIDE A METHOD FOR THE CALCULATION OF THE CHARGE.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Title 6 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 6-26-110. As used in this chapter:
(1) 'Availability charge' means a charge payable pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and imposed upon undeveloped real property in order to defray a portion of the cost of providing utility assets.
(2) 'Commission' means the governing body of a district.
(3) 'District' means a special purpose district or public service district created by or pursuant to an act of the General Assembly before March 7, 1973, and to which has been committed by law the authority to engage in the provisions of waterworks or sewer service, or both.
(4) 'System' means a waterworks system, a sewer system, or any combined utility system consisting partially or wholly for the benefit of which availability charges are imposed.
(5) 'Utility assets' means a treatment facility for potable water, a wastewater treatment plan, and waterworks and sewage transmission facilities, excluding lines directly used to distribute water and collect wastewater from customers of a district.
Section 6-26-120. (A) A district is authorized to provide by resolution that the allocable capital cost of utility assets constructed by the commission, or so much of the allocable cost as the commission considers appropriate, must be assessed subject to the provisions of subsection (B) on each unit basis established pursuant to the provisions of Section 6-26-130.
(B) The commission must provide in the resolution that the availability charges to be levied for the purposes provided in this section must be paid in installments covering a period not exceeding twenty years. Availability charges imposed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter must terminate as the parcel is improved and a connection to the system is established. Payments are payable annually within the period that county taxes are payable and late payments must be penalized to the same extent as in the case of county taxes.
(C) The commission, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, may not impose an availability charge against any property unless the property has been platted or otherwise developed as a part of a subdivision devoted to residential or commercial purposes. Availability charges must not be imposed where no benefit results to the property.
(D) In connection with the imposition of availability charges:
(1) the resolution providing for those availability charges must designate and generally describe the utility assets to be constructed, the actual cost of it, and the amount of the cost to be assessed pursuant to this chapter, and the terms and manner of payment. This resolution does not become effective until at least seven days after it has been published in a newspaper of general circulation in the district. The resolution may incorporate by reference plats and engineering reports and other data on file in the commission's office, provided that the place of filing and reasonable hours for inspection by interested persons are specified in the resolution. Within thirty days of the publication, the commission shall prepare in poster form a notice advising of the proposed availability charges and generally describing the area to be affected and shall deliver the notice to the register of deeds or, if none, to the clerk of court of each county where any affected property lies. The register of deeds or clerk of court shall display prominently the notice in his office until the assessment roll provided in item (5) has been filed. Failure to provide or post the notice does not affect the validity of any availability charge pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(2) Upon the completion of the construction of utility assets, the commission shall compute and ascertain the total cost of it and shall make a determination of the allocable portion of the cost or the share of it as it considers appropriate which must be recovered from parcels as an availability charge.
(3) The commission shall prepare an assessment roll to include descriptions by tax map numbers of the properties to be subject to the availability charge, the names and addresses of the owners of these properties, and the amount of the charge. If two or more parcels of platted land are identified with a single tax map number, each parcel must be entered on the assessment roll separately, with appropriate notation, and each parcel is subject to the full amount of the availability charge.
(4) After the assessment roll has been completed, the commission immediately shall file one copy in the commission's office for inspection by interested parties.
(5) As soon as practicable after the completion of the assessment roll, the commission shall mail to the owner or owners of each parcel of land against which an availability charge is to be levied at his or their address, if any appearing on the records of the county treasurer, a notice stating:
(a) the nature of the utility asset;
(b) the total cost of it;
(c) the amount to be assessed against the particular property, together with the terms and conditions upon which the availability charge may be paid;
(d) a brief description of the particular property involved together with a statement that the amount assessed constitutes a lien against the property superior to all other liens, except property taxes; and
(e) the time and place fixed for a meeting before the commission to hear objections to the availability charges; and
(f) that a property owner who fails to file with the commission a written objection not later than three days before the date set for the meeting is considered to have waived all rights to object to the availability charges.
(6) At the time and place specified for the meeting pursuant to the provisions of item (5), or at some other time to which it may adjourn, the commission shall hear the objections of all persons who have filed written notice of objection within the time provided in item (5) who may appear and submit proof either in person or by their attorney. The commission may make corrections in the assessment roll as it considers proper, confirm changes to the assessment role, set it aside, and provide for a new assessment. If the commission confirms an assessment roll, either as originally prepared or as corrected, a certified copy of it by the secretary of the commission must be filed immediately in the office of the register of deeds or, if none, in the office of the clerk of court of common pleas of each county in which any property lies, and against which any availability charges have been levied. At the time of the filing, the availability charges impressed in the assessment roll constitutes a lien on the real property against which the availability charges are assessed superior to all other liens and encumbrances, except only the lien for property taxes.
(7) After the assessment roll has been confirmed, a certified copy of it must be delivered to the treasurer of each county in which any availability charges are levied by it who shall prepare and keep a separate book or books in connection with it and who shall proceed to collect the availability charges in the manner of county taxes and shall remit the collections on or before April fifteenth of each year upon the direction of the commission. Each year the county treasurer shall mail out notices of the availability charges at the same time county tax notices are mailed. Past due availability charges must be turned over by the respective county treasurers to the county sheriff or delinquent tax collector who shall proceed to collect in the same manner as unpaid county taxes are collected. The collecting official shall keep separate records in connection with the past due assessments and shall remit all sums collected upon the direction of the commission.
(8) Immediately upon the confirmation of the assessment roll, the commission shall mail a written notice to persons who have filed written objections as provided in this chapter of the amount of the availability charge finally confirmed against the person's property. If a person is dissatisfied with the amount of the availability charge, he shall give written notice to the commission within ten days after receipt of the notice of his intent to appeal the availability charge to the court of common pleas for the county in which his property is assessed, or any part of it, is located. Within five days after the person gives his notice to appeal, he shall submit a statement of facts to the commission upon which he bases his appeal. An appeal does not delay or stop the construction of the improvements or affect the validity of the availability charges confirmed and not appealed. The appeal must be tried at the next term of court as other actions at law with priority over all other cases.
(9) The commission may correct, cancel, or remit an availability charge and may remit, cancel, or adjust the interest or penalties of any availability charge. The commission is empowered, when in its judgment there is any irregularity, omission, error, or lack of jurisdiction in any of the proceedings relating to it, to set aside the whole of any assessment made by it and to make a reassessment.
(10) If the commission provides that availability charges imposed to defray the cost of construction of utility property may be paid in annual installments, then the availability charge is considered to be due and payable in the annual installments as prescribed by the commission and shall bear interest at a rate prescribed by the commission not to exceed the same rate of interest paid by the commission on monies it borrowed to construct the utility assets for which the assessment was levied from the date of the confirmation of the assessment roll, payable with such annual installment. A property owner has the right at any time in his option to prepay in full the availability charge against his property by the payment of the balance due plus interest calculated to the date of prepayment. If a property owner fails or neglects to pay any installment when due and payable, then the commission, at its option, may declare all of the installments remaining unpaid at once due and payable and the property must be sold by the county sheriff in the same manner and with the same right of redemption as are prescribed by law for the sale of land for unpaid property taxes.
(11) Monies realized from availability charges must be kept in a separate and distinct fund either on deposit with the county treasurer or, in the discretion of the commission, in a bank located within the county in which the district is located and used to defray the purpose for which the availability charges were imposed. If a district issues bonds and uses only a portion of the proceeds of them to defray all or a part of the cost of constructing utility assets, monies derived from the availability charges must be used to provide debt service to the extent prescribed in the resolutions providing for the imposition of the availability charges and authorizing the issuance of the bonds. Nothing contained in this chapter may be construed to authorize any borrowing by a district.
(12) Monies received by the commission from availability charges and deposited by it as prescribed in item (11), to the extent practicable, may be invested in the discretion of the commission in obligations of the United States of America, obligations of any agency of the United States of America, or obligations guaranteed by an agency of the United States of America, maturing in the fashion as to provide cash monies for the principal and interest payments of bonds payable from them when due. Income derived from this investment must be applied to the same purpose to which the invested funds are applicable.
(E) If monies derived from the availability charges are held by the county treasurer, these funds must be secured in the same manner as county funds. If the funds are deposited in a bank, the amount of the deposits in excess of the amount insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation must be secured by direct obligations of the United States of America or by obligations of an agency of the United States of America or obligations guaranteed by an agency of the United States of America. Nothing in this chapter may be construed to prohibit the commission from requiring the additional security as it considers appropriate.
Section 6-26-130. Availability charges may be imposed only against parcels which have been platted, and to which the utility service for which the charge is imposed is then available by virtue of existing or simultaneously constructed distribution or collection lines. Availability charges must be calculated on each parcel basis, with each parcel of property in residential use and all undeveloped platted parcels assigned a residential equivalent unit value of one. Parcels in commercial or industrial use must be assigned a residential equivalent unit based upon water or sewer usage, as appropriate, for any twelve consecutive months within the past eighteen consecutive months. Availability charges imposed against a parcel must not exceed that amount resulting from dividing the total cost of construction of utility property or by the sum of the residential equivalent units in the district subject to the availability fee to be imposed."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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