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Article 4. Assessments For Maintenance And Operation of California Water Code >> Division 6. >> Part 6. >> Chapter 4.5. >> Article 4.

The land within each zone, and the land within each maintenance area, if no zones are established therein, shall be conclusively presumed to be benefited by the continued operation and maintenance of the unit in accordance with the assessed valuation of the land and the improvements thereon or in accordance with its benefit product as defined in Section 12878.40, and shall be subject to assessment as provided in this article.
Each maintenance area is a district within which assessments are collected according to the value or to the benefit product as defined in Section 12878.40 of the land therein, and the provisions of Chapter 8 (commencing at Section 54900), Part 1, Division 2, Title 5 of the Government Code shall be complied with.
The department shall, prior to the first day of April of each year, estimate the cost of the operation and maintenance of each unit during the ensuing fiscal year and during the current fiscal year where no assessment has been levied or collected for the current fiscal year and adjust such estimates as provided in Section 12878.44. The department shall transmit a copy of such estimates to the board as to all units within the jurisdiction of the board.
Following the first day of April of each year, the board or department shall hold a hearing at Sacramento on the matter of fixing the estimates and assessments for all units to be operated or maintained by the department pursuant to this chapter.
Notice of the hearing shall be given by publication in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each maintenance area affected for at least once a week for two successive weeks.
The notice shall set the time and place of the hearing which shall be held not less than 10 days following the completion of publication as to all maintenance areas, and shall state that the purpose of the hearing is to confirm or modify or revise the program of work to be performed on the units for which estimates have been made pursuant to Section 12878.27, and to determine the necessity for such work and the amount of the estimates therefor.
At the hearing any owner of land in any maintenance area affected, or other interested person may offer, and the board or department shall receive, any relevant evidence or testimony concerning the proposed program of work relating to any such unit, the necessity for such work, or the estimate of the cost thereof.
Upon the final conclusion of such hearing the board or department shall fix the amount of the estimate for each such unit for all purposes of the assessments provided for in this article, and in all cases where the board fixes the said amount it shall immediately notify the department of the amounts thereof.
If any area or zone lies within more than one county, the department shall divide the amount of the estimate in the proportion of the acreage in each county, as modified to reflect any zones of benefit, as described in Section 12878.9.
The department shall certify to the auditor and board of supervisors of each county in which each maintenance area, or part thereof, lies, the amount required, in order to pay the estimate for the ensuing fiscal year or the current fiscal year where no assessment has been levied or collected for the current fiscal year, to be levied in each area, and if the area is divided into zones, the amount required to be levied for such purposes in each zone.
The board of supervisors of each county in which there lies a maintenance area or any portion thereof shall annually, and at the time of levying county taxes, levy on the land within the county and within the area, or if zones are established, within each zone, an ad valorem assessment sufficient to raise the amount or amounts certified by the department.
Each assessment shall be identified by the name and number, if any, of the area, and by the number of the zone, if a zone is involved.
The board of supervisors shall determine a rate of assessment sufficient to cover the amount of the estimate for each area or zone, making reasonable allowance for anticipated delinquencies. If a fraction of a cent occurs in a valuation of one hundred dollars ($100), it shall be taken as a full cent. The assessment shall be computed and entered upon the assessment roll by the auditor.
Assessments levied pursuant to this article shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as county taxes. So far as applicable, all provisions of law relating to the equalization, levy, payment, and collection of county taxes shall apply to such assessments and all provisions of law relating to the duties of county officers in relation to county taxes shall apply to such assessments, except as otherwise expressly provided by this chapter, so far as the same are or may be made applicable.
All money raised by such assessments shall be accounted for separately as to each area and zone. All such money shall be transmitted by January 1st and July 1st of each year to the department for deposit in the Water Resources Revolving Fund after deduction of the amounts to be retained by the county for the reasonable costs of its services as determined pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 12878.40.
(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that a county may face substantial expense in maintaining a roll or system which reflects both current values of property for purposes of ad valorem benefit assessments as well as the property values for general taxation mandated by Article XIII A of the California Constitution. The Legislature further finds and declares that a fair and proper benefit assessment for flood control purposes may be levied on the alternative basis of the use to which the benefited land in a maintenance area may be put.
  (b) The board of supervisors of the county may evaluate the costs of maintaining a system to determine benefits according to assessed valuation of land and improvements thereon pursuant to Section 12878.35. If the board of supervisors finds that these costs would be excessive relative to the amounts to be collected, it may, in lieu of an ad valorem benefit assessment, elect to levy a benefit assessment as set forth in this section sufficient to raise the amount or amounts certified by the department. Amounts raised pursuant to this section for transmittal to the department shall be in lieu of any apportionment of county property tax revenues to the support of the maintenance area pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 95) of Part 0.5 of Division 1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. The assessment authorized to be levied on each parcel under this section shall be based upon the parcel's proportionate benefit, expressed as a product of the degree of flood protection it receives, its size, and its capacity for being put to use, with respect to all other parcels in the maintenance area. Specifically, a parcel's benefit product equals the percentage benefit for the zone in which the parcel is located, as defined in Section 12878.9, multiplied by the acreage of the parcel, multiplied by the parcel's land use factor as specified in subdivision (c). Any parcel less than one-third acre in size shall be deemed to be one-third acre. For any parcel categorized as agriculture in subdivision (c), every acre over five acres shall be deemed to be one-tenth acre.
  (c) The county shall assign each parcel to one of the following land use categories, representing its current predominant land use capability, and shall assign to each parcel the land use factor corresponding to such category:
Category Factor (1) Waste or unusable land ........ 0 (2) Agriculture ................... 1 (3) Single family, residential .... 5 (4) Commercial, industrial, and 10 other .............................
Prior to April 1 of any year, landowners in the maintenance area may petition the board of supervisors, or the board of supervisors may on its own motion elect, to review the land use categories and land use factors herein provided. The petition shall be signed by at least 50 landowners or 10 percent of the landowners in the maintenance area, whichever is less. The board of supervisors shall thereupon give notice, pursuant to Section 6066 of the Government Code, and hold a hearing to determine whether the land use categories should be modified or increased in number and whether the land use factors should be modified. The board of supervisors may, by resolution, modify the categories and factors as in its judgment is required for fair and practical special benefit assessments for flood control maintenance. The board of supervisors may delegate to an appropriate county board or administrative body the powers and duties set forth in this subdivision.
  (d) The amount assessed each parcel in the maintenance area shall be determined by the following formula: the benefit product of the parcel multiplied by the total amount to be collected in the maintenance area, divided by the sum of the various benefit products of all parcels in the maintenance area.
  (e) If the county board of supervisors elects to use the benefit assessment procedure and formula provided in this section, the county may recover the reasonable costs of its services in preparing and levying the assessments. The board of supervisors shall add the amount for estimated county costs to the amount or amounts certified by the department and shall include that amount in the benefit assessment levied pursuant to this section.
  (f) All other provisions of this chapter applicable to the levy of assessments shall apply to this section so far as they are or may be made applicable.