§1619. Acreage tax

A. The board of commissioners of drainage district organized under the provisions of this Part, immediately after organizing, shall levy and order the assessment and collection of a uniform acreage tax of not more than twenty-five cents per acre upon each acre of land within the limits of the drainage district, to be used to pay the expenses to be incurred in organizing the district, making surveys of the district, assessing benefits and damages, and to pay other expenses necessary to be incurred before the board of commissioners shall be empowered by this Part to provide funds to pay the total cost of works and improvements of the district. In case the boundary lines of the district are subsequently extended so as to include additional lands within its limits, the same uniform tax shall be made immediately upon the additionally included land.

B. Neither the state nor its subdivisions shall ever be liable for the acreage tax or forced contribution authorized by this Section.

C. As soon as the tax is levied, the secretary of the board of commissioners shall assess the tax against each acre of land in the drainage district, upon a triplicate assessment roll suitably bound, and shall file one copy thereof with the recorder of mortgages of the parish or parishes in which the lands of the district are situated, one copy with the tax collector of the parish or parishes, and shall keep the third copy in the records of the board of commissioners of the drainage district. If the drainage district is situated in more than one parish, the assessment roll for each parish shall embrace and include only the lands situated in that parish.

D. The tax shall be due and collectible and shall be a tax lien upon the lands against which it is assessed, immediately upon the rolls being filed as aforesaid, and shall become delinquent on December 31 of the year in which it has been levied.

E. The tax shall be collected and payment thereof enforced and be paid over to the board of commissioners of the drainage district in the same manner as the other taxes provided for in this Part.

F. If the sum received from the uniform tax authorized by this Section exceeds the total cost of the preliminary expenses for which it was levied, the surplus shall be prorated and refunded to the landowners paying the uniform tax.

G. If the report of the board of appraisers, as confirmed by the court, shows that there are lands within the drainage district which will not be benefited by putting into effect the plan for reclamation and against which no benefits have been assessed, then any uniform acreage tax which has been assessed against the land and paid by the owner or owners thereof shall be refunded to the owner or owners by the board of commissioners.

Amended by Acts 1975, No. 520, §2.