§ 409-402. Budget appropriation and assessment

(a) Proposed budget. Annually on or before November 1, the Board shall approve and cause to be distributed to the legislative body of each member municipality for review and comment an annual report of its activities, including a financial statement, and a proposed budget of the District for the next fiscal year. The Board shall hold a public hearing on or before December 1 of each year to receive comments from the legislative bodies of the members and hear all other interested persons regarding the proposed budget. Additional public hearings may be held if the Board deems it appropriate to do so. Notice of such hearing(s) shall be the same as that specified under section 503 of subchapter 5 of this chapter, except that for additional public hearings, the time requirements of that section shall be reduced by 15 days, and notice(s) need only be published once. The Board shall give consideration to all comments received and make such changes to the proposed budget as it deems advisable.

(b) Budget adoption, appropriations, and assessment. Annually on or before January 1, the Board shall adopt the budget, appropriate the sums which it deems necessary to operate and carry out the District's functions for the next ensuing fiscal year, assess each member for its proportionate share of the sums so appropriated, less revenues anticipated from the member through tipping fees, and adopt a schedule designating when such assessments are due and payable by the members.

(c) Apportionment of assessments. Assessments shall be apportioned among the members on the basis of relative tonnage or volume of solid waste generated by or within each of the members. Each member shall be assessed a percentage of the sum appropriated equal to the ratio which the solid waste generated by or within the member in the prior year bears to the total solid waste generated by or within the District. If the Board determines in any year that the assessments for the previous year were substantially inequitable, it shall retroactively adjust the prior year's assessment such that any overcharged member is given a proportionate credit against future assessments, and any undercharged member is assessed a proportionate surcharge payable over a period that the Board determines will be reasonable. The foregoing notwithstanding, the Board may levy special assessments for waste which require special or disproportionately expensive treatment not reflected by tonnage or volume.