Site search
sponsored by
News
By CHRISTY LATTIN
LVN Community News Editor
A bill allowing irrigation districts to carry debts up to $500,000 and to assess residents up to $5 per acre of land was recently signed into law by the governor last.
Assembly Bill 226 was signed by Gov. Jim Gibbons on May 6 and will take effect July 1.
The bill amends Nevada Revised Statute 539.255, which allows irrigation districts to contract for construction of repairs and to purchase necessary materials. Three irrigation districts serve Northern Nevada — Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, Walker River Irrigation District and the Pershing County Water Conservation District
Under the existing law, any purchase may not be for any amount greater than 5 cents per acre of land in the district.
The amendment to NRS 539.255 — which was not part of the original bill — removes the limit on the amount that my be spent on one transaction.
The bill also amends NRS 539.480 which allows irrigation districts to incur up to $500,000 in debt and to increase the districts’ annual assessments up to $5 per acre of land, up from the current cap of $1.50 per acre of land.
The current verbiage of NRS 539.480 only allows districts to incur debt up to $350,000.
New language included in the amendment restricts the assessment to not more than $1.50 per acre to pay for the “ordinary and current expenses of the district, including the salaries of officers and other incidental expenses.”
The new language is further clarified to state that the annual assessment of not more than $5 per acre will be deposited into a “capital improvement fund for the construction, reconstruction or maintenance of the irrigation system of the district.”
Annual assessments applied to lands within the irrigation district “may not cumulatively exceed $5 per acre,” the bill states and no portion of the capital improvements funds can be used to pay ordinary expenses or salaries.
Ernie Schank, Truckee-Carson Irrigation District president, said the board discussed the District General Assessment at its May 7 meeting and voted to keep the assessment at $1.50 per acre or home lot. The board will have the ability to increase the assessment at its regularly scheduled July 7 meeting.
Schank estimated the current assessment brings in about $145,000 annually, based on the assessment of approximately 100,000 acres in Lyon and Churchill Counties that lie in the Newlands Irrigation Project boundaries, including all of the city of Fernley. The assessment is included in owners’ property taxes which will be mailed out this summer.
“AB226 will allow the irrigation districts to build up a fund where we can then be eligible for receiving funds from the State AB198 funds which are a 15/85 percent split. In other words, if we provide 15 percent, the State matches with 85 percent on approved water projects,” Schank said.
“This fund will also give us the opportunity to get other grants from federal sources such as Water for America which is a challenge grant, funded and sponsored by the Department of the Interior.”
LVN Community News Editor
A bill allowing irrigation districts to carry debts up to $500,000 and to assess residents up to $5 per acre of land was recently signed into law by the governor last.
Assembly Bill 226 was signed by Gov. Jim Gibbons on May 6 and will take effect July 1.
The bill amends Nevada Revised Statute 539.255, which allows irrigation districts to contract for construction of repairs and to purchase necessary materials. Three irrigation districts serve Northern Nevada — Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, Walker River Irrigation District and the Pershing County Water Conservation District
Under the existing law, any purchase may not be for any amount greater than 5 cents per acre of land in the district.
The amendment to NRS 539.255 — which was not part of the original bill — removes the limit on the amount that my be spent on one transaction.
The bill also amends NRS 539.480 which allows irrigation districts to incur up to $500,000 in debt and to increase the districts’ annual assessments up to $5 per acre of land, up from the current cap of $1.50 per acre of land.
The current verbiage of NRS 539.480 only allows districts to incur debt up to $350,000.
New language included in the amendment restricts the assessment to not more than $1.50 per acre to pay for the “ordinary and current expenses of the district, including the salaries of officers and other incidental expenses.”
The new language is further clarified to state that the annual assessment of not more than $5 per acre will be deposited into a “capital improvement fund for the construction, reconstruction or maintenance of the irrigation system of the district.”
Annual assessments applied to lands within the irrigation district “may not cumulatively exceed $5 per acre,” the bill states and no portion of the capital improvements funds can be used to pay ordinary expenses or salaries.
Ernie Schank, Truckee-Carson Irrigation District president, said the board discussed the District General Assessment at its May 7 meeting and voted to keep the assessment at $1.50 per acre or home lot. The board will have the ability to increase the assessment at its regularly scheduled July 7 meeting.
Schank estimated the current assessment brings in about $145,000 annually, based on the assessment of approximately 100,000 acres in Lyon and Churchill Counties that lie in the Newlands Irrigation Project boundaries, including all of the city of Fernley. The assessment is included in owners’ property taxes which will be mailed out this summer.
“AB226 will allow the irrigation districts to build up a fund where we can then be eligible for receiving funds from the State AB198 funds which are a 15/85 percent split. In other words, if we provide 15 percent, the State matches with 85 percent on approved water projects,” Schank said.
“This fund will also give us the opportunity to get other grants from federal sources such as Water for America which is a challenge grant, funded and sponsored by the Department of the Interior.”
