Loans From Irrigation Districts To Landowners

Sections 1 and 4 of the act allow a board of directors of an irrigation district (board) to borrow money, which the irrigation district may use to make loans to landowners to be used to make improvements to private water delivery systems or for other types of projects that improve:

• Water conservation or efficiencies on landowner property; or
• Landowner delivery or drainage systems.

An obligation or contract to borrow such money is exempt from the existing requirement that a contract purporting to bind the district to pay a certain sum must be ratified by a certain number of district voters. Additionally, the district cannot assess landowners to raise money to fund the loans.

In case of default in the payment of any loan installment, the county treasurer may assess upon the eligible real property a tax lien for the payment of the whole of the unpaid installment but is prohibited from assessing a tax lien for the entire value of the landowner's portion of the irrigation loan issued by the water district.

Sections 2 and 5 require each irrigation district to include in its annual appropriation resolution:

• The amount needed to meet loan obligations;
• All amounts payable by landowners to the irrigation district in accordance with loans issued to the landowners; and
• The amount payable by each tract within the irrigation district for which a landowner has received a loan.

Sections 3 and 6 state that the county treasurer will receive $5 per tract assessed for loans issued to landowners by an irrigation district, and this $5 will be assessed against each participating tract.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)