§ 3615. Rents; rates
(a) Such municipal corporation, through its board of sewage disposal commissioners, may establish charges to be called "sewage disposal charges," to be paid at such times and in such manner as the commissioners may prescribe. The commissioners may establish annual charges separately for bond repayment, fixed operations and maintenance costs (not dependent on actual use), and variable operations and maintenance costs dependent on flow. Such charges may be based upon:
(1) the metered consumption of water on premises connected with the sewer system, however, the commissioners may determine no user will be billed for fixed operations and maintenance costs and bond payment less than the average single family charge;
(2) the number of equivalent units connected with or served by the sewage system based upon their estimated flows compared to the estimated flows from a single family dwelling however, the commissioners may determine no user will be billed less than the minimum charge determined for the single family dwelling charge for fixed operations and maintenance costs and bond payment;
(3) the strength and flow where wastes stronger than household wastes are involved;
(4) the appraised value of premises, in the event that the commissioners shall determine the sewage disposal plant to be of general benefit to the municipality regardless of actual connection with the same;
(5) the commissioners' determination developed using any other equitable basis such as the number and kind of plumbing fixtures, the number of persons residing on or frequenting the premises served by those sewers, the topography, size, type of use, or impervious area of any premises; or
(6) any combination of these bases, so long as the combination is equitable.
(b) The basis for establishing sewer disposal charges shall be reviewed annually by sewage disposal commissioners. No premises otherwise exempt from taxation, including premises owned by the State of Vermont, shall, by virtue of any such exemption, be exempt from charges established hereunder. The commissioners may change the rates of such charges from time to time as may be reasonably required. Where one of the bases of such charge is the appraised value and the premises to be appraised are tax exempt, the commissioners may cause the listers to appraise such property, including State property, for the purpose of determining the sewage disposal charges. The right of appeal from such appraisal shall be the same as provided in 32 V.S.A. chapter 131. The Commissioner of Finance and Management is authorized to issue his or her warrants for sewage disposal charges against State property and transmit to the State Treasurer who shall draw a voucher in payment thereof. No charge so established and no tax levied under the provisions of section 3613 of this title shall be considered to be a part of any tax authorized to be assessed by the legislative body of any municipality for general purposes, but shall be in addition to any such tax so authorized to be assessed. Sewage disposal charges established in accord with this section may be assessed by the board of sewage disposal commissioners as provided in section 3614 of this title to derive the revenue required to pay pollution charges assessed against a municipal corporation under 10 V.S.A. § 1265.
(c) When a sewage disposal charge established under this section for the management of stormwater is applied to property owned, controlled, or managed by the Agency of Transportation, the charge shall not exceed the highest rate category applicable to other properties in the municipality, and the Agency of Transportation shall receive a 35 percent credit on the charge. The Agency of Transportation shall receive no other credit on the charge from the municipal corporation. (Amended 1959, No. 111, eff. April 14, 1959; 1971, No. 97, § 5, eff. April 22, 1971; 1973, No. 112, § 8, eff. April 25, 1973; 1983, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 5(b); 1989, No. 45, § 5; 2001, No. 109 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. May 16, 2002; 2015, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), § 29, eff. June 2, 2016.)