02/07/2025

House Bill 49

Lead Sponsors: Representative Thaddeus Claggett

Status: Introduced (February 4, 2025)

Description: The bill authorizes boards of county commissioners to create a water improvement district (WID) to facilitate, coordinate, fund, finance, construct, reconstruct, or repair water projects or engage in any combination of those activities.

WIDs are modeled after Transportation Improvement Districts. 

A board of trustees will govern a WID with at least six members, five of whom are voting members. The members are:

• The county sanitary engineer. If the county does not have a sanitary engineer or if the county engineer serves as the sanitary engineer, the county engineer or their designee fills this seat.
• Four members appointed by the board of commissioners who have experience in wastewater facilities, wastewater, sewage, or water management facilities.
• One member appointed by the county's regional planning commission. This member is a non-voting member.
• An additional six nonvoting members can be appointed to represent government agencies within the WID's jurisdiction.

The trustees are unpaid but may be reimbursed for necessary expenses.

The WID may levy special assessments if certain conditions are met; any special assessment may not exceed 10% of the assessable value of the parcel or land it is being applied to.

WIDs may also issue bonds to pay for water projects, following the same procedure and restrictions as TIDs.

CCAO Position: No position (as of February 2025)