70 ILCS 605/5-20

(70 ILCS 605/5-20) (from Ch. 42, par. 5-20)

Sec. 5-20.

Annual maintenance assessments - Certificate of levy - Extension
of assessment.
During the month of November in each year, the commissioners of each
district in which an annual maintenance assessment roll has been approved
or confirmed shall determine whether it is necessary to collect all or any
portion of the annual maintenance assessment for repair and maintenance
work or the operation of pumping plants during the ensuing calendar year.
If they determine that it is necessary to collect all or a portion of such
assessment, then they shall, before the first of December, file with the
clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the district was
organized a certificate of levy, setting forth the amount of money needed
by them for the performance of such work during the ensuing year which
amount shall in no event exceed the total of the annual maintenance
assessment roll as confirmed by the court and, if the amount so levied be
less than the total amount which they are authorized to levy, then the
percentage which the amount so levied bears to the total amount authorized,
which certificate may be in the following form:

CERTIFICATE OF LEVY OF ANNUAL

MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT

To ...., Clerk of the Circuit Court:

The undersigned commissioners of .... Drainage District do hereby
certify that they require the sum of .... Dollars, to be levied as an
annual maintenance assessment upon the lands and other property and other
districts and municipal corporations subject to assessment by the district.
Such sum is to be used for the performance of annual maintenance work (and
pumping plant operation) during the ensuing calendar year and represents
....% of the total amount of the annual maintenance assessment authorized
to be levied by the Circuit Court of this county by its order duly given or
made on (insert date).

Dated (insert date).

........................

Commissioners.

The owner of any land or other property which is subject to an annual
maintenance assessment may object to the amount levied by the commissioners
in any year by filing written objections with the court on or before the
10th day of December following the filing of the certificate of levy.  Upon
the filing of the objections they shall be presented to the court, which
shall fix the date and hour for hearing. The objecting landowner or
landowners shall give each of the commissioners at least 3 days notice of
the hearing by personal service or by mail which notice shall have attached
thereto a copy of the objections filed. The objections shall be heard and
determined by the court prior to the 20th day of December.  Upon such
hearing the court may confirm the levy without change or reduce the levy
and confirm the same as so reduced.  No appeal shall lie from the order of
the court but the objectors shall not be precluded from raising the same
objections on the Collector's application for judgment and order of sale
for delinquent annual maintenance assessments.  If no objections are filed
by the 10th day of December or if the court fails to hear and determine the
filed objections by the 20th day of December then the certificate of levy
shall stand as confirmed without further action by the court.

If the amount levied in any year is less than the total amount of the
annual maintenance assessment roll, then the individual assessments shall
abate proportionately.  Upon the confirmation of the levy, whether by order
of the court or by the failure of any landowner to file written objections
or by the failure of the court to determine objections, the clerk of the
circuit court shall, except in the case of those districts which have
appointed as their collectors persons other than the county collector,
deliver a certified copy of the certificate of levy, together with a
certified copy of the order of the court, if any, thereon, to the county
clerk, who shall extend the same on the county collector's books in
appropriate columns, and the amounts so extended shall be collected at the
same time and in the same manner as general taxes and, when so collected,
shall be paid over to the district treasurer in the same manner as taxes of
municipal corporations.  When the district is situated in more than one
county, the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the district
is organized shall deliver to the county clerk of each of such counties a
certified copy of the certificate of levy, together with a certified copy
of the order of the court, if any thereon, and the county clerks of such
counties shall extend the levy against the portion of the lands and
property in the district in his county on the collector's books in his
office, as above set forth, and the collection and distribution thereof in
that county shall be accomplished in the same manner as in districts
situated in a single county.  In extending annual maintenance assessments in
the county collector's books, when the tracts described in the assessment
roll do not coincide with the tracts described in the collector's books but
the description in the collector's books includes the description on the
assessment roll, then the clerk may include the assessment against the
smaller tract with the taxes against the larger tract, but such authority
shall be procedural only and shall not be construed to extend the lien of
the assessment against the larger tract or upon any land or property other
than that against which the assessment was actually confirmed.  When the
tract described in the assessment roll is larger than the tract described
in the collector's book, then the assessment against such tract shall
be divided in the collector's books proportionately.

In those districts which have appointed as their collectors persons
other than the county collector, the clerk shall certify a copy of the
certificate of levy and the order of the court, if any, to the district
collector, who shall then be charged with the duty of billing and
collecting the annual maintenance assessment so levied as in the case of
original and additional assessments.

In all cases, it shall be the duty of the district collector to collect
assessments against other districts and municipal corporations and against
property not appearing in the county collector's books.

(Source: P.A. 91-357, eff. 7-29-99.)