Upon entry of the findings of the final hearing on the petition if one or more county legislative authorities find that the proposed district will be conducive to the public health, welfare, and convenience and will benefit the land therein, they shall present a resolution to the county auditor calling for a special election to be held at a date according to RCW
29A.04.330, at which a ballot proposition authorizing the district to be created shall be submitted to voters for their approval or rejection. The commissioners shall cause to be published a notice of the election for four successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the proposed district, which notice shall state the hours during which the polls will be open, the boundaries of the district as finally adopted and the object of the election, and the notice shall also be posted ten days in ten public places in the proposed district. The district shall be created if the ballot proposition authorizing the district to be created is approved by a majority of the voters voting on the proposition.
A separate ballot proposition authorizing the district, if created, to impose a single-year excess levy for the preliminary expenses of the district shall be submitted to voters for their approval or rejection at the same special election, if the petition to create the district also proposed that a ballot proposition authorizing an excess levy be submitted to voters for their approval or rejection. The excess levy shall be proposed in the amount specified in the petition to create the district, not to exceed one dollar and twenty-five cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, and may only be submitted to voters for their approval or rejection if the special election is held in February, March, April, or May. The proposition to be effective must be approved in the manner set forth in Article VII, section 2(a) of the state Constitution.
Findings—Intent—1994 c 292: "The legislature finds that the monitoring and treatment requirements of the federal safe drinking water act place increasing burdens and cost on public water supply systems, especially smaller systems and rural systems. Across the state, those systems are turning to existing systems and their county governments for help, which may include assumption of the system.
It is the intent of the legislature to encourage larger existing systems to assist or acquire troubled systems or those systems burdened by federal requirements, to provide financial protection for that assistance, and to protect receivers of failed water systems." [
1994 c 292 s 1.]