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<br />4. Water Resource Board, Legal Drains and Special Assessments <br />The Water Resource Board (WRB) is responsible for water management, drainage and flood <br />control for Cass County. This is managed through four Water Resource Districts that can <br />construct water resource improvements. These improvements are funded general1y through <br />special assessments on each parcel that receives a benefit from an improvement. Within this <br />process, there are several areas of note: <br /> <br />J- The benefit each parcel receives from an improvement is determined through prior <br />practices. Once the benefit is determined, the calculation to share the cost of the <br />improvement is set, and the initial special assessment is calculated <br />J- A separate assessment is created for the maintenance of each improvement <br />J- Land is classified as agriculture, commercial or residential. If the classification <br />changes, the assessments may be recalculated. <br />J- In a developing area, the number of properties receiving benefit from an <br />improvement changes. Therefore, both the initial assessment and the maintenance <br />assessment can be recalculated <br />J- Cass County systems only allow for equal annual principal calculations, however, the <br />WRB has used the equal annual total payment (amortization) method. As a result, <br />each year, each assessment is recalculated for the equal annual total payment. <br /> <br />Practically speaking, over the past eight years, for each parcel in the Charleswood sub- <br />division in West Fargo, it has had its assessment recalculated as a result of more parcels being <br />developed that are sharing in the initial investment. Both the initial assessment and the <br />maintenance assessment are being recalculated with each reassessment of a project <br /> <br />All of the calculations and re-calculations are done by hand, using spreadsheets. In addition, <br />once the calculations are complete, they're either imported or manually keyed into the <br />County systems. <br /> <br />Couple this with observation number two, keeping track of the historical improvements; it <br />becomes very difficult to understand the historical evolution a parcel goes through relative to <br />improvements and assessments (including maintenance). <br /> <br />Cass County Tax Automation Assessment & Recommendation Page 6 <br />05/05/2006 <br />Propn'etary and ConfidentiaL- Contents d this dommen! can lIot be reproduced without written permission from Eide BaillY, UY and <br />CO!! County ND <br />