§ 41-7-401 — Payment in installments; construction contracts with United States generally; default in payments as lien; exception; power of commissioners to enforce payment

At the time of the confirmation of any assessment provided for
in this article, it shall be competent for the court to order
the same to be paid in installments of such amount and at such
time as will be convenient for the accomplishment of the
purposes for which such assessment was made, and the payment of
the principal and interest of such notes or bonds of said
district as the court shall grant authority to issue, such
installments to become delinquent on the same date or dates as
may be fixed by law for state and county taxes to become
delinquent, and such installments shall draw interest from the
date of any notes or bonds issued by the district and for the
payment of which said assessments are pledged at such rates not
to exceed seven percent (7%) per annum, as may be fixed by the
court; provided, however, that it shall be competent for the
court, in case a contract is made between the United States of
America and an irrigation district for the construction or sale
of irrigation works and water rights, to order the charges to be
paid in accordance with the provisions of an act of congress
approved December 5, 1924, entitled: "An act making
appropriations to supply deficiencies in certain appropriations
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924, and prior fiscal years;
to provide supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1925; and for other purposes," and all acts that
may be hereafter enacted as amendatory thereof or supplemental
thereto, and in such installments as fixed by contract between
the district and the United States. The annual levy for payment
of construction charges on the basis herein authorized shall
continue to be made each year against each tract of land in the
district against which benefits under such contract with the
United States have been apportioned, until the full amount
apportioned against the same has been paid; such installments to
become delinquent on the same date or dates as may be fixed by
law for state and county taxes to become delinquent and such
installments, after they become due, shall draw interest at six
percent (6%) per annum. All assessments provided for in this
article, together with all interest thereon and all penalties
for default in payment of same, and all costs of collecting the
same shall, from the date of the order of court confirming such
assessments until paid, constitute a perpetual lien in an amount
not in excess of the benefits severally assessed, upon all the
land and other property against which such assessments shall be
levied, superior to all liens of every kind and nature
whatsoever except the paramount lien of the state for the
general state, county, city, town or school taxes, and no sale
of such property to enforce any general state, county,
municipal, or school tax, or other lien shall extinguish the
perpetual lien of such assessments; and such assessments shall
also be a lien upon all equities or interests in existing water
appropriations for the irrigation of said lands when the title
to said lands is vested in the United States, and when said
water appropriations have attached to said lands. The
commissioner shall have the power to enforce payment of such
assessments, and all assessments by them duly levied and
confirmed, by shutting off the supply of water to any and all
lands upon which assessments are due and unpaid, and may refuse
to deliver water to such lands until such assessments are paid.
Any person having an interest in land assessed for construction
may at any time within thirty (30) days after the confirmation
of said report, pay to the court the amount of the assessment
against his land or any tract thereof. Said payment shall
relieve said land and water rights from the lien of said
assessments for the cost of construction; provided, however,
that any district organized within a federal irrigation project
for co-operation between such districts and the United States,
may contract and agree in connection with the acquisition of
irrigation works and water rights and the taking over of the
care, operation and control of the same from the United States,
that each tract or parcel of land shall pay the charges
conformed in the assessments against such tract or parcel of
land, and that liability for charges thus assessed may by
contract be conformed and limited to the particular tract or
parcel of land in question and if so contracted, shall not be
imposed as a charge or incumbrance upon other parcels or tracts
of land within the district.