CHAPTER 327
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 14 OF TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE IN RELATION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF WATER AND/OR SEWER AUTHORITIES.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (two-thirds of all the Members elected to each House concurring therein):
Section 1. Section 1402 (a) of Title 16 of the Delaware Code, is hereby repealed and a new Subsection (a) enacted in lieu thereof to read as follows:
(a) After a favorable majority referendum vote at a Special Election in the municipality or in each of the municipalities creating an Authority, which referendum election shall be held on the same date in each of such municipalities, the governing body of a municipality may, by ordinance or resolution, or the governing bodies of two or more municipalities may by ordinances or resolutions, signify their intention to create an Authority to acquire, construct, reconstruct, extend, repair, improve, maintain and operate a project under an appropriate name and title, containing the word "Authority", which shall be a public body politic and corporate.
Notice of the holding of such referendum election shall be authorized by resolution of the governing body of each municipality published once a week, for at least three consecutive weeks in at least one newspaper circulating in the municipality. Such notice shall set out in summary form the purpose, the date and place of holding the referendum election, and the hours the polls will be open.
At said referendum election every resident and non-resident taxable of the municipality, of the age of twenty-one years, or upwards who has, by the time of voting, paid all municipal taxes theretofore assessed to him and/or assessed against the property he owns at the time of the referendum election, shall be entitled to vote and shall have one vote for each dollar, or fractional part of a dollar, of taxes paid by him according to the last municipal assessment and tax payment records preceding the referendum election. The Judge of the election shall note on the outside of each ballot, before he deposits the ballot in the ballot box, the number of votes to which each voter is entitled, in accordance with municipal assessment and tax payment records.
In cases of jointly owned property, the votes of the owners of shares therein shall be in accordance with their respective shares, or if all owners appear at the polls and so consent, all of the votes may be cast by the owner of any share, except that the spouse first present at the polls may cast all the votes in reference to property held by husband and wife as tenants by the entirety. Life tenants shall have the entire vote as to the property so held, and holders of remainder interest only shall have no vote by reason thereof.
The Clerk of each municipality shall provide sufficient ballots which shall have printed thereon "For" and "Against". The election shall be conducted in conformity with the provisions governing general elections as provided in Chapter 49 of Title 15 of the Delaware Code.
Section 2. Paragraph (1) of Section 1406, Title 16, of the Delaware Code, is hereby repealed and a new paragraph (1) enacted in lieu thereof to read as follows:
(1) To have perpetual existence.
Approved January 24, 1962.