N.C. Gen. Stat. § 156-103
The board of drainage commissioners shall immediately prepare the assessment rolls or drainage tax lists, giving thereon the names of the owners of land in the district and a brief description of the several tracts of land assessed and the amount of assessment against each tract of land. The first of these assessment rolls shall be due and payable on the first Monday in September following the date of such bonds, and shall provide funds sufficient for the payment of interest on such bonds for one year. The second assessment roll shall make like provision for the payment of the interest for one year. Annual assessment rolls shall thereafter provide funds sufficient to meet the interest for one year on the issue of bonds outstanding. During the year previous to maturity of any annual installment due upon the principal of said bonds there shall be an assessment roll sufficient to provide funds for the payment of both the interest for one year and for the payment of the annual installment due upon the principal of the bonds. Such annual assessments shall be made from year to year to provide funds to meet the interest for one year and the annual installment of the principal due upon the bonds outstanding, until the whole principal due upon the outstanding bonds and the interest thereon shall be fully paid. In making up such assessment rolls there shall be included ten percent (10%) additional as provided in G.S. 156-98. Each of the assessment rolls shall specify the time when collectible and be numbered in their order, and the amounts assessed against the several tracts of land shall be in accordance with the benefits received, as shown by the classification and ratio of assessments made by the viewers. These assessment rolls shall be signed by the chairman of the board of drainage commissioners and by the secretary of the board. There shall be four copies of each of the assessment rolls, one of which shall be filed with the drainage record, one shall be filed with the chairman of the board of drainage commissioners, who shall carefully preserve the same, one shall be preserved by the clerk of the court, without change or mutilation, for the purposes of reference or comparison, and one shall be delivered to the sheriff, or other county tax collector, after the clerk of the superior court has appended thereto an order directing the collection of such assessments, and the assessments, shall thereupon have the force and effect of a judgment as in the case of State and county taxes. If the drainage commission which has assessed the lands of a drainage district prior to March 11, 1919, shall file the aforesaid four copies of assessment rolls within six months from April 1, 1919, the filing of such assessment rolls shall have the same legal effect as if filed strictly in accordance with this section immediately after the preparation of such assessment rolls. The State having authorized the creation of drainage districts and having delegated thereto the power to levy a valid tax in furtherance of the public purposes thereof, it is hereby declared that drainage districts heretofore or hereafter organized under existing law or any subsequent amendments thereto are created for a public use and are political subdivisions of the State.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 156-103