P.R. Laws tit. 22, § 260e
There is hereby created a committee composed of the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be its Chairman, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Executive Director of the Electric Power Authority, and a bona fide water user of the South Coast Irrigation District to be appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico.
The said Committee shall, when it deems it necessary in view of the prevailing circumstances at any time in the South Coast Irrigation District, report to and advise the Legislature on the following:
(a) The amount of the irrigation tax to be levied in any fiscal year on each acre of land included in the South Coast Irrigation District;
(b) the financial and budgetary conditions of the South Coast Irrigation District;
(c) the capacity of the landowners composing the Irrigation District to pay in whole or only a part of the irrigation tax resulting from the apportionment or assessment roll established in this act;
(d) such factors of an economic and agricultural nature that may lead to a fair and reasonable evaluation of the maximum irrigation tax that should be paid so as not to become a burden that might impair the economic operation of the lands under irrigation, and
(e) the necessary amount of government contribution which as a subsidy or aid should be tendered annually to said landowners by the Commonwealth so as to reduce the irrigation tax resulting from the apportionment or assessment roll established, to balance the annual budget of the South Coast Irrigation Service.
Said Committee shall hold such meetings and public hearings as it may deem necessary and shall gather all such data and information as it may consider useful and necessary to the end of fulfilling adequately the above-mentioned information and advisory functions to the Legislature.
For the purposes that the Legislature be in a position of considering again the subsidies and deductions granted under § 260c of this title, the Committee shall render a report with its recommendations to the Legislature not later than October 31, 1974.
The Legislature, after considering the recommendations and advice of the said Committee, shall take the proper measures to establish the irrigation tax to be collected in any fiscal year on the tracts of land integrating the South Coast Irrigation District, as well as the necessary government contribution which, as a subsidy or aid to the landowners of said District, should be made annually to the Irrigation Fund.
History —Aug. 8, 1913, No. 128, p. 54, added as § 11-E on June 18, 1965, No. 54, p. 97, § 6; renumbered as § 11-C and amended on Dec. 26, 1966, No. 3, p. 10, § 3; June 27, 1969, No. 98, p. 270, § 1.