15-1-708. Taxation or imposition of fee; amount; general procedure.

(a) Notwithstanding that title to a project may be in a municipality or county, any project initiated or proceedings instituted prior to February 16, 1967, by the execution of a contract between any municipality and a lessee or proposed lessee for the acquisition of a project, are subject to taxation to the same extent, in the same manner and under the same procedures as privately owned property in similar circumstances if the projects are leased to or held by private interests on both the assessment date and the date the levy is made in any year, unless the governing body and the lessee or proposed lessee agree upon an annual fee pursuant to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section. The projects are not subject to taxation if they are not leased to or held by private interests on both the assessment date and the date the levy is made in any year. If personal property owned by a municipality or county is taxed under this section and the taxes are delinquent, levy by distress warrant for collection of the delinquent taxes may be made only on the personal property against which the taxes were levied.

(b) Projects initiated after February 16, 1967, are exempt from ad valorem taxes, but the governing body shall negotiate with the proposed lessee an annual fee in lieu of taxes, which shall fully compensate the state, the political subdivisions and other recipients of ad valorem taxes for the share each would have received had this exemption not been authorized. The annual fee, if payable to a municipality, shall be remitted by the municipality to the county treasurer of the county wherein the project is located before January 1 of the year following the year for which the fee is collected. The county treasurer shall distribute the fee together with similar fees collected from county projects to the state, the political subdivisions and other recipients of ad valorem taxes in the same manner and proportions as the ad valorem tax revenues received by the county are distributed as by law provided.