Article 14
Plan, Program and Budgets
Section 14.1.--Comprehensive Plan. The commission shall develop and adopt, and may from time to time review and revise, a comprehensive plan for the immediate and long range development and use of the water resources of the basin.
The plan shall include all public and private projects and facilities which are required, in the judgment of the commission, for the optimum planning, development, conservation, utilization, management and control of the water resources of the basin to meet present and future needs. The commission may adopt a comprehensive plan or any revision thereof in such part or parts as it may deem appropriate, provided that before the adoption of the plan or any part or revision thereof the commission shall consult with water users and interested public bodies and public utilities and shall consider and give due regard to the findings and recommendations of the various agencies of the signatory parties, their political subdivisions and interested groups. The commission shall conduct public hearings upon due notice given with respect to the comprehensive plan prior to the adoption of the plan or any part of the revision thereof, except that public and private projects and facilities which, in the judgment of the commission, are not required for the optimum planning, development, conservation, utilization, management and control of the water resources of the basin and which, in the judgment of the commission, will not significantly affect the water resources of the basin, may be added directly to the comprehensive plan at any time at the discretion of the commission without public hearing thereon. The comprehensive plan shall take into consideration the effect of the plan or any part thereof upon the receiving waters of Chesapeake Bay.
14.2.--Water Resources Program. The commission shall annually adopt a water resources program, based upon the comprehensive plan, consisting of the projects and facilities which the commission proposes to be undertaken by the commission and by other authorized governmental and private agencies, organizations and persons during the ensuing six years or such other reasonably forseeable period as the commission may determine. The water resources program shall include a systematic presentation of:
1. The quantity and quality of water resources needs for such period;
2. The existing and proposed projects and facilities required to satisfy such needs, including all public and private projects to be anticipated; and
3. A separate statement of the projects proposed to be undertaken by the commission during such period.
14.3.--Annual Current Expense and Capital Budgets.
(a) The commission shall annually adopt a capital budget including all capital projects it proposes to undertake or continue during the budget period containing a statement of the estimated cost of each project and the method of financing thereof.
(b) The commission shall annually adopt a current expense budget for each fiscal year. Such budget shall include the commission's estimated expenses for administration, operation, maintenance, and repairs, including a separate statement thereof for each project, together with its cost allocation. The total of such expenses shall be balanced by the commission's estimated revenues from all sources, including the cost allocations undertaken by any of the signatory parties in connection with any project. Following the adoption of the annual current expense budget by the commission, the executive director of the commission shall:
1. Certify to the respective signatory parties the amounts due in accordance with existing cost sharing established for each project; and
2. Transmit certified copies of such budget to the principal budget officer of the respective signatory parties at such time and in such manner as may be required under their respective budgetary procedures. The amount required to balance the current expense budget in addition to the aggregate amount of item 1 above and all other revenues available to the commission shall be apportioned equitably among the signatory parties by unanimous vote of the commission, and the amount of such apportionment to each signatory party shall be certified together with the budget.
(c) The respective signatory parties covenant and agree to include the amounts so apportioned for the support of the current expense budget in their respective budgets next to be adopted, subject to such review and approval as may be required by their respective budgetary processes. Such amounts shall be due and payable to the commission in quarterly installments during its fiscal year, provided that the commission may draw upon its working capital to finance its current expense budget pending remittance by the signatory parties.