7-2-2244. Role of commission. (1) (a) Said board of commissioners shall, immediately after its organization:

(i) ascertain the costs of the election held hereunder and apportion the same pro rata among each of the counties from which territory was taken to form such new county;

(ii) ascertain the indebtedness of each county from which territory was taken to form the new county as the same existed at the time when the result of the election was declared by the board of county commissioners as hereinbefore provided;

(iii) ascertain the total value of all property at the time belonging to each of said counties from which territory was taken and situated within the limits of said old counties, respectively; and

(iv) ascertain the assessed value of all property in each of the original old counties from which territory was so taken, according to the last-completed assessment made for said county, and also the assessed value, under the same assessment, of all property within the territory of the new county which shall have been taken from the old county or counties from which said new county was formed.

(b) In the determination of the value of county property, all buildings and their furniture, real estate, road tools, machinery, and all steel bridges which may have been constructed and in use for a period less than 10 years shall be taken into consideration by the commissioners.

(2) They shall then find the difference between the amount of the indebtedness of the old county and the value of the property belonging to the old county at the date of the declaration of the result of said election, as hereinbefore provided, and if such indebtedness exceeds the value of such property belonging to the old county, the new county shall pay to the old county a due proportion thereof, to be determined as follows: as said assessed value of the property in the old county is to the assessed value of the property in the territory to be incorporated by this part within the new county from said old county, so is the amount of said excess to the amount to be paid by said new county to said old county.