If the percentages specified in § 22a-256z are not achieved by directory publishers as a group on the dates specified, in any year, as shown by reports submitted to the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection in accordance with § 22a-256bb, each such publisher individually shall meet the percentages established in said § 22a-256z for the remaining years. Beginning in the year following the failure of such publishers, as a group, to achieve such levels, any publisher which individually fails to meet the specified levels shall pay an assessment of five dollars per ton based on the number of tons of recycled fiber representing the shortfall, provided such assessment shall not be less than two thousand five hundred dollars and not more than one hundred thousand dollars.