1.    Whenever a facility liable to pay an assessment or penalty imposed refuses or neglects to pay the same, the amount, including any interest, penalty, or addition to the assessment, together with the costs that may accrue, is a lien in favor of this state upon all property and rights to property, whether real or personal, belonging to the facility. In the case of property in which a deceased owner, officer, or manager of a facility held an interest as joint tenant or otherwise with right of survivorship at the time of death, the lien continues as a lien against the property in the hands of the survivor or survivors to the extent of the deceased owner’s, officer’s, or manager’s interest, which interest must be determined by dividing the value of the entire property at the time of the officer’s or manager’s death by the number of joint tenants or persons interested therein.

2.    The lien attaches at the time the assessment becomes due and payable and continues until the liability for the amount is satisfied. For the purposes of this subsection, the words “due” and “due and payable” mean the first instant the assessment becomes due.

3.    A mortgagee, purchaser, judgment creditor, or lien claimant acquiring an interest in, or lien on, any property situated in the state, prior to the commissioner filing in the central indexing system maintained by the secretary of state, a notice of the lien provided for in section 57-39.2-12, takes free of, or has priority over, the lien.

4.    The commissioner shall index in the central indexing system the following data:

a.    The name of the facility.

b.    The name “State of North Dakota” as claimant.

c.    The date and time the notice of lien was indexed. d.    The amount of the lien.

e.    The internal revenue service taxpayer identification number of the facility or the social security number of the owner, officer, or manager of the facility.

The notice of lien is effective as of eight a.m. the next day following the indexing of the notice. A notice of lien filed by the commissioner may be indexed in the central indexing system without changing its original priority as to property in the county where the lien was filed.

5.    The commissioner is exempt from the payment of the filing fees as otherwise provided by law for the indexing of the notice of lien, or for its satisfaction.

6.    Upon payment of the assessment as to which the commissioner has indexed notice in the central indexing system, the commissioner shall index a satisfaction of the lien in the central indexing system.

7.    Upon the request of the commissioner, the attorney general shall bring an action at law or in equity, as the facts may justify, without bond, to enforce payment of any assessments and any penalties, or to foreclose the lien in the manner provided for mortgages on real or personal property. The state’s attorney of the county in which the action is pending shall assist the attorney general.

8.    The remedies of this section are cumulative. Action taken by the commissioner or attorney general may not be construed to be an election on the part of the state or any    of its officers to pursue any remedy hereunder to the exclusion of any other remedy provided by law.

9.    The technical, legal requirements in this section relating to assessment liens on all real and personal property of the officer or manager of the facility to ensure payment of the assessment, including penalties, interest, and other costs, are self-explanatory.