RS 33:4715.1

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RS 33:4715.1

§4715.1. Sale, sale-back, lease, sublease of public facilities as financing requirement; withholding of certain funds

A. The following terms shall have the definitions ascribed in this Subsection unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(1)"Beneficiary" shall mean any political subdivision, as defined in Article VI, Section 44 of the Constitution of Louisiana, which has lawful authority to own public facilities.

(2)"Bonds" shall mean any bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness, or other evidences of indebtedness.

(3)"Issuer" shall mean any public corporation, joint commission established under Part VII of Chapter 2 of this Title, or any public trust established pursuant to Chapter 2-A of Title 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes.

(4)"Public facilities" shall mean any building or facility that is or will be used by any parish, parish or local school board, or municipality in the state of Louisiana to house governmental and quasi-governmental agencies and officers and any other entities lawfully occupying space therein, including but not limited to courthouse and jail facilities and related administrative offices, or that is or will be used for any lawful public purpose, and all land, buildings and movable or immovable equipment incorporated therein and relating thereto.

(5)"Non-appropriation clause" shall mean a provision which shall be included in any sale, sale-back, lease, sublease, or other agreement authorized by this Section providing that the beneficiary party to such agreement shall make an annual good faith effort to appropriate funds sufficient to pay all amounts due under the agreement for the current fiscal year of such beneficiary and that such agreement is only executory to the extent that funds are so appropriated. Such agreement shall further provide that in the event of an inability to appropriate sufficient funds such inability shall not constitute a default under such agreement.

(6)"State aid" shall include any funds to be received from the state payable to any beneficiary including but not limited to revenue sharing, dedicated taxes, local assistance, or appropriations or payments from any source whatsoever.

(7)"Trustee" shall mean the trustee financial institution appointed by an issuer as, for example, the custodian of certain funds and accounts relative to the issuance of bonds and the investment of bond proceeds, and who may be charged with the duty to make principal and interest payments to holders of such bonds.

B. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law and particularly this Chapter to the contrary, any beneficiary may finance or refinance the acquisition, construction, improvement, rehabilitation, repair, or enlargement of public facilities by entering a sale, sale-back, lease, or sublease transaction or other agreement or any combination of the foregoing with any issuer under such terms and conditions as may be agreed to in order to facilitate such financing, provided any such agreement shall contain a nonappropriation clause.

Any such agreement containing a nonappropriation clause shall not constitute a debt of the beneficiary and shall not be included when calculating debt limits. The use, control and management of the public facilities shall at all times remain with the beneficiary, unless otherwise agreed by the beneficiary, and the title to any such facilities if transferred shall revert to the appropriate beneficiary no later than the date upon which the terms of any financing agreement relative to the facilities are satisfied.

This authority is granted only to facilitate the issuance of bonds by any issuer on behalf of any beneficiary in order to wholly fund or provide local matching funds for the financing, and if done in such context, no other law shall be applicable to any sale, sale-back, lease, or sublease utilized in the financing agreement.

C. Any state aid to be received by a beneficiary from the state of Louisiana during the term of any sale, sale-back or lease, sublease agreement, or other agreement may be withheld by the state treasurer from the beneficiary in an amount equal to any deficiency resulting from a failure to make payments under such agreement which shall be paid over by him immediately to the trustee appointed by the issuer of the bonds, the proceeds of which were used to provide the public facility in question.

Any such withholding of state aid shall be effected only upon the certification by the trustee to the state treasurer that the beneficiary has failed to make such payment, which certificate shall set forth the exact amount of payment required to satisfy the obligations of such beneficiary and the date such payment was due. Such certificate must be received by the state treasurer before withholding any state aid. Any payment by the state treasurer to the trustee as set forth herein shall be deemed to be a proper discharge of the appropriation of such state aid, and the state treasurer may agree directly with any issuer to so withhold state aid.

D. Upon approval by a majority of the electors voting at an election held for that purpose the full faith and credit of any beneficiary authorized by law to do so otherwise may be pledged as security for any bonds.

Acts 1987, No. 309, §2, eff. July 5, 1987; Acts 1988, No. 960, §1, eff. July 27, 1988.