June 15, 2010, Introduced by Senators JELINEK and SWITALSKI and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
A bill to amend 1985 PA 227, entitled
"Shared credit rating act,"
by amending sections 7 and 8 (MCL 141.1057 and 141.1058), as
amended by 2005 PA 93.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 7. The board has all of the following powers:
(a) To adopt bylaws for the regulation of its affairs.
(b) To adopt an official seal.
(c) To maintain a principal office at a place within this
state.
(d) To sue and be sued in its own name and to plead and be
impleaded.
(e) To loan money to a governmental unit, or to a nonprofit
corporation, trust, or similar entity for the benefit of a public
school academy, at a rate or rates as the authority determines and
to purchase and sell, and to commit to purchase and sell, municipal
obligations pursuant to this act.
(f) To borrow money and issue negotiable revenue bonds and
notes pursuant to this act.
(g) To make and enter into contracts and other instruments
necessary or incidental to the performance of its duties and the
exercise of its powers. By rotating the services of legal counsel,
the authority shall seek to increase the pool of nationally
recognized bond counsel.
(h) To receive and accept from any source grants or
contributions of money, property, or other things of value,
excluding appropriations from the general fund of this state except
for appropriations to be used for the benefit of public schools,
except for appropriations to a reserve fund established under
section 16, except for appropriations to the state water pollution
control revolving fund established under section 16a and except for
appropriations to the state drinking water revolving fund
established under section 16b, and except for appropriations to the
school loan revolving fund established under section 16c, to be
used, held, and applied only for the purposes for which the grants
and contributions were made.
(i) To do all acts necessary or convenient to carry out the
powers expressly granted.
(j) To require that final actions of the board are entered in
the journal for the board and that all writings prepared, owned,
used, in the possession of, or retained by the board in the
performance of an official function be made available to the public
in compliance with the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 442, MCL
15.231 to 15.246.
(k) To engage the services of private consultants on a
contract basis for rendering professional and technical assistance
and advice.
(l) To investigate and assess the infrastructure needs of this
state, current methods of financing infrastructure rehabilitation
and improvements, and resources and financing options currently
available and potentially useful to improve this state's
infrastructure and lower the costs of those improvements.
(m) To indemnify and procure insurance indemnifying members of
the board from personal loss or accountability from liability
asserted by a person on bonds or notes of the authority or from any
personal liability or accountability by reason of the issuance of
the bonds or notes, or by reason of any other action taken or the
failure to act by the authority.
(n) To investigate and assess short-term and long-term
borrowing requirements for operating, capital improvements, and
delinquent taxes.
(o) To provide assistance, as that term is defined in section
5301 of the natural resources and environmental protection act,
1994 PA 451, MCL 324.5301, to any municipality for a revolving fund
project and to perform all functions necessary or incident to
providing that assistance and to the operation of the state water
pollution control revolving fund established under section 16a.
(p) To enter into agreements with the federal government to
implement the establishment and operation of the state water
pollution control revolving fund established under section 16a
pursuant to the provisions of the federal water pollution control
act and the rules and regulations promulgated under that act.
(q) To provide assistance, as that term is defined in part 54
of the natural resources and environmental protection act, 1994 PA
451, MCL 324.5401 to 324.5418, to any governmental unit for a
revolving fund community water supply or noncommunity water supply
and to perform all functions necessary or incident to providing
that assistance and to the operation of the state drinking water
revolving fund established under section 16b, including, but not
limited to, using funding allocated in the federal safe drinking
water act for any of the purposes authorized in section 5417(c) of
the natural resources and environmental protection act, 1994 PA
451, MCL 324.5417.
(r) To enter into agreements with the federal government to
establish and operate the state drinking water revolving fund under
section 16b pursuant to the provisions of the federal safe drinking
water act and the rules and regulations promulgated under that act.
(s) To enter into agreements with the state treasurer to act
as this state's agent to implement the establishment and operation
of the school loan revolving fund established under section 16c,
including provisions relating to the return to this state of
contributions made by this state for deposit in the school loan
revolving fund that are no longer needed for school loan revolving
fund purposes and the assignment to this state of loans and loan
repayments made from or payable to the school loan revolving fund.
Sec. 8. (1) The authority may lend money to a governmental
unit through the purchase by the authority of municipal obligations
of the governmental unit in fully marketable form. The authority
may authorize and issue its bonds or notes payable solely from the
revenues or funds available to the authority, and to otherwise
assist governmental units.
(2) Bonds and notes of the authority shall not be in any way a
debt or liability of this state and shall not create or constitute
any indebtedness, liability, or obligations of this state or be or
constitute a pledge of the faith and credit of this state but all
authority bonds and notes, unless funded or refunded by bonds or
notes of the authority, shall be payable solely from revenues or
funds pledged or available for their payment as authorized in this
act. Each bond and note shall contain on its face a statement to
the effect that the authority is obligated to pay the principal of
and the interest on the bond or note only from revenues or funds of
the authority and that this state is not obligated to pay the
principal or interest and that neither the faith and credit nor the
taxing power of this state is pledged to the payment of the
principal of or the interest on the bond or note.
(3) All expenses incurred in carrying out this act shall be
payable solely from revenues or funds provided or to be provided
under the provisions of this act, and nothing in this act shall be
construed to authorize the authority to incur any indebtedness or
liability on behalf of or payable by this state.
(4) Unless approved by a concurrent resolution of the
legislature and except as permitted by section 16a, 16b, or 16c,
the authority shall not provide preferential treatment in the rate
of interest for a particular municipal obligation purchased by the
authority that is based upon other than financial and credit
considerations and shall not forgive or relinquish all or part of
the interest or principal of a particular municipal obligation or
of municipal obligations of a particular purpose.
(5) The authority may purchase bonds issued by school
districts
that are qualified bonds under a school loan act. Except
as
provided in subsection (6), the principal amount of the
qualified
bonds purchased by the authority in any calendar year
shall
not exceed 7.5% of the principal amount of qualified bonds
issued
by school districts in the immediately preceding calendar
year.
The authority may also purchase or
accept by assignment from
this state municipal obligations that are loan repayment
obligations from a school district on a qualified loan made by this
state under a school loan act. Municipal obligations acquired by
the authority under this subsection are not required to be in fully
marketable form.
(6) In addition to qualified bonds purchased under subsection
(5), the authority may purchase qualified bonds issued by school
districts not later than September 30, 2004 to obtain funds to
repay all or a portion of the outstanding balance of a loan under
former
1961 PA 108, MCL
388.951 to 388.963, on the terms
and
conditions and subject to the requirements provided by or pursuant
to a resolution of the authority. Bonds issued by the authority to
purchase school district qualified bonds under this subsection
shall be issued in an amount sufficient to provide and pay the
reasonable costs of issuance incurred by the school districts as
determined by or pursuant to a resolution of the authority.