Board of Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Taxpayers

396 So. 2d 502, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 3666
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 10, 1981
DocketNo. 12213
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 396 So. 2d 502 (Board of Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Taxpayers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Commissioners of Orleans Levee District v. Taxpayers, 396 So. 2d 502, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 3666 (La. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

CHEHARDY, Judge.

Plaintiff, Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District (Levee Board), appeals a December 9, 1980 trial court judgment decreeing that plaintiff’s motion for judgment was denied and further declaring the sale of Marina Bonds, Series 1980A invalid, all at the plaintiff’s costs. Interve-nors, The State of Louisiana, Save Our Wetlands, Inc., and Arthur Nead, had opposed the Levee Board’s motion for judgment on various legal grounds.

It is uncontested that on August 20,1980 the Levee Board passed a resolution authorizing the issuance of the aforementioned bonds in the amount of $31,080,000 to provide the funds necessary for the development and construction of a marina to be located on Lake Pontchartrain adjacent to the Orleans Lakefront Airport. The ordinance stated that the interest to be charged on the bonds was to be fixed at a rate, not to exceed 12%, to be set at the time of sale. It was also established that the bonds were to be sold at one time or in blocks from time to time by sealed bids or by negotiation at the discretion of the Levee Board’s president. The ordinance also authorized the Levee Board to obtain bond insurance and to pay the premiums for this insurance from the proceeds of the sale. It is undis[504]*504puted that the bonds were to be payable from the revenues of the proposed marina together with the proceeds of taxes to the extent they are available after payment of all prior issued bonds also secured by those taxes.

The judgment of the trial court should be affirmed. We find that the reasons for judgment set forth by Judge Plotkin are well stated and parallel our reasons for affirming.

Accordingly, we adopt the trial court’s Reasons for Judgment as our own:

“The Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District, a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana created by the Louisiana Constitution, brings this motion for judgment to establish the validity of Marina Bonds, Series 1980 A, in the principal sum of $31,080,000.00.

“The Board purposes to raise this sum by issuing ‘General Obligation Bonds’, payable out of revenues from the marina and from ad valorem tax proceeds. The entire issue is to be insured guaranteeing AAA bond rating and payment.

“Intervenors, the State of Louisiana, Save Our Wetlands, Inc., and Arthur Nead, oppose the motion for judgment upon numerous legal grounds.

“The Levee Board does have the authority to develop, operate and maintain a marina. In 1970 the Louisiana Legislature enacted R.S. 38:281, entitled ‘Public Works & Improvements’, clearly conferring on the Levee Board the power to construct a marina.

“‘C. The levee boards of this state * * * may perform recreational functions and use therefor any funds made available to them for such purpose. * * * [T]he boards may develop, operate and maintain recreational areas and for such purposes * * * may construct, operate and repair buildings, ramps, marinas and other facilities and equipment common to a recreational area. * * *’ (Emphasis ours).

“This specific authority is conferred by the Legislature upon the Orleans Levee Board in Part XIX R.S. 38:1235.1(C) which states:

‘In the planning, designing, and executing of a project, the board shall have jurisdiction, power, and authority, within the territorial limits of the project, to dedicate to public use and to lay out, construct, embellish, and maintain a system of parks, beaches, tracts of lands, and streets, with the necessary and related or unrelated buildings, and the usual adjuncts to the kind of development contemplated hereunder; to construct and equip and maintain playgrounds, places of amusement, and entertainment, golf links, gymnasiums, swimming pools, bathing beaches, aviation fields, and other like places.’

“The Levee Board claims the authority to issue bonds as stated in Art. VI, Part III, Section 40 of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution:

‘(A) Authorization. Subject to approval by the State Bond Commission or its successor, the governing authority of a levee district may fund the proceeds of its taxes or other revenues into bonds or other evidences of indebtedness. Proceeds thus derived shall be used for the purposes mentioned in Part III of this Article or for the funding or payment of any outstanding indebtedness.
‘(B) Sale. Bonds issued under the authority of Paragraph (A) shall be sold as provided by law concerning the issuance of bonds by levee districts.’

“The above article authorizes the Board to issue bonds without the necessity of any Legislative Act in order to fund its purposes.

“The Board has designed these bonds so that the revenues from the proposed marina will amortize the bonds when they become due. They propose a secondary pledge of the proceeds of the tax provided by Section 39, Article VI, of the Louisiana 1974 Constitution:

‘(A) District Tax; Millage Limit. For the purpose of constructing and maintaining levees, levee drainage, flood pro[505]*505tection, hurricane flood protection, and for all other purposes incidental thereto, the governing authority of a levee district may levy annually a tax not to exceed five mills, except the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District which may levy annually a tax not to exceed two and one-half mills, on the dollar of the assessed valuation of all taxable property situated within the alluvial portions of the district subject to overflow.
‘(B) Millage Increase. If the necessity to raise additional funds arises in any levee district for any purpose set forth in Paragraph (A), or for any other purpose related to its authorized powers and functions as specified by law, the tax may be increased. However, the necessity and the rate of the increase shall be submitted to the electors of the district, and the tax increase shall take effect only if approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon in an election held for that purpose.’

“The primary function of the Orleans Levee Board is the protection of the residents of New Orleans by constructing and maintaining levees, levee drainage, flood and hurricane protection. To this end, the Board is constitutionally permitted to issue bonds without voter approval, and pledge their taxes.

“The authority to construct and operate a marina is a secondary function of the Orleans Levee Board, authorized by the Louisiana Legislature. The ‘any other purpose related to its authorized powers’, does not include marinas. This secondary purpose, being recreational in nature, does not allow the Board, as their authority for a bond issue, to use Sections 39 and 40 of Article VI of the Louisiana Constitution.

“Therefore, the Board must look to Part II, Financing of Local Governments, Sections 26 through 37, for the authority to issue these bonds.

“Article VI, Section 37 of Part II, entitled, ‘Revenue-Producing Property’, reads as follows:

‘(A) Authorization. The legislature by law may authorize political subdivisions to issue bonds or other debt obligations to construct, acquire, extend, or improve any revenue-producing public utility or work of public improvement. The bonds or other debt obligations may be secured by mortgage on the lands, buildings, machinery, and equipment or by the pledge of the income and revenues of the public utility or work of public improvement.

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Related

City of New Orleans v. BOARD OF COM'RS, ORLEANS LEVEE DIST.
612 So. 2d 318 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1993)
Board of Commissioners v. All Taxpayers of Orleans Levee District
400 So. 2d 667 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)

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396 So. 2d 502, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 3666, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-commissioners-of-orleans-levee-district-v-taxpayers-lactapp-1981.