§ 23e

The board of trustees of any district organized under this Act is authorized to acquire by purchase or condemnation, or to construct, maintain and operate, or improve and extend, or any combination of such purposes, a combined waterworks and sewerage system either within or without the corporate limits of the district, and to issue and sell revenue bonds to pay the cost thereof. Such revenue bonds may be issued in such amounts as may be necessary to provide sufficient funds to pay all project costs, including engineering, legal and other necessary expenses, together with interest to a date of 6 months subsequent to the estimated date of completion of construction, and to establish a bond reserve fund and also for reimbursing or paying the costs and expenses of creating the district, and such bonds shall be payable solely from the income and revenues derived from the operation of the combined waterworks and sewerage system of the district. The board of trustees may also from time to time issue revenue bonds to refund any bonds at or prior to maturity. All such bonds shall be authorized by ordinance to be adopted by the board of trustees, shall bear such date or dates, mature at such time or times not exceeding 40 years from their respective dates, may bear interest at such rate or rates not exceeding the greater of (i) the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, or (ii) 8% per annum, payable semi-annually, may be in such form, may carry such registration privileges, may be executed in such manner, may be payable at such place or places, may be subject to redemption in such manner, and upon such terms with or without premium as is stated on the face thereof, and may be executed in such manner by such officers of such district, and may contain such terms and covenants, all as provided by the ordinance authorizing their issue. The ordinance authorizing the issuance of the bonds shall describe in a general way the contemplated project. It shall not be necessary that the ordinance refer to plans and specifications nor that there be on file for public inspection prior to the adoption of such ordinance detailed plans and specifications of the project. Such ordinance shall also set out the total estimated cost of the project, fix the amount of the bonds proposed to be issued, the maturity or maturities, the interest rate and all details in respect thereof. Such bonds shall be sold in such manner as the board of trustees shall determine, and if issued to bear interest at the rate of the greater of (i) the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, or (ii) 8% per annum, shall be sold for not less than par and accrued interest. However, the selling price of any bonds bearing less than the greater of (i) the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, or (ii) 8% interest shall be such that the interest cost of the money received from the sale of the bonds shall not exceed the greater of (i) the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, or (ii) 8% per annum, computed to absolute maturity, according to standard tables of bond values. Notwithstanding the form or tenor thereof, and in the absence of expressed recitals on the face thereof that the bonds are non-negotiable, all such bonds shall be negotiable instruments. To secure payment of any and all of such bonds such ordinance shall set forth the covenants and undertakings of the district in connection with the issuance thereof and the application of the revenues and the issuance of additional bonds payable from the revenues to be derived from the operation of the combined waterworks and sewerage properties of such district, as well as the use and operation thereof. In case any officer whose signature appears on the bonds or coupons attached thereto shall cease to be such officer before the delivery of the bonds to the purchaser, such signature shall nevertheless be valid and sufficient for all purposes to the same effect as if he had remained in office until the delivery of the bonds. Under no circumstances shall any bonds issued or any other obligation incurred under this Section by a district be or become an indebtedness or an obligation of the district payable from taxes nor in any event shall any bonds issued or any other obligation incurred under this Section by a district constitute an indebtedness of such district within the meaning of any constitutional provisions or limitations, and such fact shall be plainly stated on the face of each bond. With respect to instruments for the payment of money issued under this Section either before, on, or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1989, it is and always has been the intention of the General Assembly (i) that the Omnibus Bond Acts are and always have been supplementary grants of power to issue instruments in accordance with the Omnibus Bond Acts, regardless of any provision of this Act that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts, (ii) that the provisions of this Section are not a limitation on the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts, and (iii) that instruments issued under this Section within the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts are not invalid because of any provision of this Act that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 86-4.)