A. In order to provide additional funds for the payment of salaries of teachers and other personnel employed in the public elementary and secondary schools of Orleans Parish or for the purpose of maintaining and operating the public elementary and secondary schools of Orleans Parish or for the purpose of providing funds to pay for capital improvements of the public school system of Orleans Parish, or any combination of the above, including the acquisition of lands for building sites and playgrounds, purchasing, erecting and improving school buildings and related facilities and acquiring the necessary equipment and furnishings therefor, or for any one or more of said purposes, the Orleans Parish School Board is hereby authorized to levy and collect an additional sales and use tax not in excess of one-half of one percent within the parish of Orleans, as hereinafter set forth.
B. The sales and use tax so levied shall be imposed by an ordinance or resolution of the Orleans Parish School Board and shall be levied upon the sale at retail, the use, the lease or rental, the consumption, and the storage for use or consumption, of tangible personal property and on sales of services in the parish of Orleans, all as presently defined in R.S. 47:301 through 318; however, the ordinance or resolution imposing said tax shall be adopted by the school board only after the question of the imposition of the tax shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the parish of Orleans at an election conducted in accordance with the general election laws of the state of Louisiana on the same date as the election provided for in R.S. 47:338.108, and a majority of those voting in said election on the question shall have voted in favor of the imposition of such tax. In addition, the proposition to be submitted to the qualified electors may also include provisions authorizing the funding of the additional sales tax into bonds, subject to the limitations hereinafter set forth. The proposition approved at the election shall constitute a full and complete dedication of the avails or proceeds of said tax and its provisions shall control the expenditure thereof. In the event the tax is so voted, the board shall have complete authority to levy and to provide for the collection of the tax within the parish of Orleans and to provide for all procedural details necessary in the imposition, collection and enforcement thereof. All costs of conducting the election required by this Section shall be borne by the Orleans Parish School Board.
C. This tax shall be in addition to all other taxes and shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner and pursuant to the definitions, practices, and procedures set forth in R.S. 47:301 through 318, or in such other manner as may be set forth by the Orleans Parish School Board in the ordinance or resolution imposing said tax. However, the Orleans Parish School Board shall have the right to contract with the city of New Orleans, the State Department of Revenue, or any other public agency authorized to collect a sales and use tax for the collection of the said additional sales tax jointly with the sales and use tax of such other agency.
D. The proceeds of the tax herein authorized shall be used exclusively to supplement other revenues available to the Orleans Parish School Board for the payment of salaries of teachers and other personnel employed in the public elementary and secondary schools of Orleans Parish or for the expenses of maintaining and operating the public elementary and secondary schools of Orleans Parish or for the purpose of providing funds to pay for capital improvements of the public school system of Orleans Parish, or any combination of the above, including the acquisition of lands for building sites and playgrounds, purchasing, erecting and improving school buildings and related facilities and acquiring the necessary equipment and furnishings therefor, or for the payment of principal and interest on any bonds issued pursuant to the authority contained herein, or both, or for any one or more of said purposes.
E. Nothing contained in this Section shall be construed to affect the purposes for which the proceeds of any sales tax authorized or levied prior to January 1, 1980, shall be used, and the disposition of the proceeds of sales taxes heretofore authorized or levied by the Orleans Parish School Board shall be made in accordance with the authorization under which such tax was levied and is being collected.
F. The funds raised by the Orleans Parish School Board pursuant to the provisions of this Section shall not be considered by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education or by the state Department of Education in the application of the state equalization formula or the distribution of proceeds of any other kind or nature by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the state Department of Education.
G. Subject to the approval at an election as hereinbefore required the Orleans Parish School Board is hereby authorized to fund into bonds the estimated proceeds or avails of said one-half of one percent sales and use tax, which proceeds or avails are hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "additional sales tax revenues," in order to obtain funds for the purposes of paying all or any part of the cost of any capital improvements, including the acquisition of lands and building sites and playgrounds, purchasing, erecting and improving school buildings and related facilities, the cost of maintaining and repairing the same, and acquiring the necessary equipment and furnishings therefor. The bonds authorized to be funded herein shall contain the following provisions, terms and conditions, and shall be in the form hereinafter set forth:
(1) The Orleans Parish School Board, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "board", shall, by resolution, fix the form, denomination and terms of the bonds and the rate or rates of interest, payable annually or semiannually. The bonds shall be designated "Orleans Parish Public School Sales and Use Tax Bonds," shall be issued in the name of the board, and shall be payable in such medium and at such place or places within or without the state as may be fixed by such resolution. The bonds shall be serial coupon bonds, shall be payable in annual installments with maturities beginning not more than three years after the date of the bonds, and shall run for a period not to exceed forty years from the date thereof. No bonds issued hereunder shall be sold for less than par. All bonds shall be signed by the president and the secretary of the board, one of whose signatures may be a facsimile signature, under its official seal, impressed, printed, engraved, stamped or otherwise placed in facsimile therein, and the coupons shall be signed by the facsimile signatures of such officials. The delivery of any bonds or coupons so executed at any time thereafter shall be valid, although before the date of delivery, any person or persons signing the bonds or coupons shall cease to hold office. The maturities of the bonds shall be so arranged that the total amount of principal and interest falling due in any year, together with principal and interest falling due in such year on all bonds theretofore issued hereunder, and then outstanding, shall never exceed seventy-five percent of the amount of additional sales tax revenues estimated by the board to be received by it in the calendar year in which the bonds are issued, except that if bonds are issued in the calendar year in which the additional sales and use tax is being levied for the first time, the amount estimated by the board to be received by it shall be for the first full calendar year following the calendar year in which the bonds are issued.
(2) Bonds issued hereunder shall constitute a borrowing solely upon the credit of the additional sales and use tax revenues received or to be received by the board, and shall not constitute an indebtedness or pledge of the general credit of the board within the meaning of any constitutional or statutory provisions relating to the incurring of indebtedness, and the bonds shall contain a recital to that effect. Such bonds shall be in coupon form but may be made registrable as to principal only or as to both principal and interest if so provided in the resolution authorizing the issuance thereof. They may be made redeemable in advance of maturity at the option of the board at par or at such premium or premiums as the board may determine.
(3) Bonds issued hereunder shall be payable solely from and secured by an irrevocable pledge and dedication of all or such part of the additional sales tax revenues as may be pledged thereto in the authorizing resolution. Any holder of any of such bonds, or coupons attached thereto, may either at law or in equity, by suit, action, mandamus or other proceeding, enforce and compel performance of all duties required to be performed by the board as a result of issuing the bonds, and may similarly enforce the provisions of the ordinance imposing the tax and the resolution and proceedings authorizing the issuance of such bonds.
(4) The board may, in any resolution authorizing such bonds, provide for the respective priorities of its separate blocks, series or issues of bonds issued hereunder, and may provide for the issuance of additional bonds in the future on a parity therewith pursuant to such procedure or restrictions as may be specified in such resolution. In the absence of such provision, if more than one series of bonds shall be issued hereunder payable from the same additional sales tax revenues, priority of lien on such revenues shall depend on the time of the delivery of such bonds, each series enjoying a lien prior and superior to that enjoyed by any series of bonds subsequently delivered, except that as to any issue or series of bonds which may be authorized as a unit but delivered from time to time in blocks, the board may in the proceedings authorizing the issuance of such bonds provide that all of the bonds of such series or issue shall be coequal as to lien regardless of the time of delivery; provided that nothing herein stated shall vest in any holder of bonds any right of lien or priority of any kind against any part of the additional sales tax revenues not pledged to the payment of the bonds by the proceedings authorizing the issuance thereof.
(5) When any bonds shall have been issued hereunder, neither the legislature, the board, nor any other authority may discontinue or decrease the tax, or permit to be discontinued or decreased the tax, in anticipation of the collection of which such bonds have been issued, or in any way make any change in the allocation and dedication of the proceeds of such tax which would diminish the amount of the additional sales tax revenues to be received by the board, until all of such bonds shall have been retired as to principal and interest, and there is hereby vested in the holders from time to time of such bonds and the coupons representing interest thereon, a contract right in the provisions of this Section.
(6) Any resolution may contain such covenants with the future holder or holders of the bonds as to the additional sales tax revenues, the disposition of such revenues, the issuance of future bonds, and such other pertinent matters as may be deemed necessary by the board to assure the marketability of such bonds, provided such covenants are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Section.
(7) Any resolution authorizing the issuance of bonds hereunder may contain such provisions to assure the enforcement, collection and proper application of the additional sales tax revenues as the board may think proper, where not inconsistent with the provisions of this Section, and when any bonds payable from the tax revenues shall have been issued, this Section, the ordinance or resolution of the board imposing the additional sales tax and pursuant to which the tax is being levied, collected and allocated, and the obligations of the board to continue to levy, collect and allocate the tax, and to apply the revenues derived therefrom in accordance with the provisions of said ordinance or resolution and this Section, shall be irrevocable until such bonds have been paid in full as to principal and interest, and shall not be subject to amendment in any manner which would impair the rights of the holders from time to time of such bonds or which would in any way jeopardize the prompt payment of principal thereof and interest thereon.
(8) All bonds issued hereunder shall be advertised for sale on sealed bids, and the notice calling for bids must be published at least two times before the date scheduled for the receipt of bids for the securities in a newspaper of general circulation published in the parish of Orleans and in a financial journal or newspaper containing a section devoted to municipal bonds news published in the city of New York, New York. The first publication must be at least fourteen days prior to the date scheduled for the receipt of bids for the securities, and the second publication must be at least five clear calendar days subsequent to the first publication and at least seven clear calendar days in advance of the date scheduled for the receipt of bids for the securities. The board may reject any and all bids. If the bonds are not sold pursuant to the advertisement, they may be sold by the board at private sale, within sixty days after the date advertised for the reception of sealed bids, but no private sale shall be made at a price less than the highest bid which shall have been received. If not so sold, the bonds shall be readvertised in the manner herein prescribed.
(9) The proceeds derived from the sale of bonds issued hereunder shall be used exclusively by the board for the purposes for which the bonds are authorized to be issued but the purchasers of the bonds shall not be obligated to see the application thereof.
(10) Before bonds are issued hereunder, the board shall investigate and determine the regularity of the proceedings. The resolution authorizing the bonds may direct that they contain the following recital:
"It is certified that this bond is authorized by and is issued in conformity with the requirements of the constitution and statutes of this state."
Such recital shall be deemed to be an authorized declaration of the board and to import that there is legal authority for issuing the bonds and imposing the tax; that all the proceedings therefor are regular; that all acts, conditions and things required to exist, happen and be performed precedent to and in the issuance of the bonds and the imposition of the tax have existed, have happened and have been performed in due time, form and manner as required by law; that the amount of the bonds, together with all other indebtedness of the board does not exceed any limit or limits prescribed by the constitution or statutes of this state; and that the required notices have been duly and regularly given by publication in the manner required by law. If any bonds are issued containing the above recital, the same shall be construed according to the import herein declared, and it shall be conclusively presumed that the recital is true, and neither the board nor any taxpayer shall be permitted to question the validity or regularity of the bonds, obligations or tax in any court or in any action or proceeding.
(11) After the time within which the validity of the bonds may be contested has elapsed, that is, thirty days from the date of publication of the resolution authorizing the bonds and pledging and dedicating the sales tax revenues, the bonds shall be registered with the secretary of state without charge and shall have endorsed thereon the words:
"Incontestable. Secured by a pledge and dedication of an additional sales and use tax in the parish of Orleans, Louisiana. Registered this _____ day of __________, 20___.
____________________________
Secretary of State"
All bonds issued under the provisions of this Section and the interest thereon shall be exempt from taxation. Said bonds may be used for deposit with any officer, board, municipality or other political subdivision of the state of Louisiana in any case where deposit of security is required.
(12) The provisions of this Section shall be construed as cumulative authority for the exercise of the powers herein granted. The powers conferred by this Section shall not be affected or limited by any other provision of any statute of the state, and no provision, publication, election or right of referendum shall be required or afforded in the performance of any act herein authorized to be done, including the imposition, collection and application of the tax and issuance of bonds payable therefrom, except as herein otherwise specifically provided.
(13) Bonds issued hereunder shall have all the qualities of negotiable paper and shall constitute negotiable instruments under the Commercial Laws--Commercial Paper of the state of Louisiana, L.S.A.-R.S. 10:3-101, et seq. They shall not be invalid for any irregularity or defect in the proceedings for the issuance and sale thereof and shall be incontestable in the hands of bona fide purchasers or holders for value.
(14) The ordinance or resolution imposing the additional sales tax, the resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds hereunder and pledging and dedicating sales tax revenues to the payment thereof shall each be recorded in the mortgage records of the parish of Orleans and shall each be published in one issue of the official journal of the board. For a period of thirty days from the date of the publication of said ordinance or resolution, respectively, any person in interest may contest the legality of the tax or the legality of the bonds so issued, for any cause, after which thirty day period no one shall have any cause or right of action to contest the legality, formality or regularity of the respective proceedings imposing the tax or authorizing the bonds for any cause whatsoever. If the question of the validity of any proceedings authorizing the tax or issuing the bonds, as provided under the provisions of this Section, is not raised within the said thirty days from the publication thereof, the authority to levy the tax and the authority to issue the bonds, the regularity thereof, and the enforceability of the pledge thereof, shall be conclusively presumed, and no court may inquire into such matters. If any resolution is adopted or proceedings had more than thirty days after the publication of the resolution authorizing the issuance of bonds hereunder and pledging and dedicating any of the sales tax revenues, such supplemental resolution or proceedings shall be similarly published, and no contest, action or proceeding to question the validity or legality of such supplemental resolution or proceedings shall be begun in any court by any person for any cause whatsoever after the expiration of thirty days from the date on which such supplemental resolution or proceeding is published.