§ 40A:5A-6 — Review of financing.

6. Prior to the adoption of a bond resolution by an authority, or the adoption of an ordinance or resolution of a local unit or units authorizing a service contract that is part of a project financing, the proposed project financing shall be submitted to the Local Finance Board for its review. The Local Finance Board may adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to permit project financing to proceed without such application and review if the project financing is a refunding that will result in debt service savings on outstanding bond debt. The Local Finance Board shall, in the course of its review, give consideration to: a. The nature, purpose, and scope of the proposed project financing; b. The engineering and feasibility studies prepared in connection therewith; c. The terms and provisions of the proposed service contracts, bond resolutions and, in the instance of a negotiated offering, the proposed or maximum terms and conditions of sale; d. An estimate of the proposed or maximum schedule of debt service payments required, and the impact thereof on the budget and financial condition of the authority and of the local unit; e. The estimate of the annual cost of operating and maintaining the project as set forth in the engineering report or feasibility studies; and f. The initial rate, rent, fee, or charge schedule proposed by the authority, or any other proposed method of raising the amounts required to finance the operations and payments of debt service on the obligations of the authority. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, an authority may, upon application to, and review and approval by, the Local Finance Board, incur indebtedness, borrow money, and authorize and issue negotiable refunding bonds to cover the cost of COVID-19 expenditures incurred for immediate preparation, response, recovery, and restoration of public services for a period not to exceed five years. As used herein, "COVID-19" means the coronavirus disease 2019, as announced by the World Health Organization on February 11, 2020, and first identified in Wuhan, China. The Local Finance Board may examine the estimates, computations or calculations made in connection with the submission, may require the production of papers, documents, witnesses or information, may make or cause to be made an audit or investigation and may take any other action which it may deem necessary to its review of the submission. L.1983, c.313, s.6; amended 1987, c.319, s.2; 2015, c.95, s.17; 2020, c.74, s.7.