§ 11-18-10 — Recovery zone facility bonds and recovery zone economic development bonds; issuance.

The General Assembly finds and determines that: (a) Sections 1400U-2 and 1400U-3 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-5.123 Stat. 115 (2009) (codified at Section 1400U-2 and -3 of the Internal Revenue Code) ("ARRA") added two new types of bonds as recovery zone bonds: (1) a new type of exempt facility bonds called "recovery zone facility bonds" to be used to finance construction, renovation, and equipping of recovery zone property for use in any trade or business in a recovery zone, all as defined in ARRA; and (2) a new type of governmental bond called "recovery zone economic development bonds". (b) The provisions of ARRA provide a formula for allocation of authority to issue recovery zone facility bonds and recovery zone economic development bonds to the states and by the states to the counties and large municipalities within the states. The United States Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service provided for recovery zone bond volume cap allocations in IRS Notice 2009-50 and provided calculations for individual counties and large municipalities on that same date. The notice made specific provision for reallocation of the volume cap allocations that are waived or deemed waived by a county or municipality by giving the state in which such county or municipality is located the authority to reallocate the waived volume cap in any reasonable manner as it shall determine in good faith in its discretion. (c) Section 1112 of ARRA amended Section 54D(d) of the Internal Revenue Code to increase the volume cap authorization for qualified energy conservation bonds, which were created by Section 301(a) of Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110-343.122 Stat. 1365 (2008). The United States Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service provided for qualified energy conservation bond volume cap allocations to the states in IRS Notice 2009-29 and authorized the states to allocate such volume cap allocations. (d) Because of several factors, including the relatively small amounts of some of the allocations, limitations on legal borrowing capacity affecting counties and large municipalities and the lack of access to borrowing by possible beneficiaries of the bonds described above, very little of the allocations of bonds described herein have been utilized in connection with the issuance of these bonds in South Carolina. (e) These bonds are a valuable resource to South Carolina in its efforts to revitalize its economy and to provide additional employment, all to the promotion of the health and welfare of the citizens of South Carolina. (f) Because recovery zone bonds must be issued before January 1, 2011, it is in the best interests of the State to provide a procedure for determining as to when counties or large municipalities have waived their allocations of these bonds and to provide for the reallocation of such waived allocations. (g) Recovery zone facility bonds are bonds with substantially all of the proceeds of which are used for "recovery zone property", as defined in the ARRA. The definition of "recovery zone property" includes facilities that may not currently be authorized under the state's private activity bond enabling statutes. These projects will provide much needed employment, thus it is the best interest of the health and welfare of the citizens of the State to provide authorization for bonds to finance recovery zone property. (h) The purpose of this chapter is to provide the procedures for the reallocation of recovery zone bonds as well as provide the authorization for the allocation of Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds and Other Federal Bonds as defined below.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 2010 Act No. 290, SECTION 15.A, eff June 23, 2010.