TITLE 46 PUBLIC UTILITIES AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Section 9. Transportation of Freight and Passengers Generally, 46-9-1 through 46-9-332.

ARTICLE 9 GEORGIA RAIL PASSENGER AUTHORITY LAW

46-9-276. Authority to execute agreements or instruments; use of proceeds from sale of bonds and other obligations; issuance of subsequent obligations; bond anticipation notes; validation and form of bonds.

1. Subject to the limitations and procedures provided by this Code section, the agreements or instruments executed by the authority may contain such provisions not inconsistent with law as shall be determined by the members of the authority.
2. The proceeds derived from the sale of all bonds, notes, and other obligations issued by an authority shall be held and used for the ultimate purpose of paying, directly or indirectly as permitted in this article, all or part of the cost of any project or for the purpose of refunding any bonds, notes, or other obligations issued in accordance with the provisions of this article.
3. Issuance by the authority of one or more series of bonds, notes, or other obligations for one or more purposes shall not preclude it from issuing other bonds, notes, or other obligations in connection with the same project or with any other projects, but the proceeding wherein any subsequent bonds, notes, or other obligations shall be issued shall recognize and protect any prior loan agreement, mortgage, deed to secure debt, trust deed, security agreement, or other agreement or instrument made for any prior issue of bonds, notes, or other obligations unless in the resolution authorizing such prior issue the right is expressly reserved to the authority to issue subsequent bonds, notes, or other obligations on a parity with such prior issue.
4. The authority shall have the power and is authorized, whenever bonds of the authority shall have been validated as provided in this article, to issue from time to time its notes in anticipation of such bonds as validated and to renew from time to time any such notes by the issuance of new notes, whether the notes to be renewed have or have not matured. The authority may issue such bond anticipation notes only to provide funds which would otherwise be provided by the issuance of the bonds as validated. Such notes may be authorized, sold, executed, and delivered in the same manner as bonds. As with its bonds, the authority may sell such notes at public or private sale. Any resolution or resolutions authorizing notes of the authority or any issue thereof may contain any provisions which the authority is authorized to include in any resolution or resolutions authorizing bonds of the authority or any issue thereof, and the authority may include in any notes any terms, covenants, or conditions which the authority is authorized to include in any bonds. Validations of such bonds shall be a condition precedent to the issuance of such notes, but it shall not be required that such notes be judicially validated. Bond anticipation notes shall not be issued in an amount exceeding the par value of the bonds in anticipation of which they are to be issued.
5. All bonds issued by the authority under this article shall be issued and validated under and in accordance with the "Revenue Bond Law," as heretofore and hereafter amended, except as provided in this article, provided that notes and other obligations of the authority may be, but shall not be required to be, so validated.
6. Bonds issued by the authority may be in such form, either coupon or fully registered or both coupon and fully registered, and may be subject to exchangeability and transferability provisions as the bond resolution authorizing the issuance of such bonds or any indenture or trust agreement may provide.
7. Bonds shall bear a certificate of validation. The signature of the clerk of the superior court of the judicial circuit in which the issuing authority is located may be made on the certificate of validation of such bonds by facsimile or by manual execution stating the date on which such bonds were validated, and such entry shall be original evidence of the fact of judgment and shall be received as original evidence in any court in this state.
8. In lieu of specifying the rate or rates of interest which bonds to be issued by an authority are to bear, the notice to the district attorney or Attorney General, the notice to the public of the time, place, and date of the validation hearing, and the petition and complaint for validation may state that the bonds when issued will bear interest at a rate not exceeding a maximum per annum rate of interest, which may be fixed or may fluctuate or otherwise change from time to time, specified in such notices and petition and complaint or that, in the event the bonds are to bear different rates of interest for different maturity dates, that note of such rates will exceed the maximum rate which may be fixed or may fluctuate or otherwise change from time to time so specified; provided, however, that nothing contained herein shall be construed as prohibiting or restricting the right of the authority to sell such bonds at a discount, even if in doing so the effective interest cost resulting therefrom would exceed the maximum per annum interest rate specified in such notices and in the petition and complaint.
9. The terms "cost of the project" or "cost of any project" shall have the meaning prescribed in this article whenever referred to in bond resolutions of the authority, in bonds, notes, or other obligations of the authority, or in notices or proceedings to validate such bonds, notes, or other obligations of the authority.
10. The issuance of any bond, revenue bond, note, or other obligation or the incurring of any debt by the authority must, prior to such, be approved by the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission established by Article VII, Section IV, Paragraph VII of the Constitution of the State of Georgia of 1983 or its successor.

(Code 1981, §46-9-276, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1283, § 1.)