Section 20-3-204. Issuance of revenue bonds; source of payment; negotiability; terms; validation; sale; interim and replacement bonds; execution; duration of liability

   (a) The authority is authorized from time to time to provide by resolution for the issuance of negotiable revenue bonds for the purpose of paying all or any part of the cost as defined in Code Section 20-3-202 of any of its projects. Such bonds may also be issued to pay off, refund, or refinance any outstanding bonds or other obligations of any nature owed by the authority, whether or not such revenue bonds or other obligations shall then be subject to redemption, and the authority may provide for such arrangements as it may determine for the payment and security of the revenue bonds being issued or for the payment and security of the revenue bonds or other obligations to be paid off, refunded, or refinanced. The principal, premium, if any, and interest of such revenue bonds shall be payable solely from the revenues, receipts, and earnings to be received by the authority in connection with the lease, sale, financing arrangement, or other disposition of the project for which the revenue bonds were issued. All revenue bonds issued by the authority are declared to be negotiable for all purposes, notwithstanding their payment from a limited source and without regard to any other law or laws. The authority may limit the negotiability of its obligations by issuing them in nonnegotiable or registered form or by providing for future registration under such terms and conditions as it may choose.

(b) The revenue bonds may be issued as serial bonds or as term bonds or a combination of each in one or more series and shall bear such date or dates; mature at such time or times, not exceeding 40 years from their respective dates of issue; bear interest at such rate or rates without regard to any limitations contained in any other statute or law of this state; be payable at such time or times; be in such denominations; be in such form, either coupon or fully registered; carry such registration and conversion privileges; have such rank or priority; be payable in lawful money of the United States at such places, within or outside this state; and be subject to such terms of redemption as such bond resolution may provide.

(c) All revenue bonds issued by the authority shall be subject to validation in accordance with Article 3 of Chapter 82 of Title 36, the "Revenue Bond Law" of the State of Georgia. All proceedings to validate revenue bonds of the authority shall be held in the Superior Court of Fulton County and judgments of validation obtained in the manner set forth in such chapter shall be forever conclusive upon the validity of such bonds and the security for such bonds as therein provided. The petition and complaint for validation shall also make party defendant to such action any participating institution for higher education which has contracted with the authority in connection with the issuance of the bonds or regarding the manner in which such bonds are to be secured; and such participating institution for higher education shall be required to show cause, if any exists, why such security and the terms and conditions thereof should not be inquired into by the court, the validity of the terms thereof determined, and the security adjudicated as a binding obligation of the participating institution for higher education for the payment of any such bonds of the authority. The bonds when validated and the judgment of validation shall be final and conclusive with respect to such bonds against the authority issuing the same, any parties to the validation proceedings, or any persons who might properly have become parties to said proceedings. The certificate of validation, however, may be signed with the facsimile or manually executed official signature of the clerk or deputy clerk of the Superior Court of Fulton County.

(d) The authority may sell its revenue bonds in such manner and for such price, at public or private sale, as it may determine to be for the best interest of the authority. Prior to the preparation of definitive bonds, the authority may, under like restrictions, issue interim certificates or receipts or temporary bonds for definitive bonds upon issuance of the latter. The authority may also provide for the replacement of any bonds which shall become mutilated or be destroyed or lost.

(e) The bonds shall be signed by the chairman of the authority, and the corporate seal of the authority shall be thereunto impressed, imprinted, or otherwise reproduced and attested by the signature of the secretary of the authority. The coupons shall be signed in such manner as may be directed by the authority. The signatures of the officers of the authority and the seal of the authority upon any bond, note, or other debt security issued by the authority may be by facsimile if the instrument is authenticated or countersigned by a trustee other than the authority itself or an officer or employee of the authority. All bonds or notes issued under authority of this article bearing signatures or facsimiles of the signatures of officers of the authority in office on the date of the signing thereof shall be valid and binding, notwithstanding that before the delivery thereof and payment therefor such officers whose signatures appear thereon shall have ceased to be officers of the authority.

(f) Interest shall cease to accrue on any bond on the date that such bond becomes due for payment if such payment is made or duly provided for, but liability for such bond and the accrued interest thereon shall continue until such bond is 20 years overdue for payment. At that time, unless demand for payment has been made, such obligation shall be extinguished and shall be deemed no longer outstanding.

Ga. L. 1978, p. 1765, § 5; Ga. L. 1983, p. 1820, § 5; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 20.