Section 36-75-8. Bonds and notes; expenditure of revenue

   (a) Subject to the limitations and procedures provided by this Code section, the obligations of any authority evidenced by bonds, bond anticipation notes, trust indentures, deeds to secure obligations, security agreements, or mortgages executed in connection therewith may contain such provisions not inconsistent with law as shall be determined by the board of directors of the authority. The authority, in such instruments, may provide for the pledging of all or any part of its revenues, income, or charges and for the mortgaging, encumbering, or conveying of all or any part of its real or personal property; may covenant against pledging any or all of its revenues, income, or charges; and may further provide for the disposition of proceeds realized from the sale of any bonds and bond anticipation notes, for the replacement of lost, destroyed, stolen, or mutilated bonds and notes, and for the payment and redemption of such bonds and notes. Similarly, subject to the limitations and procedures of this Code section, undertakings of an authority may prescribe the procedure by which bondholders and noteholders may enforce rights against the authority and provide for rights upon breach of any covenant, condition, or obligation of the authority. Bonds, resolutions, trust indentures, mortgages, or deeds to secure obligations executed by an authority and bond anticipation notes executed by an authority may contain such provisions not otherwise contrary to law as the authority shall deem necessary or desirable.

(b) The proceeds derived from the sale of all bonds and bond anticipation notes issued by an authority shall be held and used for the ultimate purpose of paying, directly or indirectly as permitted in this chapter, all or part of the cost of any project, including the cost of extending, financing, adding to, or improving such project, or for the purpose of refunding any bond anticipation notes issued in accordance with this chapter or refunding any previously issued bonds of the authority.

(c) All bonds and bond anticipation notes issued by an authority shall be revenue obligations of such authority and may be made payable out of any revenues or other receipts, funds, or moneys of the authority, subject only to any agreements with the holders of other bonds or bond anticipation notes or to particular security agreements pledging any particular revenues, receipts, funds, or moneys.

(d) Issuance by an authority of one or more series of bonds or bond anticipation notes for one or more purposes shall not preclude it from issuing other bonds or notes in connection with the same project or with any other projects, but the proceeding wherein any subsequent bonds or bond anticipation notes shall be issued shall recognize and protect any prior pledge or mortgage made in any prior security agreement or made for any prior issue of bonds or bond anticipation notes, unless in the resolution authorizing such prior issue the right is expressly reserved to the authority to issue subsequent bonds or bond anticipation notes on a parity with such prior issue.

(e) An authority shall have the power and is authorized, whenever revenue bonds of the authority have been validated as provided in this chapter, to issue, from time to time, its notes in anticipation of the issuance 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 notes only to provide funds which would otherwise be provided by the issuance of the bonds as validated. The 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 such resolution or resolutions; and the authority may include in any notes any terms, covenants, or conditions which it is authorized to include in any bonds. Validation of such bonds shall be a condition precedent to the issuance of the 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.

(f) The interest rate on or rates to be borne by any bonds, notes, or other obligations issued by the authority shall be fixed by the board of directors of the authority. Any limitations with respect to interest rates found in Article 3 of Chapter 82 of this title or in the usury laws of this state shall not apply to obligations issued under this chapter.

(g) All revenue bonds issued by an authority under this chapter shall be issued and validated under and in accordance with Article 3 of Chapter 82 of this title, except as provided in subsection (f) of this Code section and except as specifically set forth below in this subsection:

   (1) Revenue bonds issued by an authority may be in such form, either coupon or fully registered, or both coupon and fully registered, and may be subject to such exchangeability and transferability provisions as the bond resolution authorizing the issuance of such bonds or any indenture or trust agreement may provide;

   (2) Revenue 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; and

   (3) In lieu of specifying the rate or rates of interest which revenue bonds to be issued by an authority are to bear, the notice to the district attorney or the Attorney General and the notice to the public of the time, place, and date of the validation hearing may state that the bonds, when issued, will bear interest at a rate not exceeding a maximum per annum rate of interest specified in such notices or, in the event the bonds are to bear different rates of interest for different maturity dates, that none of such rates will exceed the maximum rate specified in the notices; provided, however, that nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed as prohibiting or restricting the right of the authority to sell such bonds at a discount, even if in so doing the effective interest cost resulting therefrom would exceed the maximum per annum interest rate specified in such notices.

Code 1981, § 36-75-8, enacted by Ga. L. 2003, p. 862, § 1.