Senate Bill No. 525
(By Senators Minard, D. Facemire, Williams, Foster, Kessler and
Plymale)
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[Introduced February 10, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §20-5-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §20-5-5a, all relating to parks and
recreation; and authorizing the issuance of park development
revenue bonds for the purpose of keeping state parks in or
exceeding compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §20-5-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §20-5-5a, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. PARKS AND RECREATION.
§20-5-5. Authority of director to issue park development revenue
bonds; grants and gifts.
The director, with the approval of the Governor, is hereby empowered to raise the cost of any project, as defined in this
article,
including funds to be used solely to finance the
engineering, design, alteration, improvement or repair necessary to
correct or remove any deficiencies and such other activities
related to facilities at all state parks in order to comply with
guidelines for disabled persons as set out in the Americans With
Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, as authorized by any federal
grant received or any legislative appropriation, by the issuance of
park development revenue bonds of the state, the principal of and
interest on the bonds shall be payable solely from the special fund
herein provided for the payment. The bonds shall be authorized by
order of the director, approved by the Governor, which shall recite
an estimate by the director of the cost of the project, and shall
provide for the issuance of bonds in an amount sufficient, when
sold as hereinafter provided, to produce the cost, less the amount
of any grant or grants, gift or gifts received, or in the opinion
of the director expected to be received from the United States of
America or from any other source. The acceptance by the director
of any and all grants and gifts, whether in money or in land, labor
or materials, is hereby expressly authorized. All bonds shall have
and are hereby declared to have all the qualities of negotiable
instruments under the provisions of article eight, chapter forty-
six of this code. The director shall have the power:
(a) To issue negotiable bonds, security interests or notes and
to provide for and secure the payment thereof and to provide for the rights of the holders thereof and to purchase, hold and dispose
of any of its bonds, security interests or notes.
(b) To sell, at public or private sale, any bond or other
negotiable instrument, security interests or obligation of the
director in any manner and upon such terms as the director deems
would best serve the purposes set forth herein.
(c) To issue its bonds, security interests and notes payable
solely from the revenues or funds available to the director
therefor; and the director may issue its bonds, security interests
or notes in such principal amounts as it shall deem necessary to
provide funds for any purposes herein including:
(i) The payment, funding or refunding of the principal of,
interest on or redemption premiums on any bonds, security interests
or notes issued by it whether the bonds, security interests, notes
or interest to be funded or refunded have or have not become due.
(ii) The establishment or increase of reserves to secure or to
pay bonds, security interests, notes or the interest thereon and
all other costs or expenses of the director incident to and
necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes and powers. Any
bonds, security interests or notes may be additionally secured by
a pledge of any revenues, funds, assets or moneys of the special
fund herein provided.
(d) To issue renewal notes, or security interests, to issue
bonds to pay notes or security interests and, whenever it deems
refunding expedient, to refund any bonds by the issuance of new bonds, whether the bonds to be refunded have or have not matured
except that no such renewal notes shall be issued to mature more
than ten years from date of issuance of the notes renewed, and no
such refunding bonds shall be issued to mature more than twenty-
five years from the date of original issuance.
(e) To apply the proceeds from the sale of renewal notes,
security interests or refunding bonds to the purchase, redemption
or payment of the notes, security interests or bonds to be
refunded.
(f) To accept gifts or grants or property, funds, security
interests, money, materials, labor, supplies or services from the
United States of America or from any governmental unit or any
person, firm or corporation and to carry out the terms or
provisions of, or make agreements with respect to, or pledge, any
gifts or grants and to do any and all things necessary, useful,
desirable or convenient in connection with the procuring,
acceptance or disposition of gifts or grants.
(g) To the extent permitted under its contracts with the
holders of bonds, security interests or notes of the authority, to
consent to any modification of the rate of interest, time of
payment of any installment of principal or interest, security or
any other term of any bond, security interest, note or contract or
agreement of any kind to which the director is a party.
(h) The director shall determine the form of the bonds,
including coupons to be attached thereto to evidence the right of interest payments, which bonds shall be signed by the director,
under the great seal of the state, attested by the Secretary of
State and the coupons attached thereto shall bear the facsimile
signature of the director. In case any of the officers whose
signatures appear on bonds or coupons shall cease to be officers
before the delivery of the bonds, the signatures shall nevertheless
be valid and sufficient for all purposes the same as if they had
remained in office until such delivery.
(i) The director shall fix the denominations of the bonds, the
principal and interest of which shall be payable at the Office of
the Treasurer of the State of West Virginia, at the capitol of the
state or, at the option of the holder, at such other place to be
named in the bonds in such medium as may be determined by the
director.
(j) The director may provide for the registration of the bonds
in the name of the owner as to principal alone, and as to both
principal and interest under such terms and conditions as the
director may determine, and shall sell the bonds in such manner as
he or she may determine to be for the best interest of the state,
taking into consideration the financial responsibility of the
purchaser and the terms and conditions of the purchase and
especially the availability of the proceeds of the bonds when
required for payment of the cost of the project.
(k) The proceeds of the bonds shall be used solely for the
payment of the cost of the project and shall be deposited and withdrawn as provided by section thirteen-g of this article, and
under such further restrictions, if any, as the director may
provide.
(l) If the proceeds of such bonds, by error in calculation or
otherwise, shall be less than the cost of the project, additional
bonds may in like manner be issued to provide the amount of the
deficiency and, unless otherwise provided for in the trust
agreement hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed to be of the same
issue and shall be entitled to payment from the same fund without
preference or priority as the bonds before issued.
(m) If the proceeds of bonds issued for the project shall
exceed the cost thereof, the surplus shall be paid into a special
fund to be established for payment of the principal and interest of
the bonds as specified in the trust agreement provided for in the
following section. The fund may be used for the purchase of any of
the outstanding bonds payable from such fund at the market price,
but not exceeding the price, if any, which bonds shall in the same
year be redeemable, and all bonds redeemed or purchased shall
forthwith be canceled and shall not again be issued. Prior to the
preparation of definitive bonds, the director may, under like
restrictions, issue temporary bonds with or without coupons
exchangeable for definitive bonds upon the issuance of the latter.
The revenue bonds may be issued without any other proceedings or
the happening of any other conditions or things than those
proceedings, conditions and things which are specified and required herein or by the Constitution of the state.
§20-5-5a.
Park Development and Rehabilitation Revolving Fund
established; disbursement of fund moneys.
(a) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a special
revenue fund known as the "Park Development and Rehabilitation
Revolving Fund." The fund shall be comprised of moneys allocated
to the state by the federal government expressly for the purposes
of establishing and maintaining a state park development and
rehabilitation revolving fund, all receipts from loans made from
the fund, any moneys appropriated by the Legislature, all income
from the investment of moneys held in the fund, and all other
moneys designated for deposit to the fund from any source, public
or private, including moneys received from the issuance of park
development revenue bonds. The fund shall operate as a special
fund whereby all deposits and payments thereto do not expire to the
General Revenue Fund, but shall remain in the account and be
available for expenditure in succeeding fiscal years.
(b) Moneys in the fund, to the extent that moneys are
available, shall be used solely to finance the engineering, design,
alteration, improvement or repair necessary to correct or remove
any deficiencies and such other activities related to facilities
at all state parks in order to comply with guidelines for disabled
persons as set out in the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990,
as amended, as authorized by any federal grant received or any
legislative appropriation: Provided, That moneys in the fund may be utilized to defray those costs incurred by the department in
administering the provisions of this subsection.
(c) The Director of the Division of Natural Resources shall
propose for legislative approval rules in accordance with the
provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to
govern the disbursement of moneys from the fund, establish a state
park development and rehabilitation program to direct the
distribution of moneys from the fund and establish criteria for
state parks requiring rehabilitation to meet or exceed guide lines
for access and use of facilities at state parks under the
provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, as
amended.
(d) The director may employ qualified officers, agents,
advisors and consultants and other persons as necessary to carry
out the administration and management of the fund.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the issuance of
park development revenue bonds for the purpose of keeping state
parks in or exceeding compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
§20-5-5a
is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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