Alabama § 11-47-210.1 - Legislative Findings and Declarations.

§ 11-47-210.1. Legislative Findings and Declarations.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Through this article, the Legislature has (i) granted to each municipality in the state, acting either individually or in cooperation with one or more other municipalities, the power to acquire, operate, manage, and control parks, playgrounds, and other recreational or athletic facilities and to authorize the organization of an authority, as a public corporation, to act on behalf of the municipality or municipalities in providing for the ownership and management of parks, playgrounds, and other recreational or athletic facilities, (ii) provided for the organization of the authorities, and (iii) specified certain powers to be enjoyed by such an authority.

(2) In order to facilitate the accomplishment of the legislative objectives reflected in this article and to provide for a greater degree of mutual cooperation among separate political subdivisions, it is necessary, appropriate, and desirable to amend this article in order to grant to any county the powers granted to municipalities by the article, to describe in a more comprehensive manner the types of properties and facilities that are subject to being acquired and managed under the article, to provide with more specificity the procedure to be followed in organizing an authority pursuant to the article, to modify certain provisions respecting the composition of the governing body of such an authority and to further define and expand the corporate powers of such an authority.

(3) In addition to an amendment of the existing provisions of this article, it is necessary, appropriate, and desirable for the Legislature to provide for the issuance by such an authority of bonds, notes, or other obligations and for the undertaking by such an authority of related contractual commitments and to grant to the authority certain exemptions that are typically granted to Alabama public corporations formed to serve a specified public purpose.

(4) In order to enable such an authority to issue bonds, notes, or other obligations to finance an authorized capital project, it is necessary, appropriate, and desirable (i) to empower any county or municipality which would derive benefits from the project to render financial assistance to the authority and, in particular, to incur a contractual obligation to make periodic payments to, or for the benefit of, the authority in order to provide for the payment of all or a portion of the debt service on the bonds, notes, or other obligations of the authority, and (ii) to specify the extent to which such a financial commitment by a county or municipality is to be regarded as a debt of the county or municipality for purposes of any applicable limitation on indebtedness imposed by the constitution or other laws of the state.