An Act To Require Legislative Approval for the Issuance of Bonds by the Maine Turnpike Authority
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 23 MRSA §1961, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2011, c. 302, §2, is further amended to read:
2. Cooperation with the Department of Transportation. The Subject to approval by the Legislature in accordance with subsection 6, the authority may issue bonds or other obligations to pay for department projects. These amounts are considered necessary for use by the department for construction, reconstruction, operation and maintenance of all roads on the state highway system, which serve and benefit users of the turnpike by providing direct and indirect access to and from the turnpike as part of the integrated highway system. Due to the utilization of the state highway system by users of the turnpike, the turnpike and its users have received and will continue to receive a benefit from, or have caused and will continue to cause, or both, the State acting by and through the department to incur costs for the construction, operation and maintenance of the state highway system, which provides direct and indirect access to and from the turnpike to areas in the State for which the State may properly be and should be compensated from the tolls to be collected. The authority must be maintained to carry out the purposes of this chapter in cooperation with the department.
Sec. 2. 23 MRSA §1961, sub-§6, as amended by PL 2011, c. 302, §3, is further amended to read:
6. Appropriation. On or before January 31st of each year, the authority shall present to each regular session of the Legislature for its approval the authority's revenue fund budget and the authority's proposed issuance of bonds for the calendar year that begins after the adjournment of that regular session and shall present to each regular session of the Legislature for informational purposes a statement of the revenues necessary during the next calendar year to fund capital expenditures and reserves and to meet the requirements of any resolution authorizing bonds of the authority, including debt service and the maintenance of reserves for debt service and reserve maintenance. The authority shall present a detailed budget of expenditures from the authority's reserve maintenance fund for the next calendar year and shall include cross-references to show the total of similar expense categories that are paid from both the revenue and reserve maintenance funds. The authority may only pay revenue fund operating expenses in accordance with allocations approved by the Legislature or as necessary to satisfy the requirements of any resolution authorizing bonds of the authority. If alterations to the authority's revenue fund budget are needed, they must be reported by financial order to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over transportation matters.
Sec. 3. 23 MRSA §1968, first ¶, as repealed and replaced by PL 1995, c. 138, §1, is amended to read:
The Subject to approval by the Legislature in accordance with section 1961, subsection 6, the authority may issue bonds as follows.
SUMMARY
This bill requires that the Maine Turnpike Authority receive legislative approval prior to its issuance of bonds.