CHAPTER 131
AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE VIII OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE, RELATING TO REVENUE AND TAXATION AND THE STATE'S BORROWING MONEY AND PLEDGING CREDIT.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (two-thirds of all the Members of each Branch thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. Article VIII of the Constitution of the State of Delaware is hereby amended by adding a new section to that Article, to be known as Section 3A thereof, to read as follows:
Section 3A. No money shall be borrowed or debt created by or on behalf of the State, which under § 3 of Article VIII of the Constitution of the State of Delaware requires an Act of the General Assembly passed with the concurrence of three-fourths of all the members elected to each House, nor shall the credit of the State be pledged, when the amount of money, which would or might be necessary in the next succeeding fiscal year to service such borrowing, debt, or pledge and any outstanding balance of a borrowing, debt, or pledge created or made by or on behalf of the State after July 1, 1963, plus all amounts of money which will or may be necessary in such fiscal year to meet according to their terms the obligations upon all such borrowings, debts, and pledges created or made by or on behalf of the State before July 1, 1963, shall exceed the hereinafter prescribed portion of the receipts of the general fund of the State for the preceding fiscal year, unless a majority of the votes cast by the voters of the State qualified at the time to vote in a general election shall have authorized such borrowing, debt, or pledge by a vote taken within two years prior to creating or making such borrowing, debt, or pledge, or shall have approved an Act of the General Assembly for such borrowing, debt, or pledge by a vote taken within two years after the passage of the Act, in a referendum, held specially or in conjunction with a general election, provided for by majority vote of each House of the General Assembly. The following provisions of this section shall have the meaning hereinafter described for the purposes of construing this Section:
The "amount of money, which would or might be necessary in the next succeeding fiscal year to service such borrowing, debt, or pledge and any outstanding balance of a borrowing, debt, or pledge created or made by or on behalf of the State after July 1, 1963," is the amount which would or might be required in the next succeeding fiscal year to pay the principal thereof in twenty equal, succeeding yearly installments, commencing with the next fiscal year after such borrowing, debt, or pledge is or was created or made, without regard to the actual terms thereof, and to pay the actual yearly interest upon what the outstanding principal balance thereof would be if such payment of principal were made in such twenty installments.
The "prescribed portion of the receipts of the general fund of the State for the preceding fiscal year" shall be: 30% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1963; 29% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1964; 28% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1965; 27% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1966; 26% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1967; 25% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1968; 24% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1969; 23% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1970; 22% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1971; 21% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1972; and, 20% of such receipts for the preceding fiscal year, when such year ends in 1973 or in any year thereafter.
The "receipts of the general fund of the State" shall include all monies actually derived from taxes, fees, permits, licenses, fines, forfeitures or from any other sources, or of other receipts of any kind or from any other source, including the sale or disposition of surplus or other property of the State, and of every agency thereof, including receipts heretofore authorized as funds for public use of any agency by the authority of any law of this State, and monies at any time heretofore credited to the School Fund, except for all sums required to be credited to such School Fund by the Constitution of this State; but not including: funds specified by the Constitution of this State to the extent thereof only; funds derived from the sale of bonds for the specific purposes named therein; funds or receipts or grants made for a particular purpose pursuant to an Act of Congress of the United States; any endowment fund or gift made for particular purposes; any sinking fund authorized by the laws of this State; all proceeds collected by any agency of this State for board, tuition or hospital treatment and from the sale of farm products produced primarily for experimental purposes; any money or other property received by the University of Delaware and Delaware State College from any source except money appropriated to them or for their use by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware; any taxes arising from a distribution of divested stock as defined in Section 1111 of Title 26 of the United States Code, as in effect July 1, 1963; and any funds derived from inheritance, estate, or other death or succession taxes which in any fiscal year exceed One Million Dollars.
Effective June 27, 1963.