CHAPTER 334
AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE STATE OF DELAWARE TO BORROW MONEY TO BE USED BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR THE SUPERVISION AND THE AUDITING OF THE SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM PROVIDED FOR UNDER CHAPTER 345, VOLUME 52, LAWS OF DELAWARE, AND TO ISSUE NOTES AND BONDS THEREFOR AND APPROPRIATING THE MONEY BORROWED TO THE SAID BOARD.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (three-fourths of all the Members elected to each House concurring therein):
Section 1. The Governor, Secretary of State and State Treasurer of the State of Delaware (herein sometimes referred to as the Issuing Officers) shall borrow upon the faith and credit of the State of Delaware a sum of money not in excess of $435,000.00 which shall be used by the State Board of Education for the supervision and the auditing of the School Construction Program provided for under Chapter 345, Volume 52, Laws of Delaware. A portion or all of the funds appropriated herein may be used to retain the Delaware School Auxiliary Association or other qualified persons, associations, firms or corporations to supervise or audit said program. For the purpose of borrowing said sum, the Issuing Officers are hereby authorized to issue bonds of the State of Delaware in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding $435,000.00. The bonds may be issued all at one time, or from time to time, in such series and amounts as the Issuing Officers shall determine to be required, subject to the provisions contained in this Act. Said sum of money may be borrowed and said bonds may be issued in addition to any sums authorized to be borrowed or bonds authorized to be issued for the purpose hereinbefore described by any other law now in effect.
Section 2. In anticipation of the issuance of bonds, the Issuing Officers may issue and sell notes of the State of Delaware at either public or private sale for not less than par and accrued interest. They may be renewed from time to time by the issuance and sale of new notes, but all such notes shall mature and be paid not later than June 30, 1962. The total amount of notes outstanding at any one time, shall not exceed $435,000.00 or, if any bonds shall have been issued pursuant to this Act, the amount by which $435,000.00 shall exceed the amount of such bonds. If the aggregate amount of bonds or notes issued pursuant to this Act shall exceed $435,000.00, the moneys raised by the issuance of said bonds shall, to not less than the amount of such excess, be applied to the payment of such notes then outstanding.
The notes may be redeemed at par and accrued interest prior to their maturity, if the right of the State to do so shall have been reserved by an express provision in the notes. The principal of the notes shall be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the bonds or notes.
Section 3. The bonds and notes issued in accordance with the provisions of this Act shall be direct general obligations of the State, and the public faith and credit of the State of Delaware are hereby expressly pledged for the full and complete payment of the debt, principal and interest by this Act authorized, of the bonds and notes hereby authorized to be issued and the coupons thereto attached, and the bonds and notes shall be exempt from taxation by the State or any political subdivisions thereof for any purpose.
Section 4. The bonds and notes shall recite that they are issued for the purposes set forth in Section 1 of this Act, that they are issued in pursuance of this Act and the Constitution of this State, and upon the sale and delivery of any such bond or note, such recitals shall be conclusive upon the State of Delaware and all and every other person whatsoever of the right, power and authority for the issuance of the bonds or notes and legality and validity of the bonds or notes and of the principal debt and interest represented thereby, and the legality and validity, of the bonds or notes thereafter shall never be questioned in any court of law or equity by the State of Delaware or any person or persons for its use or in its behalf, and this provision shall be and become part of the contract and obligation represented by any of the bonds or notes.
Section 5. The bonds issued under the authority of this Act shall be in denominations of $1,000 or a multiple thereof, as shall be decided by the Issuing Officers, or the majority of them, with coupons thereto attached for each half year's interest thereon. The bonds shall be numbered consecutively, and shall bear such dates as the Issuing Officers shall fix and shall bear interest at such rate as shall be determined by the bid accepted by the Issuing Officers, which interest shall be payable semi-annually in each year that such bonds remain unpaid, at the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware, at Dover; upon presentation of a coupon representing such semi-annual interest.
The bonds shall be in such form and may contain such other and further recitals and be subject to such terms and conditions, with such privileges as to registration, conversion, reconversion, redemption and exchange, and may contain such other provisions as may be determined by said Issuing Officers.
The bonds shall mature as the Issuing Officers may determine; provided, however, that the principal amount of the bonds, or any series thereof, shall be made to mature fully within twenty (20) years from the date of issue thereof.
The bonds shall be executed on behalf of the State of Delaware by the Governor, the Secretary of State and the State Treasurer and shall have the impression of the Great Seal of the State thereon or shall have a facsimile of the Great Seal thereon. The facsimile signatures of the Governor and the Secretary of State may be engraved or printed on the bonds, but the signature of the State Treasurer shall be in his own proper handwriting.
Attached interest coupons shall bear the signature of the State Treasurer which may be engraved, printed or written on such coupons. The coupons attached to each bond shall bear the same number as the bond to which they are attached.
The bonds, with the coupons attached, may be issued notwithstanding that any of the officers executing them in the manner herein provided shall have ceased to hold office at the time of such issue or at the time of the delivery of the bonds.
Section 6. For the purpose of designation and identification any bond issued under the authority of this Act shall be known and styled "State Board of Education Bond of 1961".
Section 7. The bonds, as well as the interest coupons thereto attached, shall be issued in such form or forms as the Issuing Officers may adopt.
It shall be the duty of the State Treasurer to provide a record of the proper size and form to be retained in his office, in which he shall keep a record of all bonds which shall be paid and redeemed according to the number thereof, and in addition thereto he shall cause any such bond to be cancelled by making lines with. red ink through the signatures of the Governor, Secretary of State and State Treasurer, and also by writing across the face thereof in red ink the following;
This bond paid and redeemed this __________ day of ______ A. D 19___.
_______________________
State Treasurer
As the said coupons are paid, it shall be the duty of the State Treasurer to mark the same in red ink across the face "Paid". All bonds paid and redeemed, as well as all coupons paid and cancelled as aforesaid, shall be safely kept by the State Treasurer so long as any bond authorized by this Act is unpaid and not redeemed.
Section 8. Whenever the bonds authorized by this Act may be issued in conformity with the provisions of this Act, the Issuing Officers are hereby directed to advertise that they will receive bids at such place or places that may be named in said advertisement for such bonds under such regulations as may be made in the discretion of the Issuing Officers. Sufficient notice of sale of the bonds shall be deemed to have been given if said notice shall have been published at least once, ten or more days before the date of sale in at least one newspaper published in the State of Delaware and in a financial journal published in the City of New York, and no other publications of such notice of sale shall be necessary; and the bonds may be sold upon such terms and conditions as may be set forth in such notice of sale, provided that the purchase price shall be not Jess than par and accrued interest. If any of the bonds so offered for sale are not bid for, or if any insufficient price be bid for them they may be subsequently disposed of under the direction of the Issuing Officers at private sale upon the best terms they can obtain for the same, provided that they shall not be sold at private sale for less than par and accrued interest.
Section 9. All moneys received from the sale of the bonds or notes shall be deposited by the State Treasurer in the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware at Dover, and shall be used exclusively in accordance with the provisions of this Act and for the purpose of paying the principal of notes issued under this Act.
Section 10. In addition to any moneys appropriated by any other Act there is hereby appropriated to the State Board of Education the sum of $435,000.00, or so much thereof as shall be received from the sale of the bonds and notes authorized hereby, which shall be used for the purpose set forth herein. Any of said funds remaining unexpended at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund, but shall remain in said account to be used for the purposes set forth in this Act.
Section 11. There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund such sums as may be necessary for the expenses incident to the issuance of the bonds and notes herein authorized, and such further sums as may be necessary to pay any interest which becomes due on such bonds and notes during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1962, and such further sums as may be necessary for the repayment of the principal of any of the said bonds which become due during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1962. Vouchers for the payment of the expenses incident to the issuance of bonds and notes and for interest and repayment of said notes shall be signed by the Secretary of State by and with the approval of the Issuing Officers. Any moneys received from the premium and accrued interest on the sale of said bonds shall be deposited to the credit of the General Fund.
Section 12. The Budget Appropriation Bill which shall be enacted and approved by the General Assembly for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1961, and for each subsequent fiscal year or biennium, shall contain under the Debt Service Item provisions for the payment of interest and principal maturities of the bonds issued under the authority of this Act, and such of the revenue of the State of Delaware as are not prohibited by constitutional provisions or committed by preceding statutes for other purposes are hereby pledged for the redemption and cancellation of said bonds and payment of interest thereon.
Approved January 31, 1962.
Note: See Chapter 371 for change of date in section 2.