CHAPTER 369
AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE OF BONDS
AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE STATE OF DELAWARE TO BORROW A CERTAIN SUM OF MONEY FOR SUNDRY CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND EXPENDITURES IN THE NATURE OF CAPITAL INVESTMENTS AND TO ISSUE BONDS AND NOTES THEREFOR.
WHEREAS, several agencies of the State of Delaware must expend large sums of money for the erection and construction of new buildings, for repairs and alterations to existing buildings, and for the equipment and furnishing of new and existing buildings, as well as for the purchase of machinery, and for other purposes; and
WHEREAS, said expenditures will be in the nature of capital improvements or investments; and
WHEREAS, a single issue of State bonds may be administered more efficiently and conveniently than several separate and smaller bond issues; NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (three-fourths of all the Members elected to each Branch concurring therein):
Section 1. The Governor, the State Treasurer and the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the Issuing Officers, are hereby authorized, and fully empowered to borrow upon the faith and credit of the State of Delaware a sum of money not in excess of Four Million Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Dollars ($4,480,000) in order to provide any or all of the funds in the amounts specified for the following purposes, or so much as shall be appropriated by the 117th General Assembly of the State of Delaware for such purposes:
(a) To be expended by the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware for completing the Agriculture Building; delayed maintenance, fire prevention and safety changes in various buildings; purchase of deferred laboratory and classroom furnishings and academic equipment needs $ 950,000
(b) To be expended by the Delaware Commission for the Feeble-Minded for the erection and equipment of a new hospital building to accommodate at least 50 hospital beds and to renovate the present infirmary at the Delaware Colony for the Feeble-Minded at Stockley 450,000
() To be expended by the State Board of Welfare for the construction and equipment of a Department of Public Welfare Building on the property acquired by the said Board at 905-907 West Street, Wilmington and for incidental expenses connected with such building including the demolition of the building presently located on the site 235,000
(a) To be expended by the State Board of Trustees of the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst to be used for the construction of a reeducation building to accommodate at least 100 female patients and for architects and engineers fees, equipment and furniture connected with the same 525,000
(b) To be expended by the State Board of Trustees of the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst to be used for capital improvements to the sewerage, electric and water facilities at the State Hospital 111,000
(c) To be expended by the State Board of Trustees of the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst to be used for the remodeling and equipping of the main building at the State Hospital 134,000
(g) To be expended by the State Board of Trustees of the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst for repairs, replacements and equipment at the Governor Bacon Health Center 147,000
(h) To be expended by the Board of Trustees of the State Welfare Home and Hospital for the Chronically Ill at Smyrna for the construction of a new building to accommodate approximately 100 persons at the State Welfare Home and Hospital for the Chronically Ill at Smyrna and for architects and engineers fees and such incidental expenses as are necessary including the construction of walks and roads to the new building 500,000
() To be expended by the State Board of Education or allotted to school districts for maintenance and improvement of school buildings of
the State 1,318,000
(a) To be expended by the State Detention Home for Juveniles Building Commission for constructing and equipping a State detention home for juveniles or for the purchasing, remodeling and equipping of an existing building for such purposes 85,000
() To be expended by the Public Archives Commission of the State of Delaware for restoring and furnishing the John Dickinson Mansion
near Dover 25,000
$4,480,000
The said Issuing Officers are hereby authorized and fully empowered to sell, execute and deliver bonds in conformity with the provisions of this Act to an amount not to exceed the sum of Four Million Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Dollars ($4,480,000), but nothing herein contained shall require the issuance of said bonds if in the judgment of the Issuing Officers such funds or a portion of such funds so appropriated should be taken from the General Fund. The said bonds shall be issued in such series and amounts as the Issuing Officers shall determine.
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. Said notes shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding 3 per cent per annum. 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, 1955. The total amount of said notes outstanding at any one time, together with the total amount of said bonds theretofore issued, shall not exceed Four Million Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Dollars ($4,480,000).
Said 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 said notes shall be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of said 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 said bonds and notes shall be exempt from taxation by the State or any political subdivisions thereof for any purpose.
Section 4. The said 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 said bonds or notes and the legality and validity of such bonds or notes and of the on such coupons. The coupons attached to each bond shall bear the same number as the bond to which they are attached.
The said 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 said bonds.
Section 6. For the purpose of designation and identification any bond issued under the authority of this Act shall be known and styled "Capital Improvement Bond of 1953".
Section 7. The said 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 said 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 publication of such notice of sale shall be necessary; and said 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 less than par and accrued interest. If any of said 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 said 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. There is 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 may become due on such bonds and notes during the biennium ending June 30, 1955, 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 biennium ending June 30, 1955. 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 11. The Budget Appropriation Bill which shall be enacted and approved by the General Assembly at the 118th Session and each and every subsequent biennial Session thereof, shall contain under the Debt Service Item provisions for the payment of interest and principal maturities of said bonds issued under the authority of this Act, and such of the revenues of the State of Delaware as are not prohibited by constitutional provision 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 July 11, 1953.