Section 10: Requisites for issuance and status of bonds
Section 10. All bonds shall be authorized by resolution of the board of the issuing authority. The principal amount of each issue of bonds shall be sufficient after due allowance for bond discount and expense to pay the estimated cost of the project or projects on account of which such bonds shall be issued, less amounts, if any, contributed or to be contributed from other sources to pay the cost of such project or projects.
All bonds shall mature at such time or times not exceeding fifty years from their date, as may be determined by the authority, and may be made redeemable before maturity, at the option of the authority, at such price or prices and under such terms and conditions as may be fixed by the authority prior to the issuance of the bonds. Each issue of bonds shall be serial or term or a combination of both types. The term of the bonds shall not exceed the useful life of the project or, if issued to finance more than one project, the average useful life of the projects being financed, plus in either case the period if any from the date of the bonds to the estimated date of completion of the project, or such longer term as the finance board deems reasonable. A determination by the authority, if made, shall be conclusive evidence of the useful life of the project or the average useful life of the projects being financed, as the case may be. In determining the reasonableness of continuing amortization beyond the estimated useful life, the finance board may take into account such factors as it deems relevant, including, without limitation, the financial capability of the user.
The authority shall determine the form and the manner of execution of the bonds, including any interest coupons to be attached thereto, and shall fix the denomination or denominations of the bonds and the place or places of payment of principal and interest, which may be at any bank or trust company within or without the commonwealth. In case any officer whose signature or a facsimile of whose signature shall appear on any bonds or coupons shall cease to be such officer before the delivery of such bonds, such signature or such facsimile shall nevertheless be valid and sufficient for all purposes the same as if he had remained in office until such delivery. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or any recitals in any bonds issued under the provisions of this chapter, all such bonds shall be deemed to be negotiable instruments under the laws of the commonwealth. The bonds may be issued in coupon or in registered form or both, as the authority may determine, and provision may be made for the registration of any coupon bonds as to principal alone and also as to both principal and interest, for the reconversion into coupon bonds of any bonds registered as to both principal and interest, and for the interchange of coupon and registered bonds. The authority may sell such bonds in such manner, either at public or private sale, and for such price as it may determine to be for the best interests of the municipality.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this section or any other provisions of this chapter, the resolution or resolutions authorizing the issuance of bonds of the municipality, acting by and through an authority, may delegate to the chairman, vice chairman, or any director of the authority or any combination of them, the power to determine any of the matters set forth in this section and the power to award the bonds to a purchaser or purchasers at public sale or to negotiate a sale to a purchaser or purchasers; provided, however, that in the latter case that such issue of bonds is to be reoffered to the public.
Bonds issued under this chapter shall not constitute a debt or pledge of the faith and credit of the issuing municipality, but such bonds shall be payable solely from the income or revenues received under a financing document or in connection with a project or projects or from funds derived from the issuing or refunding bonds authorized under section seventeen. All such bonds shall contain on the face thereof a statement to the effect that the bonds are not an obligation of the issuing municipality but are payable solely from the rents or other revenues pledged for their payment.
Prior to the preparation of the definitive bonds, the issuing municipality may, under like restrictions, issue interim receipts or temporary bonds, with or without coupons, exchangeable for definitive bonds when the same are available for delivery and which shall be deemed to be of the same series as said definitive bonds. The municipality may also provide for the replacement of any bonds which shall become mutilated or shall be destroyed or lost. Bonds may be issued under the provisions of this chapter without obtaining the consent of any department, division, commission, board, bureau or agency of the commonwealth or the governing body, and without any other proceedings or the happenings of any other conditions or things other than those proceedings, conditions or things which are specifically required by this chapter, including a receipt of a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Massachusetts office of business development.
Such bonds shall not be included in computing the borrowing capacity of a municipality under chapter forty-four or any other limitation on the issuing of general indebtedness by a municipality and shall not be subject to the provisions of any other general or special law or chapter provision relating to the issuance or sale of bonds or notes by a municipality.
Not more than fifty per cent of any series of bonds shall be sold by an authority acting for and in behalf of a municipality or by underwriters acting as first purchasers thereof to a user of a project financed by the proceeds of such series of bonds.