348.222 Lease-purchase agreement.
348.222 Lease-purchase agreement.
(1) In order to effectuate the purposes of this part, and as authorized by this part, the authority may enter into a lease-purchase agreement with the Department of Transportation relating to and covering the Brevard County Expressway System.
(2) Such lease-purchase agreement shall provide for the leasing of the Brevard County Expressway System by the authority, as lessor, to the Department of Transportation, as lessee; shall prescribe the term of such lease and the rentals to be paid thereunder; and may provide that upon the completion of the faithful performance thereunder and the termination of such lease-purchase agreement, title in fee simple absolute to the Brevard County Expressway System, as then constituted, may be transferred in accordance with law by the authority to the state, and, in such an event, the authority shall deliver to the Department of Transportation such deeds and conveyances as shall be necessary or convenient to vest title in fee simple absolute in the state.
(3) Such lease-purchase agreement may include such other provisions, agreements, and covenants as the authority and the Department of Transportation deem advisable or required, including, but not limited to, provisions as to the bonds to be issued under and for the purposes of this part; the completion, extension, improvement, operation, and maintenance of the Brevard County Expressway System and the expenses and cost of operation of the authority; the charging and collection of tolls, rates, fees, and other charges for the use of the services and facilities thereof; the application of federal or state grants or aid which may be made or given to assist the authority in the completion, extension, improvement, operation, and maintenance of the Brevard County Expressway System, which the authority is hereby authorized to accept and apply to such purposes; the enforcement of payment and collection of rentals; and any other terms, provisions, or covenants necessary, incidental, or appurtenant to the making of and full performance under such lease-purchase agreement.
(4) The Department of Transportation, as lessee under such lease-purchase agreement, is authorized to pay, as rentals thereunder, any rates, fees, charges, funds, moneys, receipts, or income accruing to the Department of Transportation from the operation of the Brevard County Expressway System and from the constitutional gas tax or the county gas tax, or both, and may also pay, as rentals, any appropriations received by the Department of Transportation pursuant to any act of the Legislature heretofore or hereafter enacted. However, nothing herein or in such lease-purchase agreement is intended to, nor shall this part or such lease-purchase agreement, require the making or continuance of such appropriations, nor shall any holder of bonds issued pursuant to this part ever have any right to compel the making or continuance of such appropriations.
(5) No pledge of such constitutional gas tax or such county gas tax, or both, as rentals under such lease-purchase agreement shall be made without the consent of Brevard County, evidenced by a resolution duly adopted by the board of county commissioners of that county at a public hearing held pursuant to due notice thereof published at least once a week for 3 consecutive weeks before the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. The resolution, among other things, shall provide that any excess of such pledged constitutional gas tax or county gas tax, or both, which is not required for debt service or reserves for such debt service for any bonds issued by such authority shall be distributed annually to Brevard County as provided by law. The Department of Transportation has the power to covenant in any lease-purchase agreement that it will pay all or any part of the cost of the operation, maintenance, repair, renewal, and replacement of the system, and any part of the cost of completing the system, to the extent that the proceeds of bonds issued therefor are insufficient, from sources other than the revenues derived from the operation of the system and from the constitutional gas tax or county gas tax, or both. The Department of Transportation may also agree to make such other payments from any moneys available to Brevard County, in connection with the construction or completion of the system, as are deemed by the Department of Transportation to be fair and proper under any such covenants heretofore or hereafter entered into.
(6) The system shall be a part of the state road system, and the Department of Transportation is authorized, upon the request of the authority, to expend out of any funds available for the purpose such moneys and to use such of its engineering and other forces as may be necessary and desirable, in the judgment of the Department of Transportation, for the operation of the authority and for traffic surveys, borings, surveys, preparation of plans and specifications, estimates of cost, and other preliminary engineering and other studies.
History. s. 7, ch. 72-408; s. 49, ch. 83-3.