16.3 - LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.

        16.3  LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.
         The general assembly finds and declares as follows:
         1.  The establishment of the authority is in all respects for the
      benefit of the people of the state of Iowa, for the improvement of
      their health and welfare, and for the promotion of the economy, which
      are public purposes.
         2.  The authority will be performing an essential governmental
      function in the exercise of the powers and duties conferred upon it
      by this chapter.
         3.  There exists a serious shortage of safe and sanitary
      residential housing available to low or moderate income families.
         4.  This shortage is conducive to disease, crime, environmental
      decline and poverty and impairs the economic value of large areas,
      which are characterized by depreciated values, impaired investments,
      and reduced capacity to pay taxes and are a menace to the health,
      safety, morals and welfare of the citizens of the state.
         5.  These conditions result in a loss in population and further
      deterioration, accompanied by added costs to communities for creation
      of new public facilities and services elsewhere.
         6.  One major cause of this condition has been recurrent shortages
      of funds in private channels.
         7.  These shortages have contributed to reductions in construction
      of new residential units, and have made the sale and purchase of
      existing residential units a virtual impossibility in many parts of
      the state.
         8.  The ordinary operations of private enterprise have not in the
      past corrected these conditions.
         9.  A stable supply of adequate funds for residential financing is
      required to encourage new housing and the rehabilitation of existing
      housing in an orderly and sustained manner and to reduce the problems
      described in this section.
         10.  It is necessary to create a state finance authority to
      encourage the investment of private capital and stimulate the
      construction and rehabilitation of adequate housing through the use
      of public financing.
         11.  The interest costs paid by group homes of fifteen beds or
      less licensed as health care facilities or child foster care
      facilities for facility acquisition and indirectly reimbursed by the
      department of human services through payments for patients at those
      facilities who are recipients of medical assistance or state
      supplementary assistance are severe drains on the state's budget.  A
      reduction in these costs obtained through financing with tax-exempt
      revenue bonds would clearly be in the public interest.
         12.  There is a need in areas of the state for new construction of
      certain group homes of fifteen beds or less licensed as health care
      facilities or child foster care facilities to provide adequate
      housing and care for elderly Iowans and Iowans with disabilities, and
      to provide adequate housing and foster care for children.
         13.  There is a need to provide for early intensive intervention
      on behalf of juveniles which is designed to meet the juveniles' needs
      and prevent future antisocial and criminal behavior and there is a
      need in areas of the state to establish facilities providing
      residential housing or treatment facilities for juveniles requiring a
      more enhanced level of services than those services currently
      available in the state's existing foster care system.
         14.  The abstract attorney's title opinion system promotes land
      title stability for determining the marketability of land titles and
      is a public purpose.  A public purpose will be served by providing,
      as an adjunct to the abstract attorney's title opinion system, a low
      cost mechanism to provide for additional guaranties of real property
      titles in Iowa.  The title guaranties will facilitate mortgage
      lenders' participation in the secondary market and add to the
      integrity of the land-title transfer system in the state.
         15.  Economic development and expansion of business, industry, and
      farming in the state is dependent upon the availability of financing
      of the development and expansion at affordable interest rates.
         16.  The pooling of private financing enhances the marketability
      of the obligations involved and increases access to other state,
      regional, and national credit markets.
         17.  The creation of an Iowa economic development bond bank
      program as provided in section 16.102 will make the pooling of
      private financing available to small businesses, farmers,
      agricultural landowners and operators, and commercial, industrial,
      and other business enterprises at favorable interest rates with
      reduced marketing costs.
         18.  All of the purposes stated in this section are public
      purposes and uses for which public moneys may be borrowed, expended,
      advanced, loaned, or granted.  
         Section History: Early Form
         [C77, 79, 81, § 220.3; 82 Acts, ch 1187, § 4] 
         Section History: Recent Form
         83 Acts, ch 96, § 157, 159; 85 Acts, ch 252, §27; 90 Acts, ch
      1239, § 5
         C93, § 16.3
         96 Acts, ch 1129, §10; 2007 Acts, ch 54, §13; 2008 Acts, ch 1031,
      §16