47-E - Housing program bonds and notes.
§ 47-e. Housing program bonds and notes. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section and paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section forty-seven of this chapter: (a) "Housing program" shall mean the housing assistance projects or programs funded from an appropriation or an apportionment to the: (1) housing assistance fund created by section ninety-two-q of the state finance law; (2) the affordable housing corporation and deposited in the affordable housing development account established pursuant to section fifty-nine-b of this chapter; (3) the housing trust fund corporation and deposited in the housing trust fund account established pursuant to section fifty-nine-a of this chapter; and (4) the homeless housing and assistance account established pursuant to section fifty-nine-i of this chapter. (5) Housing project repair fund created by section sixty of this chapter. (b) "Housing program bonds and housing program notes" shall mean bonds and notes issued by the agency pursuant to subdivision two of this section. (c) "Code" shall mean the federal internal revenue code. 2. (a) Subject to the provisions of chapter fifty-nine of the laws of two thousand, in order to enhance and encourage the promotion of housing programs and thereby achieve the stated purposes and objectives of such housing programs, the agency shall have the power and is hereby authorized from time to time to issue negotiable housing program bonds and notes in such principal amount as shall be necessary to provide sufficient funds for the repayment of amounts disbursed (and not previously reimbursed) pursuant to law or any prior year making capital appropriations or reappropriations for the purposes of the housing program; provided, however, that the agency may issue such bonds and notes in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding two billion five hundred thirty-two million two hundred ninety-nine thousand dollars, plus a principal amount of bonds issued to fund the debt service reserve fund in accordance with the debt service reserve fund requirement established by the agency and to fund any other reserves that the agency reasonably deems necessary for the security or marketability of such bonds and to provide for the payment of fees and other charges and expenses, including underwriters' discount, trustee and rating agency fees, bond insurance, credit enhancement and liquidity enhancement related to the issuance of such bonds and notes. No reserve fund securing the housing program bonds shall be entitled or eligible to receive state funds apportioned or appropriated to maintain or restore such reserve fund at or to a particular level, except to the extent of any deficiency resulting directly or indirectly from a failure of the state to appropriate or pay the agreed amount under any of the contracts provided for in subdivision four of this section. (b) In computing for the purposes of this section the aggregate amount of bonds and notes of the agency issued pursuant to this section, there shall be excluded (i) the amount of bonds and notes issued that would constitute interest under the code, and (ii) the amount of bonds and notes issued to refund bonds and notes, provided, that the amount so excluded under this subparagraph (ii) may exceed the amount of the bonds and notes which the refunding bonds or notes were issued to refund only if the present value of the aggregate debt service on the refunding bonds or notes does not exceed the present value of the aggregate debt service of the bonds or notes to be refunded, such present value in each case to be calculated by using the effective interest rate of therefunding bonds or notes, which shall be that rate arrived at by doubling the semi-annual interest rate (compounded semi-annually) necessary to discount the debt service payments on the refunding bonds or notes from the payment date thereof to the date of issue of the refunding bonds or notes and to the price bid therefor, or to the proceeds received by the agency from the sale thereof, in each case including estimated accrued interest. (c) The agency shall annually prepare and approve a bond sale report which shall include the agency's bond sale guidelines, amendments to such guidelines since the last agency report, and, if necessary, an explanation of the bond sale guidelines and the results of any sale including, but not limited to, the underwriter's discount and net interest costs of bonds sold during the fiscal year. Such bond sale report shall also identify which of the agency's bond sales were conducted as public sales and which were conducted as private sales and of those, which were taxable, and describe the participation of minority and women-owned business enterprise firms in such sales. Such bond sale report may be part of any other annual report that the agency is required to make. The agency shall annually submit its bond sale report to the comptroller and copies thereof to the senate finance committee and the assembly ways and means committee. The agency shall make available to the public copies of its bond sale report upon reasonable request therefor. Nothing contained in this subdivision shall be deemed to alter, affect the validity of, modify the terms of or impair any contract or agreement made or entered into in violation of, or without compliance with, the provisions of this subdivision. (d) The bonding authority granted by this section and the issuance of bonds for the purposes described therein shall in no way act to: (i) delay or impede the obligation, encumbrance and timely disbursement of funds appropriated or reappropriated for the housing program, or any financial commitments made pursuant to such program as defined in this section; (ii) impair or impede the continued operation and administration of such program by the agency, any of its subsidiaries or the division of housing and community renewal pursuant to law and rules and regulations thereby established. 3. Subject to any agreements with the holders of particular bonds or notes pledging any specified portions thereof, the housing program bonds and notes shall be secured by a pledge to the payment thereof of the state payments made pursuant to the service contracts referred to in subdivision four of this section. 4. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, and subject to the making of annual appropriations therefor by the legislature, in order to assist the agency and its subsidiary corporations in undertaking and providing services with respect to housing programs and in consideration of the undertaking thereof and the benefits to be derived therefrom by the people of the state, the director of the budget is authorized in any state fiscal year to enter into one or more service contracts, none of which shall exceed thirty years in duration, with the agency, upon such terms as the director of the budget and the agency agree, so as to provide annually to the agency in the aggregate a sum not to exceed the annual debt service payments required for the bonds and notes issued pursuant to this section. (b) Any service contract entered into pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall provide that the obligation of the director of the budget or of the state to fund or to pay the amounts therein provided for shall not constitute a debt of the state within the meaningof any constitutional or statutory provision and shall be deemed executory only to the extent of moneys available and that no liability shall be incurred by the state beyond the moneys available for the purpose, and that such obligation is subject to annual appropriation by the legislature. (c) Any such contract or any payments made or to be made thereunder may be assigned and pledged by the agency as security for its bonds and notes authorized by this section. 5. (a) Subject to the provisions of chapter fifty-nine of the laws of two thousand, upon the issuance of housing program bonds or notes, the agency shall apply such amount of the proceeds thereof as shall be designated and specified in the bond or note resolution or resolutions authorizing the issuance of such bonds or notes to the specific funds and/or accounts of one or more housing programs. The bond resolution or resolutions authorizing the issuance of such bonds or notes shall only allocate net proceeds of bonds or notes to a particular fund or account of a housing program if the legislature has authorized pursuant to law or any prior year an advance to such fund or account, and the amount of such bond or note proceeds so allocated to such fund or account shall not exceed the total amount so authorized to be advanced. Such proceeds shall be disbursed to such a fund or account in accordance with such allocation only for application to the repayment of advances previously or thereupon made and not previously repaid. Such proceeds may not be transferred from an entity authorized to administer a housing program to the state or a fund of the state, except in repayment of such advances. Except in the case of refunding bonds or notes authorized hereunder, any net proceeds not so allocated or disbursed shall be utilized first to pay debt service on the applicable bonds or notes in the current or the succeeding fiscal year and second to the redemption of such bonds; provided that such application may be adjusted to comply with applicable federal law as to federal tax exemption. For purposes of this paragraph, earnings from the investment of net proceeds shall be treated as net proceeds. (b) Each of the entities authorized to administer the respective housing programs is hereby authorized to accept advances of funds referred to in paragraph (a) of this subdivision and to apply any such advances in such manner authorized by law and to repay any such advances from the proceeds of housing program bonds or notes deposited therewith pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subdivision. (c) The state comptroller is hereby authorized to receive from the agency repayments of moneys, if any, advanced by the state for purposes of the housing program and to deposit the same to the credit of the capital projects fund, the housing program fund, the housing assistance fund or other appropriate fund.