58 - Issuance of higher education bonds.
§ 58. Issuance of higher education bonds. 1. Whenever the legislature, under the power granted to it by section nineteen of article seven of the state constitution, shall have authorized the creation of a state debt or debts to provide moneys for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement and equipment of facilities for the expansion and development of the program of higher education provided and to be provided at institutions now or hereafter comprised within the state university, for acquisition of real property therefor, and for payment of the state's share of the capital cost of locally sponsored institutions of higher education approved and regulated by the state university trustees, bonds of the state, to the amount of the debt or debts so authorized, shall be issued and sold by the state comptroller. Any appropriation from the proceeds of the sale of bonds, pursuant to this section, shall be deemed to be an authorization for the creation of a state debt or debts to the extent of such appropriation. They shall be known as "higher education bonds." They shall bear interest at such rate or rates as in the judgment of the state comptroller may be sufficient or necessary to effect a sale of the bonds, and such interest shall be payable semi-annually in the city of New York. 2. Such bonds, or the portion thereof at any time issued, shall be made payable in equal annual installments, the first of which shall be payable not more than one year from the date of issue and the last of which shall be payable at such time as the comptroller may determine but not more than thirty years after the date of issue provided, however, that in contracting any such debt the privilege of paying all or any part of such debt prior to the date on which the same shall be due may be reserved to the state. In no case shall such bonds or portion thereof be issued for a period longer than the probable life of the work or purpose, or part thereof, to which the proceeds of the bonds are to be applied, as provided by section sixty-one of the state finance law. Such bonds, or the portion thereof at any time sold, shall be of such denominations, subject to the foregoing provisions, as the state comptroller may determine. 3. The bonds shall be sold in such lot or lots, from time to time, as may be required for the work or purpose for which the creation of a state debt or debts shall have been authorized and appropriations shall have been made by law, but not in excess of the aggregate amount authorized for such purpose. 4. Such bonds shall be sold at not less than par to the highest bidder not less than four nor more than fifteen days, Sundays excepted, after a notice of such sale has been published at least once in a daily newspaper published in Albany and in a daily newspaper published and circulating in New York city, which shall state the terms of the sale. The comptroller may not change the terms of the sale unless notice of such change is published in such newspapers at least one day prior to the date of the sale as set forth in the original notice of sale. Advertisements shall contain a provision to the effect that the state comptroller, in his discretion, may reject any or all bids made in pursuance of such advertisements, and in the event of such rejection, the state comptroller is authorized to readvertise for bids in the form and manner above described as many times as, in his judgment, may be necessary to effect a satisfactory sale. 5. The proceeds of bonds sold pursuant to this section or of notes issued in anticipation thereof shall be paid into the state treasury, and shall constitute a fund for higher educational purposes to be known as "the higher education bond fund" and shall be available only to the extent of appropriations pursuant to section nineteen, article seven of the constitution.