State Codes and Statutes

Statutes > North-carolina > Chapter_159 > GS_159-48

§ 159‑48.  For whatpurposes bonds may be issued.

(a)        Each unit of localgovernment is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Articlein evidence thereof for any one or more of the following purposes:

(1)        To suppress riots,insurrections, or any extraordinary breach of law and order.

(2)        To supply anunforeseen deficiency in the revenue when taxes actually received or collectedduring the fiscal year fall below collection estimates made in the annualbudget ordinance within the limits prescribed in G.S. 159‑13.

(3)        To meet emergenciesthreatening the public health or safety, as conclusively determined in writingby the Governor.

(4)        To refundoutstanding revenue bonds or revenue bond anticipation notes.

(5)        To refundoutstanding general obligation bonds or general obligation bond anticipationnotes.

(6)        To fund judgmentsfor specified sums of money entered against the unit by a court of competentjurisdiction.

(7)        To fund valid,existing obligations of the unit not incurred by the borrowing of money.

(b)        Each county andcity is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article inevidence thereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or moreof the following:

(1)        Providing airportfacilities, including without limitation related land, landing fields, runways,clear zones, lighting, navigational and signal systems, hangars, terminals,offices, shops, and parking facilities.

(2)        Providing armoriesfor the North Carolina National Guard.

(3)        Providingauditoriums, coliseums, arenas, stadiums, civic centers, convention centers,and facilities for exhibitions, athletic and cultural events, shows, and publicgatherings.

(4)        Providing beachimprovements, including without limitation jetties, seawalls, groins, moles, sanddunes, vegetation, additional sand, pumps and related equipment, and drainagechannels, for the control of beach erosion and the improvement of beaches.

(5)        Providingcemeteries.

(6)        Providing facilitiesfor fire fighting and prevention, including without limitation headquartersbuildings, station buildings, training facilities, hydrants, alarm systems, andcommunications systems.

(7)        Providing hospitalfacilities, including without limitation general, tuberculosis, mental, chronicdisease, and other types of hospitals and related facilities such aslaboratories, outpatient departments, nurses' homes and training facilities,and central service facilities operated in connection with hospitals;facilities for the provision of public health services, including relatedfacilities such as laboratories, clinics, and administrative offices;facilities specially designed for the diagnosis, treatment, education,training, or custodial care of the mentally retarded, including facilities fortraining specialists and sheltered workshops for the mentally retarded; nursinghomes; and in connection with the foregoing, laundries, nurses', doctors', orinterns' residences, administrative buildings, research facilities,maintenance, storage, and utility facilities, auditoriums, dining halls, foodservice and preparation facilities, fire prevention facilities, mental andphysical health care facilities, dental care facilities, nursing schools,mental teaching facilities, offices, parking facilities, and other supportingservice structures.

(8)        Providing land forcorporate purposes.

(9)        Providing facilitiesfor law enforcement, including without limitation headquarters buildings,station buildings, jails and other confinement facilities, training facilities,alarm systems, and communications systems.

(10)      Providing libraryfacilities, including without limitation fixed and mobile libraries.

(11)      Providing artgalleries, museums, and art centers, and providing for historic properties.

(12)      Providing parkingfacilities, including on‑ and off‑street parking, and in connectiontherewith any area or place for the parking and storing of automobiles andother vehicles open to public use, with or without charge, including withoutlimitation meters, buildings, garages, driveways, and approaches.

(13)      Providing parks andrecreation facilities, including without limitation land, athletic fields,parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, shelters, stadiums, arenas, permanentand temporary stands, golf courses, swimming pools, wading pools, marinas, andlighting.

(14)      Providing publicbuilding, including without limitation buildings housing courtrooms, othercourt facilities, and council rooms, office buildings, public markets, publiccomfort stations, warehouses, and yards.

(15)      Providing publicvehicles, including without limitation those for law enforcement, fire fightingand prevention, sanitation, street paving and maintenance, safety and publichealth, and other corporate purposes.

(16)      Providing forredevelopment through the acquisition of land and the improvement thereof forassisting local redevelopment commissions.

(17)      Providing sanitarysewer systems, including without limitation community sewerage facilities forthe collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage or septic tank systems andother on‑site collection and disposal facilities or systems.

(18)      Providing solid wastedisposal systems, including without limitation land for sanitary landfills,incinerators, and other structures and buildings.

(19)      Providing stormsewers and flood control facilities, including without limitation levees,dikes, diversionary channels, drains, catch basins, and other facilities forstorm water drainage.

(20)      Providing votingmachines.

(21)      Providing watersystems, including without limitation facilities for the supply, storage,treatment, and distribution of water.

(22)      Providing for anyother purpose for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(23)      Providing publictransportation facilities, including without limitation equipment for publictransportation, buses, surface and below‑ground railways, ferries, andgarage facilities.

(24)      Providing industrialparks, land suitable for industrial or commercial purposes, shell buildings, inorder to provide employment opportunities for citizens of the county or city.

(25)      Providing property topreserve a railroad corridor.

(26)      (For effectivedate, see note) Undertaking public activities in or for the benefit of adevelopment financing district pursuant to a development financing plan.

(c)        Each county isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidenceof the debt for the purpose of, in the case of subdivisions (1) through (4b) ofthis subsection, paying any capital costs of any one or more of the purposesand, in the case of subdivisions (5) and (6) of this subsection, to finance thecost of the purpose:

(1)        Providing communitycollege facilities, including without limitation buildings, plants, and otherfacilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, student unions, dormitories, gymnasiums,athletic fields, cafeterias, utility plants, and garages.

(2)        Providingcourthouses, including without limitation offices, meeting rooms, courtfacilities and rooms, and detention facilities.

(3)        Providing countyhomes for the indigent and infirm.

(4)        Providing schoolfacilities, including without limitation schoolhouses, buildings, plants andother facilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, gymnasiums, athletic fields, lunchrooms,utility plants, garages, and school buses and other necessary vehicles.

(4a)      Providingimprovements to subdivision and residential streets pursuant to G.S. 153A‑205.

(4b)      Providing land forpresent or future county corporate, open space, community college, and publicschool purposes.

(5)        Providing for theoctennial revaluation of real property for taxation.

(6)        Providing housingprojects for persons of low or moderate income, including construction or acquisitionof projects to be owned by a county, redevelopment commission, or housingauthority and the provision of loans, grants, interest supplements, and otherprograms of financial assistance to such persons. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income if at least fortypercent (40%) of the units in the project are exclusively reserved for personsof low or moderate income. No rent subsidy may be paid from bond proceeds.

(d)        Each city isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thefollowing:

(1)        Repealed by SessionLaws 1977, c. 402, s. 2.

(2)        Providing cabletelevision systems.

(3)        Providing electricsystems, including without limitation facilities for the generation,transmission, and distribution of electric light and power.

(4)        Providing gassystems, including without limitation facilities for the production, storage,transmission and distribution of gas, where systems shall also include thepurchase and/or lease of natural gas fields and natural gas reserves and thepurchase of natural gas supplies, and where any parts of such systems may belocated either within the State or without.

(5)        Providing streetsand sidewalks, including without limitation bridges, viaducts, causeways,overpasses, underpasses, and alleys; paving, grading, resurfacing, and wideningstreets; sidewalks, curbs and gutters, culverts, and drains; traffic controls,signals, and markers; lighting; and grade crossings and the elimination thereofand grade separations.

(6)        Improving existingsystems or facilities for the transmission or distribution of telephoneservices.

(7)        Providing housingprojects for the benefit of persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, including without limitation (i) construction oracquisition of projects to be owned by a city, redevelopment commission orhousing authority, and (ii) loans, grants, interest supplements and other programsof financial assistance to persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, and developers of housing for persons of low income, ormoderate income, or low and moderate income. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income, as long as at leasttwenty percent (20%) of the units in the project are set aside for housing forthe exclusive use of persons of low income. No rent subsidy may be paid frombond proceeds.

(e)        Each sanitarydistrict, mosquito control district, hospital district, merged schooladministrative unit described in G.S. 115C‑513; metropolitan seweragedistrict, metropolitan water district, county water and sewer district,regional public transportation authority and special airport district isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thepurposes for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(f)         For any of thepurposes authorized by subsections (b), (c), (d), or (e) of this section, aunit may do any of the following that it considers necessary or convenient:

(1)        Acquire, construct,erect, provide, develop, install, furnish, and equip; and

(2)        Reconstruct,remodel, alter, renovate, replace, refurnish, and reequip; and

(3)        Enlarge, expand, andextend; and

(4)        Demolish, relocate,improve, grade, drain, landscape, pave, widen, and resurface.

(g)        Bonds for two ormore unrelated purposes, not of the same general class or character, shall notbe authorized by the same bond order. However, bonds for any of the purposeslisted in any subdivision of any subsection of this section shall be deemed tobe for one purpose and may be authorized by the same bond order. In addition,nothing herein may be deemed to prohibit the combining of purposes from any ofsuch paragraphs and the authorization of bonds therefor by the same bond order tothe extent that the purposes are not unrelated.

(h)        As used in thissection, "capital costs" include, without limitation, the following:

(1)        The costs of doingany or all of the things mentioned in subsection (f) of this section; and

(2)        The costs of all property,both real and personal and both improved and unimproved, plants, works,appurtenances, structures, facilities, furnishings, machinery, equipment,vehicles, easements, water rights, franchises, and licenses used or useful inconnection with the purpose authorized; and

(3)        The costs ofdemolishing or moving structures from land acquired and acquiring any lands towhich such structures are to be moved; and

(4)        Financing charges,including estimated interest during construction and for six months thereafter;and

(5)        The costs of plans,specifications, studies and reports, surveys, and estimates of costs andrevenues; and

(6)        The costs of bondprinting and insurance; and

(7)        Administrative andlegal expenses; and

(8)        Any other services,costs, and expenses necessary or incidental to the purpose authorized.

(i)         This section doesnot authorize any unit to undertake any program, function, joint undertaking,or service not otherwise authorized by law. It is intended only to authorizethe borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds within the limitations set outherein to finance programs, functions, joint undertakings, or servicesauthorized by other portions of the General Statutes or by city charters.  (1917, c. 138, s. 16; 1919,c. 178, s. 3(16); C.S., s. 2937; 1921, c. 8, s. 1; Ex. Sess. 1921, c. 106, s.1; 1927, c. 81, s. 8; 1929, c. 171, s. 1; 1931, c. 60, ss. 48, 54; 1933, c.259, ss. 1, 2; 1935, c. 302, ss. 1, 2; 1939, c. 231, ss. 1, 2(c); 1943, c. 13;1945, c. 403; 1947, cc. 520, 931; 1949, c. 354; c. 766, s. 3; c. 1270; 1953, c.1065, s. 1; 1957, c. 266, s. 1; c. 856, s. 1; c. 1098, s. 16; 1959, c. 525; c.1250, s. 2; 1961, c. 293; c. 1001, s. 2; 1965, c. 307, s. 2; 1967, c. 987, s.2; c. 1001, s. 1; 1971, c. 780, s. 1; 1973, c. 494, s. 4; c. 1037; 1975, c.549, s. 1; c. 821, s. 1; 1977, c. 402, ss. 1, 2; c. 811; 1979, c. 619, s. 3; c.624, s. 1; c. 727, s. 3; 1985, c. 639, s. 2; 1987, c. 464, s. 7; c. 564, s. 10;1989, c. 600, s. 7; c. 740, s. 4; 1991, c. 325, s. 5; 1997‑6, s. 19; 1999‑366,s. 4; 1999‑378, s. 1; 2003‑403, s. 3; 2009‑281, s. 1.)

State Codes and Statutes

Statutes > North-carolina > Chapter_159 > GS_159-48

§ 159‑48.  For whatpurposes bonds may be issued.

(a)        Each unit of localgovernment is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Articlein evidence thereof for any one or more of the following purposes:

(1)        To suppress riots,insurrections, or any extraordinary breach of law and order.

(2)        To supply anunforeseen deficiency in the revenue when taxes actually received or collectedduring the fiscal year fall below collection estimates made in the annualbudget ordinance within the limits prescribed in G.S. 159‑13.

(3)        To meet emergenciesthreatening the public health or safety, as conclusively determined in writingby the Governor.

(4)        To refundoutstanding revenue bonds or revenue bond anticipation notes.

(5)        To refundoutstanding general obligation bonds or general obligation bond anticipationnotes.

(6)        To fund judgmentsfor specified sums of money entered against the unit by a court of competentjurisdiction.

(7)        To fund valid,existing obligations of the unit not incurred by the borrowing of money.

(b)        Each county andcity is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article inevidence thereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or moreof the following:

(1)        Providing airportfacilities, including without limitation related land, landing fields, runways,clear zones, lighting, navigational and signal systems, hangars, terminals,offices, shops, and parking facilities.

(2)        Providing armoriesfor the North Carolina National Guard.

(3)        Providingauditoriums, coliseums, arenas, stadiums, civic centers, convention centers,and facilities for exhibitions, athletic and cultural events, shows, and publicgatherings.

(4)        Providing beachimprovements, including without limitation jetties, seawalls, groins, moles, sanddunes, vegetation, additional sand, pumps and related equipment, and drainagechannels, for the control of beach erosion and the improvement of beaches.

(5)        Providingcemeteries.

(6)        Providing facilitiesfor fire fighting and prevention, including without limitation headquartersbuildings, station buildings, training facilities, hydrants, alarm systems, andcommunications systems.

(7)        Providing hospitalfacilities, including without limitation general, tuberculosis, mental, chronicdisease, and other types of hospitals and related facilities such aslaboratories, outpatient departments, nurses' homes and training facilities,and central service facilities operated in connection with hospitals;facilities for the provision of public health services, including relatedfacilities such as laboratories, clinics, and administrative offices;facilities specially designed for the diagnosis, treatment, education,training, or custodial care of the mentally retarded, including facilities fortraining specialists and sheltered workshops for the mentally retarded; nursinghomes; and in connection with the foregoing, laundries, nurses', doctors', orinterns' residences, administrative buildings, research facilities,maintenance, storage, and utility facilities, auditoriums, dining halls, foodservice and preparation facilities, fire prevention facilities, mental andphysical health care facilities, dental care facilities, nursing schools,mental teaching facilities, offices, parking facilities, and other supportingservice structures.

(8)        Providing land forcorporate purposes.

(9)        Providing facilitiesfor law enforcement, including without limitation headquarters buildings,station buildings, jails and other confinement facilities, training facilities,alarm systems, and communications systems.

(10)      Providing libraryfacilities, including without limitation fixed and mobile libraries.

(11)      Providing artgalleries, museums, and art centers, and providing for historic properties.

(12)      Providing parkingfacilities, including on‑ and off‑street parking, and in connectiontherewith any area or place for the parking and storing of automobiles andother vehicles open to public use, with or without charge, including withoutlimitation meters, buildings, garages, driveways, and approaches.

(13)      Providing parks andrecreation facilities, including without limitation land, athletic fields,parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, shelters, stadiums, arenas, permanentand temporary stands, golf courses, swimming pools, wading pools, marinas, andlighting.

(14)      Providing publicbuilding, including without limitation buildings housing courtrooms, othercourt facilities, and council rooms, office buildings, public markets, publiccomfort stations, warehouses, and yards.

(15)      Providing publicvehicles, including without limitation those for law enforcement, fire fightingand prevention, sanitation, street paving and maintenance, safety and publichealth, and other corporate purposes.

(16)      Providing forredevelopment through the acquisition of land and the improvement thereof forassisting local redevelopment commissions.

(17)      Providing sanitarysewer systems, including without limitation community sewerage facilities forthe collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage or septic tank systems andother on‑site collection and disposal facilities or systems.

(18)      Providing solid wastedisposal systems, including without limitation land for sanitary landfills,incinerators, and other structures and buildings.

(19)      Providing stormsewers and flood control facilities, including without limitation levees,dikes, diversionary channels, drains, catch basins, and other facilities forstorm water drainage.

(20)      Providing votingmachines.

(21)      Providing watersystems, including without limitation facilities for the supply, storage,treatment, and distribution of water.

(22)      Providing for anyother purpose for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(23)      Providing publictransportation facilities, including without limitation equipment for publictransportation, buses, surface and below‑ground railways, ferries, andgarage facilities.

(24)      Providing industrialparks, land suitable for industrial or commercial purposes, shell buildings, inorder to provide employment opportunities for citizens of the county or city.

(25)      Providing property topreserve a railroad corridor.

(26)      (For effectivedate, see note) Undertaking public activities in or for the benefit of adevelopment financing district pursuant to a development financing plan.

(c)        Each county isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidenceof the debt for the purpose of, in the case of subdivisions (1) through (4b) ofthis subsection, paying any capital costs of any one or more of the purposesand, in the case of subdivisions (5) and (6) of this subsection, to finance thecost of the purpose:

(1)        Providing communitycollege facilities, including without limitation buildings, plants, and otherfacilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, student unions, dormitories, gymnasiums,athletic fields, cafeterias, utility plants, and garages.

(2)        Providingcourthouses, including without limitation offices, meeting rooms, courtfacilities and rooms, and detention facilities.

(3)        Providing countyhomes for the indigent and infirm.

(4)        Providing schoolfacilities, including without limitation schoolhouses, buildings, plants andother facilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, gymnasiums, athletic fields, lunchrooms,utility plants, garages, and school buses and other necessary vehicles.

(4a)      Providingimprovements to subdivision and residential streets pursuant to G.S. 153A‑205.

(4b)      Providing land forpresent or future county corporate, open space, community college, and publicschool purposes.

(5)        Providing for theoctennial revaluation of real property for taxation.

(6)        Providing housingprojects for persons of low or moderate income, including construction or acquisitionof projects to be owned by a county, redevelopment commission, or housingauthority and the provision of loans, grants, interest supplements, and otherprograms of financial assistance to such persons. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income if at least fortypercent (40%) of the units in the project are exclusively reserved for personsof low or moderate income. No rent subsidy may be paid from bond proceeds.

(d)        Each city isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thefollowing:

(1)        Repealed by SessionLaws 1977, c. 402, s. 2.

(2)        Providing cabletelevision systems.

(3)        Providing electricsystems, including without limitation facilities for the generation,transmission, and distribution of electric light and power.

(4)        Providing gassystems, including without limitation facilities for the production, storage,transmission and distribution of gas, where systems shall also include thepurchase and/or lease of natural gas fields and natural gas reserves and thepurchase of natural gas supplies, and where any parts of such systems may belocated either within the State or without.

(5)        Providing streetsand sidewalks, including without limitation bridges, viaducts, causeways,overpasses, underpasses, and alleys; paving, grading, resurfacing, and wideningstreets; sidewalks, curbs and gutters, culverts, and drains; traffic controls,signals, and markers; lighting; and grade crossings and the elimination thereofand grade separations.

(6)        Improving existingsystems or facilities for the transmission or distribution of telephoneservices.

(7)        Providing housingprojects for the benefit of persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, including without limitation (i) construction oracquisition of projects to be owned by a city, redevelopment commission orhousing authority, and (ii) loans, grants, interest supplements and other programsof financial assistance to persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, and developers of housing for persons of low income, ormoderate income, or low and moderate income. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income, as long as at leasttwenty percent (20%) of the units in the project are set aside for housing forthe exclusive use of persons of low income. No rent subsidy may be paid frombond proceeds.

(e)        Each sanitarydistrict, mosquito control district, hospital district, merged schooladministrative unit described in G.S. 115C‑513; metropolitan seweragedistrict, metropolitan water district, county water and sewer district,regional public transportation authority and special airport district isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thepurposes for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(f)         For any of thepurposes authorized by subsections (b), (c), (d), or (e) of this section, aunit may do any of the following that it considers necessary or convenient:

(1)        Acquire, construct,erect, provide, develop, install, furnish, and equip; and

(2)        Reconstruct,remodel, alter, renovate, replace, refurnish, and reequip; and

(3)        Enlarge, expand, andextend; and

(4)        Demolish, relocate,improve, grade, drain, landscape, pave, widen, and resurface.

(g)        Bonds for two ormore unrelated purposes, not of the same general class or character, shall notbe authorized by the same bond order. However, bonds for any of the purposeslisted in any subdivision of any subsection of this section shall be deemed tobe for one purpose and may be authorized by the same bond order. In addition,nothing herein may be deemed to prohibit the combining of purposes from any ofsuch paragraphs and the authorization of bonds therefor by the same bond order tothe extent that the purposes are not unrelated.

(h)        As used in thissection, "capital costs" include, without limitation, the following:

(1)        The costs of doingany or all of the things mentioned in subsection (f) of this section; and

(2)        The costs of all property,both real and personal and both improved and unimproved, plants, works,appurtenances, structures, facilities, furnishings, machinery, equipment,vehicles, easements, water rights, franchises, and licenses used or useful inconnection with the purpose authorized; and

(3)        The costs ofdemolishing or moving structures from land acquired and acquiring any lands towhich such structures are to be moved; and

(4)        Financing charges,including estimated interest during construction and for six months thereafter;and

(5)        The costs of plans,specifications, studies and reports, surveys, and estimates of costs andrevenues; and

(6)        The costs of bondprinting and insurance; and

(7)        Administrative andlegal expenses; and

(8)        Any other services,costs, and expenses necessary or incidental to the purpose authorized.

(i)         This section doesnot authorize any unit to undertake any program, function, joint undertaking,or service not otherwise authorized by law. It is intended only to authorizethe borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds within the limitations set outherein to finance programs, functions, joint undertakings, or servicesauthorized by other portions of the General Statutes or by city charters.  (1917, c. 138, s. 16; 1919,c. 178, s. 3(16); C.S., s. 2937; 1921, c. 8, s. 1; Ex. Sess. 1921, c. 106, s.1; 1927, c. 81, s. 8; 1929, c. 171, s. 1; 1931, c. 60, ss. 48, 54; 1933, c.259, ss. 1, 2; 1935, c. 302, ss. 1, 2; 1939, c. 231, ss. 1, 2(c); 1943, c. 13;1945, c. 403; 1947, cc. 520, 931; 1949, c. 354; c. 766, s. 3; c. 1270; 1953, c.1065, s. 1; 1957, c. 266, s. 1; c. 856, s. 1; c. 1098, s. 16; 1959, c. 525; c.1250, s. 2; 1961, c. 293; c. 1001, s. 2; 1965, c. 307, s. 2; 1967, c. 987, s.2; c. 1001, s. 1; 1971, c. 780, s. 1; 1973, c. 494, s. 4; c. 1037; 1975, c.549, s. 1; c. 821, s. 1; 1977, c. 402, ss. 1, 2; c. 811; 1979, c. 619, s. 3; c.624, s. 1; c. 727, s. 3; 1985, c. 639, s. 2; 1987, c. 464, s. 7; c. 564, s. 10;1989, c. 600, s. 7; c. 740, s. 4; 1991, c. 325, s. 5; 1997‑6, s. 19; 1999‑366,s. 4; 1999‑378, s. 1; 2003‑403, s. 3; 2009‑281, s. 1.)


State Codes and Statutes

State Codes and Statutes

Statutes > North-carolina > Chapter_159 > GS_159-48

§ 159‑48.  For whatpurposes bonds may be issued.

(a)        Each unit of localgovernment is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Articlein evidence thereof for any one or more of the following purposes:

(1)        To suppress riots,insurrections, or any extraordinary breach of law and order.

(2)        To supply anunforeseen deficiency in the revenue when taxes actually received or collectedduring the fiscal year fall below collection estimates made in the annualbudget ordinance within the limits prescribed in G.S. 159‑13.

(3)        To meet emergenciesthreatening the public health or safety, as conclusively determined in writingby the Governor.

(4)        To refundoutstanding revenue bonds or revenue bond anticipation notes.

(5)        To refundoutstanding general obligation bonds or general obligation bond anticipationnotes.

(6)        To fund judgmentsfor specified sums of money entered against the unit by a court of competentjurisdiction.

(7)        To fund valid,existing obligations of the unit not incurred by the borrowing of money.

(b)        Each county andcity is authorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article inevidence thereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or moreof the following:

(1)        Providing airportfacilities, including without limitation related land, landing fields, runways,clear zones, lighting, navigational and signal systems, hangars, terminals,offices, shops, and parking facilities.

(2)        Providing armoriesfor the North Carolina National Guard.

(3)        Providingauditoriums, coliseums, arenas, stadiums, civic centers, convention centers,and facilities for exhibitions, athletic and cultural events, shows, and publicgatherings.

(4)        Providing beachimprovements, including without limitation jetties, seawalls, groins, moles, sanddunes, vegetation, additional sand, pumps and related equipment, and drainagechannels, for the control of beach erosion and the improvement of beaches.

(5)        Providingcemeteries.

(6)        Providing facilitiesfor fire fighting and prevention, including without limitation headquartersbuildings, station buildings, training facilities, hydrants, alarm systems, andcommunications systems.

(7)        Providing hospitalfacilities, including without limitation general, tuberculosis, mental, chronicdisease, and other types of hospitals and related facilities such aslaboratories, outpatient departments, nurses' homes and training facilities,and central service facilities operated in connection with hospitals;facilities for the provision of public health services, including relatedfacilities such as laboratories, clinics, and administrative offices;facilities specially designed for the diagnosis, treatment, education,training, or custodial care of the mentally retarded, including facilities fortraining specialists and sheltered workshops for the mentally retarded; nursinghomes; and in connection with the foregoing, laundries, nurses', doctors', orinterns' residences, administrative buildings, research facilities,maintenance, storage, and utility facilities, auditoriums, dining halls, foodservice and preparation facilities, fire prevention facilities, mental andphysical health care facilities, dental care facilities, nursing schools,mental teaching facilities, offices, parking facilities, and other supportingservice structures.

(8)        Providing land forcorporate purposes.

(9)        Providing facilitiesfor law enforcement, including without limitation headquarters buildings,station buildings, jails and other confinement facilities, training facilities,alarm systems, and communications systems.

(10)      Providing libraryfacilities, including without limitation fixed and mobile libraries.

(11)      Providing artgalleries, museums, and art centers, and providing for historic properties.

(12)      Providing parkingfacilities, including on‑ and off‑street parking, and in connectiontherewith any area or place for the parking and storing of automobiles andother vehicles open to public use, with or without charge, including withoutlimitation meters, buildings, garages, driveways, and approaches.

(13)      Providing parks andrecreation facilities, including without limitation land, athletic fields,parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, shelters, stadiums, arenas, permanentand temporary stands, golf courses, swimming pools, wading pools, marinas, andlighting.

(14)      Providing publicbuilding, including without limitation buildings housing courtrooms, othercourt facilities, and council rooms, office buildings, public markets, publiccomfort stations, warehouses, and yards.

(15)      Providing publicvehicles, including without limitation those for law enforcement, fire fightingand prevention, sanitation, street paving and maintenance, safety and publichealth, and other corporate purposes.

(16)      Providing forredevelopment through the acquisition of land and the improvement thereof forassisting local redevelopment commissions.

(17)      Providing sanitarysewer systems, including without limitation community sewerage facilities forthe collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage or septic tank systems andother on‑site collection and disposal facilities or systems.

(18)      Providing solid wastedisposal systems, including without limitation land for sanitary landfills,incinerators, and other structures and buildings.

(19)      Providing stormsewers and flood control facilities, including without limitation levees,dikes, diversionary channels, drains, catch basins, and other facilities forstorm water drainage.

(20)      Providing votingmachines.

(21)      Providing watersystems, including without limitation facilities for the supply, storage,treatment, and distribution of water.

(22)      Providing for anyother purpose for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(23)      Providing publictransportation facilities, including without limitation equipment for publictransportation, buses, surface and below‑ground railways, ferries, andgarage facilities.

(24)      Providing industrialparks, land suitable for industrial or commercial purposes, shell buildings, inorder to provide employment opportunities for citizens of the county or city.

(25)      Providing property topreserve a railroad corridor.

(26)      (For effectivedate, see note) Undertaking public activities in or for the benefit of adevelopment financing district pursuant to a development financing plan.

(c)        Each county isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidenceof the debt for the purpose of, in the case of subdivisions (1) through (4b) ofthis subsection, paying any capital costs of any one or more of the purposesand, in the case of subdivisions (5) and (6) of this subsection, to finance thecost of the purpose:

(1)        Providing communitycollege facilities, including without limitation buildings, plants, and otherfacilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, student unions, dormitories, gymnasiums,athletic fields, cafeterias, utility plants, and garages.

(2)        Providingcourthouses, including without limitation offices, meeting rooms, courtfacilities and rooms, and detention facilities.

(3)        Providing countyhomes for the indigent and infirm.

(4)        Providing schoolfacilities, including without limitation schoolhouses, buildings, plants andother facilities, physical and vocational educational buildings and facilities,including in connection therewith classrooms, laboratories, libraries,auditoriums, administrative offices, gymnasiums, athletic fields, lunchrooms,utility plants, garages, and school buses and other necessary vehicles.

(4a)      Providingimprovements to subdivision and residential streets pursuant to G.S. 153A‑205.

(4b)      Providing land forpresent or future county corporate, open space, community college, and publicschool purposes.

(5)        Providing for theoctennial revaluation of real property for taxation.

(6)        Providing housingprojects for persons of low or moderate income, including construction or acquisitionof projects to be owned by a county, redevelopment commission, or housingauthority and the provision of loans, grants, interest supplements, and otherprograms of financial assistance to such persons. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income if at least fortypercent (40%) of the units in the project are exclusively reserved for personsof low or moderate income. No rent subsidy may be paid from bond proceeds.

(d)        Each city isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thefollowing:

(1)        Repealed by SessionLaws 1977, c. 402, s. 2.

(2)        Providing cabletelevision systems.

(3)        Providing electricsystems, including without limitation facilities for the generation,transmission, and distribution of electric light and power.

(4)        Providing gassystems, including without limitation facilities for the production, storage,transmission and distribution of gas, where systems shall also include thepurchase and/or lease of natural gas fields and natural gas reserves and thepurchase of natural gas supplies, and where any parts of such systems may belocated either within the State or without.

(5)        Providing streetsand sidewalks, including without limitation bridges, viaducts, causeways,overpasses, underpasses, and alleys; paving, grading, resurfacing, and wideningstreets; sidewalks, curbs and gutters, culverts, and drains; traffic controls,signals, and markers; lighting; and grade crossings and the elimination thereofand grade separations.

(6)        Improving existingsystems or facilities for the transmission or distribution of telephoneservices.

(7)        Providing housingprojects for the benefit of persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, including without limitation (i) construction oracquisition of projects to be owned by a city, redevelopment commission orhousing authority, and (ii) loans, grants, interest supplements and other programsof financial assistance to persons of low income, or moderate income, or lowand moderate income, and developers of housing for persons of low income, ormoderate income, or low and moderate income. A housing project may providehousing for persons of other than low or moderate income, as long as at leasttwenty percent (20%) of the units in the project are set aside for housing forthe exclusive use of persons of low income. No rent subsidy may be paid frombond proceeds.

(e)        Each sanitarydistrict, mosquito control district, hospital district, merged schooladministrative unit described in G.S. 115C‑513; metropolitan seweragedistrict, metropolitan water district, county water and sewer district,regional public transportation authority and special airport district isauthorized to borrow money and issue its bonds under this Article in evidencethereof for the purpose of paying any capital costs of any one or more of thepurposes for which it is authorized, by general laws uniformly applicablethroughout the State, to raise or appropriate money, except for currentexpenses.

(f)         For any of thepurposes authorized by subsections (b), (c), (d), or (e) of this section, aunit may do any of the following that it considers necessary or convenient:

(1)        Acquire, construct,erect, provide, develop, install, furnish, and equip; and

(2)        Reconstruct,remodel, alter, renovate, replace, refurnish, and reequip; and

(3)        Enlarge, expand, andextend; and

(4)        Demolish, relocate,improve, grade, drain, landscape, pave, widen, and resurface.

(g)        Bonds for two ormore unrelated purposes, not of the same general class or character, shall notbe authorized by the same bond order. However, bonds for any of the purposeslisted in any subdivision of any subsection of this section shall be deemed tobe for one purpose and may be authorized by the same bond order. In addition,nothing herein may be deemed to prohibit the combining of purposes from any ofsuch paragraphs and the authorization of bonds therefor by the same bond order tothe extent that the purposes are not unrelated.

(h)        As used in thissection, "capital costs" include, without limitation, the following:

(1)        The costs of doingany or all of the things mentioned in subsection (f) of this section; and

(2)        The costs of all property,both real and personal and both improved and unimproved, plants, works,appurtenances, structures, facilities, furnishings, machinery, equipment,vehicles, easements, water rights, franchises, and licenses used or useful inconnection with the purpose authorized; and

(3)        The costs ofdemolishing or moving structures from land acquired and acquiring any lands towhich such structures are to be moved; and

(4)        Financing charges,including estimated interest during construction and for six months thereafter;and

(5)        The costs of plans,specifications, studies and reports, surveys, and estimates of costs andrevenues; and

(6)        The costs of bondprinting and insurance; and

(7)        Administrative andlegal expenses; and

(8)        Any other services,costs, and expenses necessary or incidental to the purpose authorized.

(i)         This section doesnot authorize any unit to undertake any program, function, joint undertaking,or service not otherwise authorized by law. It is intended only to authorizethe borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds within the limitations set outherein to finance programs, functions, joint undertakings, or servicesauthorized by other portions of the General Statutes or by city charters.  (1917, c. 138, s. 16; 1919,c. 178, s. 3(16); C.S., s. 2937; 1921, c. 8, s. 1; Ex. Sess. 1921, c. 106, s.1; 1927, c. 81, s. 8; 1929, c. 171, s. 1; 1931, c. 60, ss. 48, 54; 1933, c.259, ss. 1, 2; 1935, c. 302, ss. 1, 2; 1939, c. 231, ss. 1, 2(c); 1943, c. 13;1945, c. 403; 1947, cc. 520, 931; 1949, c. 354; c. 766, s. 3; c. 1270; 1953, c.1065, s. 1; 1957, c. 266, s. 1; c. 856, s. 1; c. 1098, s. 16; 1959, c. 525; c.1250, s. 2; 1961, c. 293; c. 1001, s. 2; 1965, c. 307, s. 2; 1967, c. 987, s.2; c. 1001, s. 1; 1971, c. 780, s. 1; 1973, c. 494, s. 4; c. 1037; 1975, c.549, s. 1; c. 821, s. 1; 1977, c. 402, ss. 1, 2; c. 811; 1979, c. 619, s. 3; c.624, s. 1; c. 727, s. 3; 1985, c. 639, s. 2; 1987, c. 464, s. 7; c. 564, s. 10;1989, c. 600, s. 7; c. 740, s. 4; 1991, c. 325, s. 5; 1997‑6, s. 19; 1999‑366,s. 4; 1999‑378, s. 1; 2003‑403, s. 3; 2009‑281, s. 1.)