AMENDMENT 770 RATIFIED

Bonds for Land and Capital Improvements in Mobile County.

In addition to all other bonds authorized under the amendment to the Constitution known as Amendment 18, as previously amended, and as it may hereafter be amended, Mobile County may at any time and from time to time issue its bonds for the acquisition and improvement of land and for acquisition, construction, installation, and equipping, or any of them, of capital improvements in said county. Such capital improvements may include any type of capital projects the acquisition, improvement, construction, installation, and equipping of which is within the powers of the county. Provided, that any bonds may be issued hereunder only after a majority of the qualified electors of said county voting at an election called for that purpose by the governing body of said county shall have voted in favor of the issuance of such bonds. Each such election shall be called, held, conducted, and canvassed, and notice thereof shall be given, in the manner provided by the general laws of Alabama respecting elections on the issue of bonds by counties, as such laws may exist at the time such election is called; provided, that prior to the holding of any election hereunder, the governing body of Mobile County shall cause to be prepared engineering maps, plans and reports respecting the proposed work on any capital improvements and shall adopt a resolution containing a brief description, including the name if any, of each proposed item of construction or improvement, a statement of the location and, as to any road project, the length, of each such item and of the estimated cost thereof, and a statement of the total amount of the bonds proposed to be issued for all work of construction or improvement described in said resolution, and shall cause said resolution to be published in a newspaper published in the county one time not less than thirty days before such election. Any number of items of construction or improvement may be described in one resolution; and the question of the issuance of bonds and the levy and collection of said tax with respect to all of the work described in each resolution shall be submitted to the voters in one single proposition at any election held hereunder. Any number of such resolutions may be adopted on the same day, and any number of propositions may be submitted to the voters on the same day. The adoption of any such resolution prior to the ratification of this amendment, and the submission of any one or more propositions for approval by the voters of the county on the same day on which this amendment is presented for ratification, is hereby ratified and approved.

The bonds issued hereunder shall be general obligations of Mobile County secured by a pledge of its full faith and credit, and in addition thereto, the governing body of said county shall in the proceedings providing for the issuance of such bonds specially pledge for payment of the principal thereof and the interest thereon, so much of the special tax authorized by Amendment 18, as such amendment has been amended from time to time, as may be necessary to pay said principal and interest at their respective maturities. Each such pledge of the special tax made for the benefit of the bonds issued hereunder shall be on a parity with all valid pledges of said special tax theretofore or thereafter made for the benefit of bonds issued hereunder or under any other constitutional amendment, to such extent as shall not impair the obligations of any then existing valid pledges. Except as herein otherwise provided, all bonds issued hereunder shall be issued in accordance with, and shall be subject to, the provisions of the general laws of Alabama respecting the sale, execution, issuance, and redemption of bonds by counties, as such laws may exist at the time of the delivery of such bonds.

Bonds may be issued under this amendment in one or more series and may be sold at either public or private sale in such manner, at such price or prices and at such time or times as may be determined by the governing body of the county to be most advantageous. The principal of each series of bonds issued under this amendment shall mature not later than thirty (30) years after the date of the bonds of that series and otherwise may mature in such amounts during each fiscal year without regard to the limitations set forth in the amendment to the Constitution known as Amendment 152; provided, that the maturities of each series of bonds issued under this Amendment shall be arranged so that the aggregate amount of principal and interest that will mature in any one fiscal year with respect to that series of bonds, and also all other bonds theretofore issued by the county and then outstanding that are payable out of or secured by a pledge of the aforesaid special tax, shall not exceed the amount of the proceeds collected from the special tax during the then next preceding tax year. Except as herein otherwise provided, all bonds issued under this amendment shall be issued in accordance with, and shall be subject to, the provisions of the general laws of the state existing at the time of the issuance of such bonds respecting the sale, execution, issuance and redemption of bonds by counties. The indebtedness evidenced by the bonds issued under this amendment or under any other amendment to the Constitution which are payable out of or are secured by a pledge of the special tax shall be in addition to and shall not be charged against the limitation on the indebtedness of the county provided for in Section 224 of the Constitution.

The total principal amount of bonds at any time issued hereunder, when added to the principal amount of all then outstanding bonds theretofore issued hereunder and of all the outstanding bonds theretofore issued under any other constitutional amendment that are payable from or secured by the said special tax, shall not exceed six and one-half per centum (6 1/2%) of the assessed valuation of the taxable property situated in said county, as assessed for state taxation for the then preceding state tax year. The limitation of six and one-half per centum (6 1/2%) of the assessed value of taxable property in the county, hereinabove provided for, is applicable only to the amount of bonds that may be outstanding immediately following the delivery of each series of bonds issued hereunder and shall not restrict the total amount of bonds that may be from time to time issued hereunder.

So long as the principal of or interest on any of the bonds issued under this amendment remains unpaid, the governing body of the county shall continue the levy of the aforesaid special tax at such rate as may be sufficient to pay the said principal and interest at their respective maturities; provided, that the total rate of said special tax that may be levied and collected for payment of the said bonds and all other bonds payable out of or secured by a pledge of said special tax shall not exceed the rate at which the county may levy the special tax as fixed under the amendment to the Constitution known as Amendment 447, except to the extent that the said rate may be increased pursuant to provisions of this Constitution hereafter adopted.

The provisions of this amendment shall be self-executing, and the enactment of local legislation shall not be a prerequisite to the taking of any action hereunder by the said county and its governing body; and no local legislation at any time adopted with respect to this amendment shall be effective, and all such local legislation is hereby repealed.