AMENDMENT 194 RATIFIED

Budget of Mobile County Public Hospital Board.

A. The following terms, wherever used in this amendment, shall be given the respective meanings hereinafter set forth. "The board" means Mobile county public hospital board, a public corporation existing under Act No. 46 adopted at the 1949 regular session of the legislature of Alabama, as amended. "The 1955 board" means Mobile county hospital board created and provided for in Act No. 105 adopted at the 1955 regular session of the said legislature, as amended. "Public hospital facilities" means public hospitals of all types, public clinics, public health centers, related public health facilities such as laboratories, out-patient departments, nurses' homes, and nurses' training facilities, and other facilities operated in connection with public hospitals. "Public hospital purposes" means the acquisition, by purchase, lease, donation or otherwise, and the construction, equipment, operation and maintenance of public hospital facilities, including the treatment and care of indigent patients; "Participating municipality" means each municipality in Mobile county having a population in excess of one thousand, according to the last federal census or any subsequent federal or other official census. "Local subdivision" means Mobile county and each participating municipality.

B. The board is hereby authorized and directed to prepare a budget for each of its fiscal years setting forth (a) the estimated amount of all expenditures that the board anticipates making during such fiscal year for payment of administering, operating and maintaining any public hospital facilities owned or managed by the board, including expenses for treatment and care of indigent patients, payment of rentals with respect to any such public hospital facilities, payment of costs of the acquisition and equipment of public hospital facilities, and payment of installments of principal and interest, or either, maturing during that fiscal year on obligations incurred or securities issued by the board for any of the aforesaid purposes; and (b) the estimated amount of all moneys that the board anticipates receiving during the same fiscal year and that the board has the right lawfully to apply for payment of the estimated expenditures set forth in the same budget, including revenue of the board from the operation of any public hospital facilities owned or operated by it, and any donations, taxes, appropriations, contributions by the United States and any income or receipts from any other source that the board has the right lawfully to use for payment of the said expenditures. Whenever the board shall determine that the estimated amount of the said expenditures during any fiscal year will exceed the estimated amount of the said receipts during any fiscal year, as shown by the budget for that fiscal year, then the board shall have the power to allocate the said deficit among Mobile county and each participating municipality, the amount allocated to each local subdivision being a sum constituting the same proportion of the total of the said deficit that the population of that local subdivision bears to a figure equal to the population of the entire of Mobile county plus the population of each participating municipality, all such population figures to be based on the last federal census or any subsequent federal or other official census, and shall have the power to assess, levy and collect from Mobile county and each participating municipality a sum equal to the portion of the deficit allocated by the board to each local subdivision, which sum shall be payable to the board by each local subdivision in twelve (12) equal monthly installments on the first day of each month in the fiscal year with respect to which the said budget was made; provided, however, that if a special annual ad valorem county tax for public hospital purposes shall be voted in Mobile county, then the power of the board to allocate any deficit among the local subdivisions and to assess, levy, and collect the amounts so allocated shall terminate after payment of the monthly installment falling due on the January 1 next succeeding the October 1 on which any such ad valorem tax so voted shall first be payable. The assessments and levies that the board is herein authorized to make, shall constitute binding obligations and debts of the local subdivisions collectible by suit or action brought by the board in any court of competent jurisdiction; but such obligations on the part of the aforesaid local subdivisions shall not be deemed to constitute debts of any local subdivision within the meaning of either section 224 or section 225 of the Constitution. The legislature shall have the continuing power by local or special legislation adopted at any time and from time to time, and without compliance with the provisions of section 106 of the Constitution, to specify the character and the maximum capacity or size of the public hospital facilities with respect to which items of expenditure may be included in any budget prepared by the board hereunder. Any such legislation adopted prior to the effective date of this amendment is hereby validated. The requirements of this amendment, and of any such legislation at any time adopted, as to the character and capacity or size of the public hospital facilities with respect to which items of expenditures may be included in any budget prepared by the board hereunder shall cease to be effective upon the termination, under the provisions hereof, of the power of the board to make allocation of the aforesaid deficit among the local subdivisions.

C. The 1955 board is hereby authorized to transfer to the board, and the board is hereby authorized to assume, all assets, contracts, properties, obligations and liabilities of the 1955 board. The corporate existence of the 1955 board and all of its acts in acquiring property, making contracts and incurring obligations and liabilities are hereby validated; and the transfer by the 1955 board to the board of all of the said assets, contracts, properties, obligations and liabilities and the assumption of all thereof by the board, to such extent as the said transfer and assumption shall have taken place on the date when this amendment becomes a part of the Constitution, are hereby validated. Following the completion of such transfer and assumption, the governing body of Mobile county is authorized to adopt a resolution declaring the 1955 board to be dissolved, whereupon it shall be dissolved.

D. Bonds and other securities issued by the board shall not be deemed to constitute debts of Mobile county within the meaning of section 224 of the Constitution or debts of any participating municipality within the meaning of section 225 of the Constitution, and shall not be deemed to constitute bonds of Mobile county or of any political subdivision thereof within the meaning of section 222 of the Constitution, regardless of whether any such bonds or other securities may be made payable from, or secured by a pledge of, the assessments herein provided for, the proceeds of any contract between the board and any local subdivision, all or part of the proceeds from any tax of any kind that may be allocated or appropriated to the board, revenues from operation of public hospital facilities owned or operated by the board, or any other revenues of the board. All pledges of any revenues of the board that may be made by it for the benefit of any securities issued by it shall take precedence in the order in which made and shall create a charge on the revenues so pledged prior to the expenses of operating and maintaining any public hospital facilities.