AMENDMENT 191 RATIFIED

Promotion of Industrial, Commercial and Agricultural Development in Madison County and City of Huntsville.

For the promotion of local industrial, commercial or agricultural development, Madison county and the city of Huntsville shall each have full and continuing power (a) to purchase, construct, lease and otherwise acquire industrial, commercial and agricultural projects, including real and personal property, plants, buildings, factories, works, facilities, machinery and equipment of any kind whatsoever, (b) to lease, sell, exchange or otherwise convey all or any part of any such project to any person, firm or corporation, and (c) after an approving election as hereinafter provided, to sell and issue for such purposes interest-bearing general obligation bonds. Neither the county nor the city shall issue any bonds under the authority of this amendment unless the question of the issuance of such bonds has first been submitted to the qualified electors of the county or the city, as the case may be, and approved at such election by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereat. Each such election shall be called, held and conducted, and may be contested, in the manner provided by law for county or municipal bond elections, as the case may be. Bonds issued under the authority of this amendment shall not be considered indebtedness of the county or the city, as the case may be, within the meaning of sections 224 and 225 of the Constitution of Alabama, but neither the county nor the city shall at any time issue any bonds under the authority of this amendment if as a result thereof it will have outstanding an aggregate principal amount of bonds issued hereunder in excess of twenty per cent of the assessed value of the property in the county or the city, as the case may be. Neither shall the county or the city issue any bonds under the authority of this amendment unless prior thereto or contemporaneously therewith the county or the city, as the case may be, has entered into a lease or other similar agreement, with respect to the project being financed by such bonds, providing for the payment to the county or the city, as the case may be, of net rentals sufficient to pay the principal of and the interest on such bonds at the respective maturities of such principal and interest, and any bonds issued hereunder shall be secured by a pledge of such rentals and may be secured by a foreclosable mortgage on such project and by a pledge of any other taxes and revenues which the county or the city, as the case may be, is authorized by law to pledge to the payment of its bonded indebtedness. All bonds issued under the authority of this amendment shall be sold at public sale in the manner required by law for the sale of county or municipal bonds, as the case may be, and shall mature and be payable in annual or semiannual installments in such amounts and at such times as to result in the aggregate amount of principal and interest maturing thereon in each year following the year of their issuance being substantially equal, but shall not be subject to any other provisions of law relating to maturities of county or municipal bonds. In the event that any such action is necessary to prevent or cure a default in payment of the principal of or the interest on any bonds issued under the authority of this amendment, the county or the city, as the case may be, is authorized to levy and collect ad valorem taxes, without limitation as to rate or amount, on the assessed value of all taxable property in the county or the city, as the case may be, but only so long as and only to such extent as necessary to prevent or cure any such default.

In carrying out the purposes of this amendment, neither Madison county nor the city of Huntsville shall be subject to the provisions of section 93 of the Constitution of Alabama, and the taxes which the county and the city are hereinabove authorized to levy and collect are in addition to all other taxes which the county and the city are authorized to levy and collect. This amendment shall be self-executing, but, notwithstanding any contrary provisions of section 104 of the Constitution of Alabama, the legislature shall have the power, by general, special or local act, to enact laws supplemental hereto or in furtherance of the purposes hereof.