00                             HOUSE BILL NO. 521                                                                          
01 "An Act relating to municipal improvement areas."                                                                       
02 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
03    * Section 1.  AS 29.47.460 is repealed and reenacted to read:                                                      
04            Sec. 29.47.460.  Debt for improvement area projects.  (a)  A municipality                                  
05       may issue bonds to finance or to make loans to finance the acquisition, construction,                             
06       rehabilitation, or development of public or private improvements in improvement                                   
07       areas.  The municipality may issue the bonds as general obligation bonds or as revenue                            
08       bonds or as a combination of revenue bonds and general obligation bonds.  The                                     
09       municipality may pledge revenues described in (b) of this section, payments to be                                 
10       made by users and owners of the improvements, payments to be made by borrowers of                                 
11       the proceeds of the bonds, and any other revenues available to the municipality to the                            
12       payment of bonds issued under this subsection.  To the extent that the municipality                               
13       issues general obligation bonds under this subsection, the provisions of AS 29.47.180                             
14       - 29.47.200 apply to the bonds.  To the extent that the municipality issues revenue                               
01       bonds under this subsection, the provisions of AS 29.47.250 and 29.47.260 apply to                                
02       the bonds.                                                                                                        
03            (b)  A municipality may provide by ordinance that the tax increment from the                                 
04       taxes levied each year by or on behalf of the municipality on the property in an                                  
05       improvement area shall be issued to pay the principal and interest on bonds issued                                
06       under (a) of this section for improvements in that improvement area, and may                                      
07       irrevocably pledge the tax increment from the area for that purpose.  The area                                    
08       described in the ordinance may be a service area.  Nothing in this section obligates a                            
09       municipality that has issued bonds under (a) of this section and pledged a tax                                    
10       increment to the payment of those bonds under this subsection to levy any tax in the                              
11       improvement area or any other area or to levy a tax at any particular rate within the                             
12       improvement area or any other area.                                                                               
13            (c)  The power granted by this section is in addition to other powers granted to                             
14       municipalities and does not restrict or limit the powers municipalities may have under                            
15       other provisions of law.                                                                                          
16            (d)  In this section,                                                                                        
17                 (1)  "bonds" means bonds, notes, and other forms of indebtedness;                                       
18                 (2)  "improvement area" means an area that a municipality determines                                    
19       to be                                                                                                             
20                      (A)  a blighted area on the basis of the substantial presence of                                   
21            factors such as excessive vacant land on which structures were previously                                    
22            located, abandoned or vacant buildings, substandard structures, and                                          
23            delinquencies in payment of real property taxes; or                                                          
24                      (B)  an area that is capable of being substantially improved                                       
25            based on the property value within the area;                                                                 
26                 (3)  "tax increment" means the portion of a tax that is attributable to the                             
27       difference between the value of property within an improvement area shown on the                                  
28       taxing agency's assessment roll for the year when the taxes are levied and the value of                           
29       the property shown on the taxing agency's last assessment roll that was equalized                                 
30       before the improvements in the improvement area were authorized.