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  AS 29.47.460 is repealed and reenacted to read:                                                      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