§ 18-2901. Urban growth district; authorized; urban growth bonds and refunding bonds.

(1) The Legislature recognizes that there is a growing concern among municipalities that infrastructure costs and needs are great, especially in areas that are on the edge of or near the municipal boundaries and in need of development resources, and the governing bodies of municipalities must identify and develop financing mechanisms to respond to all infrastructure needs in an effective and efficient manner. The authorization of urban growth bonds, with local option sales and use tax revenue identified as the source of financing for the bonds, will encourage municipalities to use such revenue to bond infrastructure needs. (2) The governing body of a municipality may create one or more urban growth districts for the purpose of using local option sales and use tax revenue to finance municipal infrastructure needs. An urban growth district may be in an area along the edge of a municipality's boundary or in any other growth area designated by the governing body, except that the territory of each urban growth district shall be (a) within the municipality's corporate limits and (b) outside the municipality's corporate limits as they existed as of the date twenty years prior to the creation of the urban growth district. (3) The governing body shall establish an urban growth district by ordinance. The ordinance shall include: (a) A description of the boundaries of the proposed district; and (b) The local option sales tax rate and estimated urban growth local option sales and use tax revenue anticipated to be identified as a result of the creation of the district. (4) Any municipality that has established an urban growth district may, by ordinance approved by a vote of two-thirds of the members of its governing body, authorize the issuance of urban growth bonds and refunding bonds to finance and refinance the construction or improvement of roads, streets, streetscapes, bridges, and related structures within the urban growth district and in any other area of the municipality. The bonds shall be secured as to payment by a pledge, as determined by the municipality, of the urban growth local option sales and use tax revenue and shall mature not later than twenty-five years after the date of issuance. Annual debt service on all bonds issued with respect to an urban growth district pursuant to this section shall not exceed the urban growth local option sales and use tax revenue with respect to such district for the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the current series of such bonds are issued. For purposes of this section, urban growth local option sales and use tax revenue means the municipality's total local option sales and use tax revenue multiplied by the ratio of the area included in the urban growth district to the total area of the municipality. (5) The issuance of urban growth bonds by any municipality under the authority of this section shall not be subject to any charter or statutory limitations of indebtedness or be subject to any restrictions imposed upon or conditions precedent to the exercise of the powers of municipalities to issue bonds or evidences of indebtedness which may be contained in such charters or other statutes. Any municipality which issues urban growth bonds under the authority of this section shall levy property taxes upon all the taxable property in the municipality at such rate or rates within any applicable charter, statutory, or constitutional limitations as will provide funds which, together with the urban growth local option sales and use tax revenue pledged to the payment of such bonds and any other money made available and used for that purpose, will be sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on such urban growth bonds as they severally mature. History: Laws 2009, LB85, § 1; Laws 2017, LB131, § 1.