§ 3-707. Joint authority; powers.

Any joint authority established under the Joint Airport Authorities Act shall have power: (1) To sue and be sued; (2) To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure; (3) To acquire, hold, and dispose of personal property for its corporate purposes; (4) To acquire, by purchase or condemnation, real property or rights or easements therein necessary or convenient for its corporate purposes and, except as may otherwise be provided in the act, to use the same so long as its corporate existence continues. Such power shall not be exercised by authorities created after September 2, 1973, without further approval until such time as three or more members of the authority have been elected. If the exercise of such power is necessary while three or more appointed members remain on the authority, the appointing body shall approve all proceedings under this subdivision; (5) To make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs and, subject to agreements with bondholders, to make rules and regulations for the use of projects and the establishment and collection of rentals, fees, and all other charges for services or commodities sold, furnished, or supplied by such joint authority; (6) To appoint officers, agents, and employees and fix their compensation; (7) To make contracts, leases, and all other instruments necessary or convenient to the corporate purposes of the joint authority; (8) To design, construct, maintain, operate, improve, and reconstruct, so long as its corporate existence continues, such projects as are necessary and convenient to the maintenance and development of aviation services to and for the political subdivisions by which such joint authority was established, including landing fields, heliports, hangars, shops, passenger and freight terminals, control towers, and all facilities necessary or convenient in connection with any such project, to contract for the construction, operation, or maintenance of any parts thereof or for services to be performed thereon, and to rent parts thereof and grant concessions thereon, all on such terms and conditions as the joint authority may determine. This subdivision shall not be construed to affect the obligation of a lessee to pay taxes if taxes are due under sections 77-202, 77-202.11, and 77-202.12; (9) To include in such project, subject to zoning restrictions, space and facilities for any or all of the following: Public recreation; business, trade, or other exhibitions; sporting or athletic events; public meetings; conventions; and all other kinds of assemblages and, in order to obtain additional revenue, space and facilities for business and commercial purposes. Whenever the joint authority deems it to be in the public interest, it may lease any such project or any part or parts thereof or contract for the management and operation thereof or any part or parts thereof. Any such lease or contract may be for such period of years as the joint authority shall determine. This subdivision shall not be construed to affect the obligation of a lessee to pay taxes if taxes are due under sections 77-202, 77-202.11, and 77-202.12; (10) To charge fees, rentals, and other charges for the use of projects under its jurisdiction subject to and in accordance with such agreements with bondholders as may be made as provided in the act. Subject to contracts with bondholders, all fees, rentals, charges, and other revenue derived from any project shall be applied to the payment of operating, administration, and other necessary expenses of the joint authority properly chargeable to such project and to the payment of the interest on and principal of bonds or for making sinking-fund payments therefor. Subject to contracts with bondholders, the joint authority may treat one or more projects as a single enterprise with respect to revenue, expenses, the issuance of bonds, maintenance, operation, or other purposes; (11) To certify annually to each tax-levying body the amount of tax to be levied for airport purposes subject to section 77-3443, not to exceed three and five-tenths cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable valuation of all of the taxable property therein, to insure that all of the taxable property within each county, city, and village which has become interested in a joint airport authority, directly or indirectly, as set forth in section 3-702, whether at the time of the authority's initial organization or thereafter, becomes subject to taxation for the purposes of such authority. Whenever a city or village so interested in a joint authority is situated within a county which is likewise interested in the same joint authority, the joint authority shall, in order to avoid the possibility of double taxation, certify the tax only to the tax-levying body of the county and shall not certify any tax to the tax-levying body of such city or village. Such tax-levying bodies shall request the county board to levy and collect the taxes so certified at the same time and in the same manner as other taxes of such county, city, or village, as the case may be, are levied and collected, and the proceeds of such taxes as collected shall be set aside and deposited in the special account or accounts in which other revenue of the joint authority is deposited; (12) To covenant in any resolution or other instrument pursuant to which it issues any of its bonds or other obligations that the joint authority will, for so long as any such bonds or obligations and the interest thereon remain outstanding and unpaid, annually certify to each tax-levying body referred to in subdivision (11) of this section the maximum tax which the joint authority is, at the time of issuing such bonds or other obligations, authorized to so certify and that it will, in the event of any change in the method of assessment, so certify such tax as will raise the same amount in dollars as such maximum tax would have raised at the time such bonds or other obligations were issued; (13) To pledge for the security of the principal of any bonds or other obligations issued by the joint authority and the interest thereon any revenue derived by the joint authority from taxation; (14) To construct and maintain under, along, over, or across a project, telephone, telegraph, or electric wires and cables, fuel lines, gas mains, water mains, and other mechanical equipment not inconsistent with the appropriate use of such project, to contract for such construction and to lease the right to construct and use the same, or to use the same on such terms, for such periods of time, and for such consideration as the joint authority shall determine; (15) To accept grants, loans, or contributions from the United States, the State of Nebraska, or any agency or instrumentality of either of them and to expend the proceeds thereof for any corporate purposes; (16) To incur debt and issue negotiable bonds and to provide for the rights of the holders thereof; (17) To enter on any lands, waters, and premises for the purposes of making surveys, soundings, and examinations; and (18) To do all things necessary or convenient to carry out the powers expressly conferred by the act. History: Laws 1969, c. 24, § 7, p. 207; Laws 1973, LB 22, § 6; Laws 1979, LB 187, § 17; Laws 1992, LB 719A, § 15; Laws 1996, LB 1114, § 22; Laws 2001, LB 173, § 9.