The Florida Senate

159.805  Procedures for obtaining allocations; requirements; limitations on allocations; issuance reports.--

(1)  Except for bonds issued prior to July 1 of each year utilizing an allocation pursuant to s. 159.804(3), prior to the issuance of any private activity bond by or on behalf of any agency, a notice of intent to issue such bonds must be filed in writing by or on behalf of such agency with the division to obtain a written confirmation of an allocation for such issue. The notice of intent to issue shall not be filed until elected official or voter approval, if any, required pursuant to s. 147(f) of the Code has been obtained. A notice of intent to issue shall be filed only by either the agency proposing to issue private activity bonds or any agency required to give elected official or voter approval for such bonds pursuant to s. 147(f) of the Code. Each such notice of intent to issue a private activity bond filed with the division must include a certification that approval, if needed, has been obtained, a statement of the amount of private activity bonds proposed to be issued, the fee required by s. 159.811, an opinion or statement of counsel that the project to be financed may be financed with private activity bonds and that allocation is required to issue such bonds, and such additional information as the division considers appropriate. At 12 noon Tallahassee time each business day, the division shall compute the aggregate amount of private activity bonds in each pool for which notices of intent to issue have been received since noon on the previous business day. Except for priority projects, written confirmations of allocations shall be issued by the director for private activity bonds, subject to the availability of a sufficient amount of state volume limitation of private activity bonds permitted to be issued in this state. Each confirmation must state the amount of the allocation made for such bonds. The amount of each such confirmation must, if sufficient allocation is available in the appropriate pool, be the amount of the allocation requested in the notice of intent to issue. A written confirmation for a private activity bond may be issued based on one or more of the initial allocations provided by s. 159.804 The director shall maintain continuous and cumulative records of the amounts of private activity bonds for which written confirmations of an allocation have been issued.

(2)  Any written confirmation issued by the director pursuant to subsection (1) ceases to be effective unless the bonds to which that confirmation applies have been issued by the agency and written notice of such issuance has been provided to the director within 155 calendar days after the date the confirmation was issued or December 29, whichever occurs first.

(3)  Upon the expiration of the confirmation or at any time the agency decides the allocation is no longer necessary, but, in any event, not later than the 160th calendar day after the date the confirmation was issued, the agency shall notify the division, by overnight common carrier delivery service, of its failure to issue any bonds pursuant to the written confirmation. Such notice of failure to issue shall be filed with the division and the allocation provided in the expired confirmation shall be made available for reallocation pursuant to this part. Upon determining that it will not be using allocation for mortgage credit certificates, the issuer will notify the division in writing within 5 business days that such allocation for mortgage credit certificates, referencing the dollar amount, will not be used, thereby allowing the division to reallocate such amounts.

(4)  The time limits established by this section are tolled during the pendency of a validation proceeding pursuant to chapter 75, if written notice of the pendency of such proceedings is provided to the director prior to the expiration of the time limit set forth in the written confirmation issued by the director for such bonds. The time limits established by this section do not apply to any written confirmation for a priority project or for any project in an amount of $50 million or more. If a written confirmation expires, the agency may file a new notice of intent to issue with the division. The new notice of intent to issue shall be considered pursuant to subsection (1), and the allocation provided in the expired confirmation shall be made available for reallocation pursuant to this part.

(5)(a)  When bonds with a written confirmation of an allocation are issued, the agency issuing such bonds, or its designee, shall provide the division with same-day telephonic notice of such issuance, the principal amount of bonds issued, and the availability of any excess unissued allocation. On the day of issuance of the bonds, the agency, or its designee, shall send a written issuance report to the division to arrive no later than the following business day containing the information described in paragraph (b). At issuance, any excess allocation unissued, except in the case of a project that received an allocation of $50 million or more, immediately reverts to the pool from which the allocation was made, except that, after June 30 of such year, it reverts to the state allocation pool and shall be made available for reallocation. Except for allocations for which an election has been made to issue mortgage credit certificates, any allocation made under this part is contingent upon the filing of the issuance report with the division no later than the following business day.

(b)  The issuance report shall be made on a form adopted by the division and must provide such information as the division considers necessary, but must provide at least the name and amount of bonds issued; the date of issuance; the name of the agency issuing such bonds; the purpose for which the bonds were issued, and, for bonds for manufacturing facilities, the product manufactured; the rating on the bonds, if one was obtained; the name, address, phone number, and contact person for any project sponsor or private borrower of bond proceeds; the address of any project and, in addition, the number of residential units if the bonds are for multifamily housing; the name and address of bond counsel, bond underwriter, if any, bond purchaser, if not an underwriter, or placement agency, if any; and, except with respect to housing bonds issued by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation pursuant to s. 159.81, the amount of bond proceeds disbursed at the time of issuance.

(6)  If the division determines that the aggregate amount of private activity bonds for which notices of intent to issue have been received since noon of the previous business day exceeds the volume limitation in the appropriate pool then available to the division for written confirmations of an allocation, the division shall assign a consecutive number to each such notice, shall draw such numbers randomly to establish the priority of each notice, and shall issue written confirmation of allocations in the order of priority until the available volume limitation is exhausted. Any notices of intent to issue for which insufficient volume limitation is available shall, to the extent of the volume limitation which is unused prior to December 30 of that year, receive priority from the next available volume limitation for that year and prior to additional notices received by the division after that day's random selection.

(7)  A written confirmation of an allocation assures an allocation only of such amount of private activity bonds as set forth in the confirmation, but does not preclude issuance of an amount of private activity bonds in an amount in excess of that amount. To issue an amount of private activity bonds in excess of the amount set forth in the written confirmation, a supplementary notice of intent to issue must be filed with the division prior to such issuance and shall be considered pursuant to subsection (1). A supplementary notice of intent to issue may not be for any amount that exceeds 10 percent of the amount of the prior written confirmation. A supplementary notice of intent to issue must specify the prior written confirmation to which it applies. The amount of a supplementary written confirmation may be added to a prior written confirmation for the same project to provide an allocation for the issuance of a private activity bond for that project.

(8)  A written confirmation for a private activity bond is effective as to such bonds issued in lesser amounts provided the aggregate amount issued pursuant to the allocation is not less than 90 percent of the amount set forth in the original confirmation and any supplemental confirmation after subtracting the amount of any allocation which the issuer has elected to convert for the issuance of mortgage credit certificates.

History.--s. 1, ch. 85-282; s. 10, ch. 86-181; s. 4, ch. 87-222; s. 3, ch. 92-127; s. 5, ch. 92-173; s. 8, ch. 95-416; s. 3, ch. 96-210; s. 23, ch. 2000-151; s. 3, ch. 2000-353.