70 ILCS 1505/20a — Illinois Code / Chapter 70 / Act 1505 / Section 20a
Section 20a
Status: in_force

(70 ILCS 1505/20a) (from Ch. 105, par. 333.20a) Sec. 20a. Bonds; issuance; interest. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 20 of this Act, the Chicago Park District is authorized to issue from time to time bonds of such district in the principal amount of $84,000,000 for the purpose of paying the cost of erecting, enlarging, ornamenting, building, rebuilding, rehabilitating, and improving any aquarium or any museum or museums of art, industry, science, or natural or other history located within any public park or parks under the control of the Chicago Park District, without submitting the question of issuing such bonds to the voters of the District. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 20 of this Act, and in addition to any other amount of bonds authorized to be issued under this Act, the Chicago Park District is authorized to issue from time to time, before January 1, 2004, bonds of the district in the principal amount of $128,000,000 for the purpose of paying the cost of erecting, enlarging, ornamenting, building, rebuilding, rehabilitating, and improving any aquarium or any museum or museums of art, industry, science, or natural or other history located within any public park or parks under the control of the Chicago Park District, without submitting the question of issuing the bonds to the voters of the District. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 20 of this Act, and in addition to any other amount of bonds authorized to be issued under this Act, the Chicago Park District is authorized to issue from time to time bonds of the district in the principal amount of $250,000,000 for the purpose of making contributions to the pension fund established under Article 12 of the Illinois Pension Code without submitting the question of issuing the bonds to the voters of the District; except that in any one year, the Chicago Park District may not issue bonds in excess of $75,000,000. Any bond issuances under this subsection are intended to decrease the unfunded liability of the pension fund and shall not decrease the amount of the employer contributions required in any given year under Section 12-149 of the Illinois Pension Code. The bonds authorized under this Section shall be of such denomination or denominations, may be registerable as to principal only, and shall mature serially within a period of not to exceed 20 years or, for bonds issued after July 24, 2003 (the effective date of Public Act 93-338), within a period of not to exceed 30 years, may be redeemable prior to maturity with or without premium at the option of the commissioners on such terms and conditions as the commissioners of the Chicago Park District shall fix by the ordinance authorizing the issuance of such bonds. The bonds shall bear interest at the rate of not to exceed that permitted in the Bond Authorization Act. Such bonds shall be executed for and on behalf of the Park District by such officers as shall be specified in the bond ordinance, and one of such officers may be authorized to execute the bonds by his facsimile signature, which officer shall adopt as and for his official manual signature the facsimile signature as it appears upon the bonds. The ordinance authorizing the issuance of the bonds shall provide for the levy and collection, in each of the years any of such bonds shall be outstanding, a tax without limitation as to rate or amount and in addition to all other taxes upon all the taxable property within the corporate boundaries of the Chicago Park District, sufficient to pay the principal of and the interest upon such bonds as the same matures and becomes due. A certified copy of the ordinance providing for the issuance of the bonds and the levying and collecting of the tax to pay the same shall be filed with the County Clerk of the county in which the Chicago Park District is located or with the respective County Clerks of each county in which the Chicago Park District is located. Such ordinance shall be irrevocable and upon receipt of the certified copy thereof the County Clerk or County Clerks, as the case may be, shall provide for, assess and extend the tax as therein provided upon all the taxable property located within the corporate boundaries of the Chicago Park District, in the same manner as other park taxes by law shall be provided for, assessed and extended, and such taxes shall be collected and paid out in the same manner as other park taxes by law shall be collected and paid. The interest on any unexpended proceeds of bonds issued under this Section shall be credited to the Chicago Park District and shall be paid into the District's general corporate fund. The Chicago Park District may transfer such amount of interest from the general corporate fund to the aquarium and museum bond fund. The amount of the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the Chicago Park District issued under this Section shall not be included in the bonded indebtedness of the District in determining whether or not the District has exceeded its limitation of 1/2 of 1% of the assessed valuation of all taxable property in the District as last equalized and determined by the Department of Revenue for the issuance of any bonds authorized under the provisions of Section 20 of this Act without submitting the question to the legal voters for approval. (Source: P.A. 104-417, eff. 8-15-25.)