Opinion ID: 1762334
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Historical Authorization for Issuance of Revenue Bonds.

Text: For almost as long as municipalities have sought to issue revenue bonds, the propriety of the bond issue has been the subject of litigation. See, e.g., State ex rel. Lexington & St. Louis R.R. Co. v. Saline County Court, 45 Mo. 242 (Mo. banc 1870) (railroad sought to compel issuance of bonds where authorized by vote); Cass County v. Green, 66 Mo. 498 (Mo. banc 1877) (injunction to cancel Cass County bonds). Prior to the adoption of the Missouri Constitution of 1945, courts had to undertake complex efforts at statutory interpretation to determine whether a municipality had authority to issue particular types of revenue bonds without voter approval. [4] The 1945 Missouri Constitution authorized municipalities to issue revenue bonds for municipally owned and operated revenue producing water, gas or electric light works, heating or power plants, or airports upon approval of four-sevenths of the voters. Mo. Const. art. VI, sec. 27, RSMo 1949. [5] State ex rel. City of Fulton v. Smith, 355 Mo. 27, 194 S.W.2d 302, 304-05 (banc 1946), held this provision to be self-executing. In 1960, the voters amended section 27 to grant cities additional power to issue revenue bonds for plants to be leased to private persons or corporations for manufacturing and industrial development purposes with approval of four-sevenths of the voters. [6] Unlike the provision for municipally owned and operated power plants, which was self-executing, this Court found this innovation by way of municipal financing of industrial projects to be so new and untried, its possibilities so sweeping, and its operation and potentialities so utterly uncertain (and great) as to imperatively require statutory charting of its course. In re Monroe City, 359 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Mo. banc 1962). [7]