Court Opinion

ID: 9627352
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:42:37.550761+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:45.036547
License: Public Domain

HODGES, Justice,
with whom KAUGER, C.J., joins, concurring specially:
¶ 1 Although I concur in today’s pronouncement by the Court, I write separately to further emphasize that the bonds before this Court do not create a debt in violation of article 10, sections 23, 24, and 25. See Boswell v. State, 181 Okla. 435, 74 P.2d 940, 943 (1937). Title 73, section 168.6 of the Oklahoma Statutes, authorizing the bonds, states:
I. The bonds or other obligations issued pursuant to this section shall not at any time by deemed- to constitute a debt of the state or of any political subdivision thereof or a pledge of the faith and credit of the state or of any such political subdivision.
J. Such bonds or other obligations shall contain on the face thereof a statement that neither the faith and credit nor the taxing power of the state or any political subdivision thereof is pledged, or may hereafter be pledged, to the payment of the principal.of or the interest on such bonds....
(Emphasis added.) The legislation does not require future legislative assemblies to provide funding to retire the bonds, but it does require the bonds to state, on their face, that the taxing power of the state is not pledged. Holders of these bonds will have no recourse against the state for payment of the bonds if future legislative assemblies do not appropriate funds for their retirement. Therefore, the bonds are not debts of the state. Thus, the legislation authorizing the bonds does not undermine the balanced budget requirements of article 10, sections 23, 24, and 25. By specific and direct language in the legislation and bond agreements, there is no obligation, either legal or moral, for compliance by future legislative assemblies.
¶ 2 In addition to the bonds, the 1997 legislative assembly appropriated $50,000,000 from the Constitutional Reserve Fund (Rainy Day Fund), $9,160,339 from the State Transportation Fund, and $28,200,000 from the General Revenue Fund to fund the highway project. 1997 Okla. Sess. Laws ch. 380. This money was appropriated from funds available for appropriation to the 1997 legislative assembly. Unlike the bonds, the parties have not questioned the constitutionality of these appropriations. Clearly, these appropriations comply with article 10, sections 23, 24, and 25.