§ 116-198.37.  Fixing fees, rents, and charges; sinking fund.

For the purpose of aiding in the acquisition, construction, or provision of any project and the maintenance, repair, and operation of any project or any existing facilities, the Board is authorized to fix, revise from time to time, charge, and collect such fee or fees for such privileges and services and in such amount or amounts as the Board shall determine, and to fix, revise from time to time, charge, and collect other fees, rents, and charges for the use of and for the services furnished or to be furnished by any project or projects and any existing facilities, or any portion thereof, and to contract with any person, partnership, association, or corporation for the lease, use, occupancy, or operation of any project or projects and any existing facilities, or any part thereof, and to fix the terms, conditions, fees, rents, and charges for any such lease, use, occupancy, or operation. So long as bonds issued hereunder and payable therefrom are outstanding, such fees, rents, and charges shall be so fixed and adjusted, with relation to other revenues available therefor, as to provide funds pursuant to the requirements of the resolution or trust agreement authorizing or securing such bonds at least sufficient with such other revenues, if any, (i) to pay the cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating any project or projects and any existing facilities any part of the revenues of which are pledged to the payment of the bonds issued for such project or projects, (ii) to pay the principal of and the interest on such bonds as the same shall become due and payable, and (iii) to create and maintain reserves for such purposes. Any surplus funds remaining after application to the purposes mentioned in (i), (ii), and (iii), above, shall be held in trust and applied by the Board to the development of the Centennial Campus, the Horace Williams Campus, or a Millennial Campus, as applicable. Such fees, rents, and charges shall not be subject to supervision or regulation by any other commission, board, bureau, or agency of the State. A sufficient amount of the revenues, except such part thereof as may be necessary to pay such cost of maintenance, repair, and operation and to provide such reserves therefor and for renewals, replacements, extensions, enlargements, and improvements as may be provided for in the resolution authorizing the issuance of such bonds or in the trust agreement securing the same, shall be set aside at such regular intervals as may be provided in such resolution or such trust agreement in a sinking fund which is hereby pledged to and charged with the payment of the principal of and the interest on such bonds as the same shall become due and the redemption price or the purchase price of bonds retired by call or purchase as therein provided. Such pledge shall be valid and binding from the time when the pledge is made; the fees, rents, and charges and other revenues or other moneys so pledged and thereafter received by the Board shall immediately be subject to the lien of such pledge without any physical delivery thereof or further act; and the lien of any such pledge shall be valid and binding as against all parties having claims of any kind in tort, contract, or otherwise against the Board, irrespective of whether such parties have notice thereof. Neither the resolution nor any trust agreement by which a pledge is created need be filed or recorded except in the records of the Board. The use and disposition of moneys to the credit of such sinking fund shall be subject to the provisions of the resolution authorizing the issuance of such bonds or of the trust agreement securing the same. (1987, c. 336, s. 1; 1999-234, s. 7; 2000-177, s. 8.)