§17-16B-17 Tolls, rents, fees, charges and revenues.
§17-16B-17. Tolls, rents, fees, charges and revenues.
(a) The public port authority is hereby authorized to fix, revise, charge and collect tolls for the use of each public port project and the different parts or sections thereof, and to fix, revise, charge and collect rents, fees, charges and other revenues, of whatever kind or character, for the use of each port, public port, economic development project or tourism project, or any part or section thereof, and to contract with any person, partnership, association or corporation desiring the use of any part thereof, including the right-of-way adjoining the paved portion, for placing thereon telephone, telegraph, electric light, power or other utility lines, gas stations, garages, stores, hotels, restaurants and advertising signs, or for any other purpose, and to fix the terms, conditions, rents and rates of charges for such use. Such tolls, rents, fees and charges shall be so fixed and adjusted in respect of the aggregate of tolls, or in respect of the aggregate rents, fees and charges, from the project or projects in connection with which the bonds of any issue shall have been issued as to provide a fund sufficient with other revenues, if any, to pay: (A) The cost of maintaining, repairing and operating such project or projects; and (B) the principal of and the interest on such bonds as the same shall become due and payable, and to create reserves for such purposes. Such tolls, rents, fees and other charges shall not be subject to supervision or regulation by any other commission, board, bureau, department or agency of the state. The tolls, rents, fees, charges and all other revenues derived from the project or projects in connection with which the bonds of any issue shall have been issued, except such part thereof as may be necessary to pay such cost of maintenance, repair and operation and to provide such reserves therefor 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: (1) The interest upon such bonds as such interest shall fall due; (2) the principal of such bonds as the same shall fall due; (3) the necessary charges of paying agents for paying principal and interest; and (4) the redemption price or the purchase price of bonds retired by call or purchase as therein provided. 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 public port bonds or of such trust agreement. Except as may otherwise be provided in such resolution or such trust agreement, such sinking fund shall be a fund for all such bonds without distinction or priority of one over another. The moneys in the sinking fund, less such reserve as may be provided in such resolution or trust agreement, if not used within a reasonable time for the purchase of bonds for cancellation as above provided, shall be applied to the redemption of bonds at the redemption price then applicable.