70 ILCS 3605/12a

(70 ILCS 3605/12a) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 312a)

Sec. 12a. (a) In addition to other powers provided in Section 12b, the Authority may issue its notes from time to time, in anticipation of tax receipts of the Regional Transportation Authority allocated to the Authority or of other revenues or receipts of the Authority, in order to provide money for the Authority to cover any cash flow deficit which the Authority anticipates incurring. Provided, however, that no such notes may be issued unless the annual cost thereof is incorporated in a budget or revised budget of the Authority which has been approved by the Regional Transportation Authority. Any such notes are referred to as "Working Cash Notes". Provided further that, the board shall not issue and have outstanding or demand and direct that the Board of the Regional Transportation Authority issue and have outstanding more than an aggregate of $40,000,000 in Working Cash Notes. No Working Cash Notes shall be issued for a term of longer than 18 months. Proceeds of Working Cash Notes may be used to pay day to day operating expenses of the Authority, consisting of wages, salaries and fringe benefits, professional and technical services (including legal, audit, engineering and other consulting services), office rental, furniture, fixtures and equipment, insurance premiums, claims for self-insured amounts under insurance policies, public utility obligations for telephone, light, heat and similar items, travel expenses, office supplies, postage, dues, subscriptions, public hearings and information expenses, fuel purchases, and payments of grants and payments under purchase of service agreements for operations of transportation agencies, prior to the receipt by the Authority from time to time of funds for paying such expenses. Proceeds of the Working Cash Notes shall not be used (i) to increase or provide a debt service reserve fund for any bonds or notes other than Working Cash Notes of the same Series, or (ii) to pay principal of or interest or redemption premium on any capital bonds or notes, whether as such amounts become due or by earlier redemption, issued by the Authority or a transportation agency to construct or acquire public transportation facilities, or to provide funds to purchase such capital bonds or notes.

(b) The ordinance providing for the issuance of any such notes shall fix the date or dates of maturity, the dates on which interest is payable, any sinking fund account or reserve fund account provisions and all other details of such notes and may provide for such covenants or agreements necessary or desirable with regard to the issue, sale and security of such notes. The Authority shall determine and fix the rate or rates of interest of its notes issued under this Act in an ordinance adopted by the Board prior to the issuance thereof, none of which rates of interest shall exceed that permitted in the Bond Authorization Act. Interest may be payable annually or semi-annually, or at such other times as determined by the Board. Notes issued under this Section may be issued as serial or term obligations, shall be of such denomination or denominations and form, including interest coupons to be attached thereto, be executed in such manner, shall be payable at such place or places and bear such date as the Board shall fix by the ordinance authorizing such note and shall mature at such time or times, within a period not to exceed 18 months from the date of issue, and may be redeemable prior to maturity with or without premium, at the option of the Board, upon such terms and conditions as the Board shall fix by the ordinance authorizing the issuance of such notes. The Board may provide for the registration of notes in the name of the owner as to the principal alone or as to both principal and interest, upon such terms and conditions as the Board may determine. The ordinance authorizing notes may provide for the exchange of such notes which are fully registered, as to both principal and interest, with notes which are registerable as to principal only. All notes issued under this Section by the Board shall be sold at a price which may be at a premium or discount but such that the interest cost (excluding any redemption premium) to the Board of the proceeds of an issue of such notes, computed to stated maturity according to standard tables of bond values, shall not exceed that permitted in the Bond Authorization Act. Such notes shall be sold at such time or times as the Board shall determine. The notes may be sold either upon competitive bidding or by negotiated sale (without any requirement of publication of intention to negotiate the sale of such notes), as the Board shall determine by ordinance adopted with the affirmative votes of at least 4 Directors. In case any officer whose signature appears on any notes or coupons authorized pursuant to this Section shall cease to be such officer before delivery of such notes, such signature shall nevertheless be valid and sufficient for all purposes, the same as if such officer had remained in office until such delivery. Neither the Directors of the Regional Transportation Authority, the Directors of the Authority nor any person executing any bonds or notes thereof shall be liable personally on any such bonds or notes or coupons by reason of the issuance thereof.

(c) All notes of the Authority issued pursuant to this Section shall be general obligations of the Authority to which shall be pledged the full faith and credit of the Authority, as provided in this Section. Such notes shall be secured as provided in the authorizing ordinance, which may, notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, include in addition to any other security, a specific pledge or assignment of and lien on or security interest in any or all tax receipts of the Regional Transportation Authority allocated to the Authority and on any or all other revenues or moneys of the Authority from whatever source which may by law be utilized for debt service purposes and a specific pledge or assignment of and lien on or security interest in any funds or accounts established or provided for by the ordinance of the Board authorizing the issuance of such notes. Any such pledge, assignment, lien or security interest for the benefit of holders of notes of the Authority shall be valid and binding from the time the notes are issued without any physical delivery or further act, and shall be valid and binding as against and prior to the claims of all other parties having claims of any kind against the Authority or any other person irrespective of whether such other parties have notice of such pledge, assignment, lien or security interest. The obligations of the Authority incurred pursuant to this Section shall be superior to and have priority over any other obligations of the Authority except for obligations under Section 12. The Board may provide in the ordinance authorizing the issuance of any notes issued pursuant to this Section for the creation of, deposits in, and regulation and disposition of sinking fund or reserve accounts relating to such notes. The ordinance authorizing the issuance of any notes pursuant to this Section may contain provisions as part of the contract with the holders of the notes, for the creation of a separate fund to provide for the payment of principal and interest on such notes and for the deposit in such fund from any or all the tax receipts of the Regional Transportation Authority allocated to the Authority and from any or all such other moneys or revenues of the Authority from whatever source which may by law be utilized for debt service purposes, all as provided in such ordinance, of amounts to meet the debt service requirements on such notes, including principal and interest, and any sinking fund or reserve fund account requirements as may be provided by such ordinance, and all expenses incident to or in connection with such fund and accounts or the payment of such notes. Such ordinance may also provide limitations on the issuance of additional notes of the Authority. No such notes of the Authority shall constitute a debt of the State of Illinois.

(d) The ordinance of the Board authorizing the issuance of any notes may provide additional security for such notes by providing for appointment of a corporate trustee (which may be any trust company or bank having the powers of a trust company within the State) with respect to such notes. The ordinance shall prescribe the rights, duties and powers of the trustee to be exercised for the benefit of the Authority and the protection of the holders of such notes. The ordinance may provide for the trustee to hold in trust, invest and use amounts in funds and accounts created as provided by the ordinance with respect to the notes. The ordinance shall provide that amounts so paid to the trustee which are not required to be deposited, held or invested in funds and accounts created by the ordinance with respect to notes or used for paying notes to be paid by the trustee to the Authority.

(e) Any notes of the Authority issued pursuant to this Section shall constitute a contract between the Authority and the holders from time to time of such notes. In issuing any note, the Board may include in the ordinance authorizing such issue a covenant as part of the contract with the holders of the notes, that as long as such obligations are outstanding, it shall make such deposits, as provided in paragraph (c) of this Section. A certified copy of the ordinance authorizing the issuance of any such obligations shall be filed at or prior to the issuance of such obligations with the Regional Transportation Authority, Comptroller of the State of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Revenue.

(f) The State of Illinois pledges to and agrees with the holders of the notes of the Authority issued pursuant to this Section that the State will not limit or alter the rights and powers vested in the Authority by this Act or in the Regional Transportation Authority by the Regional Transportation Authority Act so as to impair the terms of any contract made by the Authority with such holders or in any way impair the rights and remedies of such holders until such notes, together with interest thereon, with interest on any unpaid installments of interest, and all costs and expenses in connection with any action or proceedings by or on behalf of such holders, are fully met and discharged. In addition, the State pledges to and agrees with the holders of the notes of the Authority issued pursuant to this Section that the State will not limit or alter the basis on which State funds are to be paid to the Authority as provided in the Regional Transportation Authority Act, or the use of such funds, so as to impair the terms of any such contract. The Board is authorized to include these pledges and agreements of the State in any contract with the holders of bonds or notes issued pursuant to this Section.

(g) The Board shall not at any time issue, sell or deliver any Interim Financing Notes pursuant to this Section which will cause it to have issued and outstanding at any time in excess of $40,000,000 of Working Cash Notes. Notes which are being paid or retired by such issuance, sale or delivery of notes, and notes for which sufficient funds have been deposited with the paying agency of such notes to provide for payment of principal and interest thereon or to provide for the redemption thereof, all pursuant to the ordinance authorizing the issuance of such notes, shall not be considered to be outstanding for the purposes of this paragraph.

(h) The Board, subject to the terms of any agreements with noteholders as may then exist, shall have power, out of any funds available therefor, to purchase notes of the Authority which shall thereupon be cancelled.

(i) In addition to any other authority granted by law, the State Treasurer may, with the approval of the Governor, invest or reinvest, at a price not to exceed par, any State money in the State Treasury which is not needed for current expenditures due or about to become due in Interim Financing Notes. In the event of a default on an interim financing note issued by the Chicago Transit Authority in which State money in the State treasury was invested, the Treasurer may, after giving notice to the Authority, certify to the Comptroller the amounts of the defaulted interim financing note, in accordance with any applicable rules of the Comptroller, and the Comptroller must deduct and remit to the State treasury the certified amounts or a portion of those amounts from the following proportions of payments of State funds to the Authority:

(1) in the first year after default, one-third of the total amount of any payments of State funds to the Authority;

(2) in the second year after default, two-thirds of the total amount of any payments of State funds to the Authority; and

(3) in the third year after default and for each year thereafter until the total invested amount is repaid, the total amount of any payments of State funds to the Authority.

(Source: P.A. 100-201, eff. 8-18-17; 101-485, eff. 8-23-19.)