The Alabama Legislature ended a special session last week by passing a bill that will ask voters to increase borrowing for economic development projects.
A statewide referendum will be held during November’s general election.
The bill, if approved, would amend the Alabama constitution to allow the state to refund existing economic development bonds for debt-service savings, providing an additional $126.7 million in new bonding capacity.
In 2000, voters amended the constitution and approved the issuance of up to $750 million of bonds secured by offshore oil and gas royalty payments to fund economic development projects. The provision did not exclude refunding bonds from the $750 million cap.
