§7. State Debt; Interim Emergency Board
Section 7.(A) Composition. The Interim Emergency Board is created. It shall be
composed of the governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer, presiding officer of each
house of the legislature, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and chairman of the
House Appropriations Committee, or their designees.
(B) Powers. Between sessions of the legislature, when the board by majority vote
determines that an emergency or impending flood emergency exists, it may appropriate from
the state general fund or borrow on the full faith and credit of the state an amount to meet the
emergency. The appropriation may be made or the indebtedness incurred only for a purpose
for which the legislature may appropriate funds and then only after the board obtains, as
provided by law, the written consent of two-thirds of the elected members of each house of
the legislature. For the purposes of this Paragraph, an emergency is an event or occurrence
not reasonably anticipated by the legislature and an impending flood emergency shall be an
anticipated situation which endangers an existing flood protection structure. The
appropriation or indebtedness incurred for an impending flood emergency shall not exceed
two hundred fifty thousand dollars for any one event or occurrence. For an impending
emergency to qualify for funding it must be determined as such by the United States Army
Corp of Engineers or the United States Coast Guard. Total funding for such impending
emergencies shall not exceed twenty-five percent of the funds annually available to the
Interim Emergency Board.
(C) Limits. The aggregate of indebtedness outstanding at any one time and the
amount appropriated from the state general fund for the current fiscal year under the authority
of this Section shall not exceed one-tenth of one percent of total state revenue receipts for
the previous fiscal year.
(D) Allocation. An amount sufficient to pay indebtedness incurred during the
preceding fiscal year under the authority of this Section is allocated, as a first priority, each
year from the state general fund.
Acts 1997, No. 1500, §1, approved Oct. 3, 1998, eff. Nov. 5, 1998.