§ 36-82-61. Definitions

As used in this article, the term:

1. “Governing body” means the board, commission, council, or other local legislative body of a governmental body.
2. 1. “Governmental body” means any school district, county, or municipal corporation of this state.
   2. The term “governmental body” shall also mean and include highway districts of the state which have been or may hereafter be created as political subdivisions of the state, which shall have the same rights and powers to operate under this article as have counties, municipal corporations, and school districts. Such highway districts as political subdivisions of the state shall be limited, however, in such undertakings to the construction, acquisition, and building of highways, bridges, causeways, approaches, viaducts, tunnels, and all things incidental to the improvement of highways located within their respective districts as created by the Constitution and laws of this state.
   3. The term “governmental body” shall also mean and include state and local public authorities having corporate powers which have been or may hereafter be created by general, local, or special Act of the General Assembly. Such state or local authorities are fully empowered to issue revenue-anticipation certificates and to operate under this article in the same manner and to the same extent as counties or municipal corporations of the state are authorized to do.
   4. For the purposes of Code Sections 36-82-74 through 36-82-82, inclusive, the term “governmental body,” in addition to its definitions in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of this paragraph, means a hospital authority the revenue certificates of which are required by Code Section 31-7-81 to be confirmed and validated in accordance with the procedure of this article.
3. “Revenue” or “revenue of the undertaking” means all revenues, income, and earnings arising out of or in connection with the operation or ownership of the undertaking and, if so stated in the resolution or resolutions authorizing the issuance of obligations under this article, also means moneys received as grants from the United States of America, from this state, or from any instrumentality or agency of the foregoing in aid of such undertaking.
4. “Undertaking” includes the following revenue-producing undertakings or any combination of two or more of such undertakings, whether now existing or hereafter acquired or constructed:
   1. Causeways, tunnels, viaducts, bridges, and other crossings;
   2. Highways, parkways, airports, docks, piers, wharves, terminals, and other facilities;
   3. Systems, plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties:
      1. Used or useful in connection with the obtaining of a water supply and the conservation, treatment, and disposal of water for public and private uses;
      2. Used or useful in connection with the collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage, waste, and storm water; together with all parts of any such undertaking and all appurtenances thereto, including lands, easements, rights in land, water rights, contract rights, franchises, approaches, dams, reservoirs, generating stations, sewage disposal plants, intercepting sewers, trunk connecting and other sewer and water mains, filtration works, pumping stations, and equipment;
      3. Used or useful in connection with the collection, treatment, reuse, or disposal of solid waste; or
      4. Used or useful in connection with buying, constructing, extending, operating, and maintaining gas or electric generating, transmission, and distribution systems together with all necessary appurtenances thereof; provided, however, that any revenue certificates issued by a governmental body with electric utility assets that have a net book value of less than $300 million to buy, construct, extend, operate, and maintain electric generating, transmission, and distribution systems shall, before being undertaken, be authorized by a majority of those voting at an election held for the purpose in the county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision affected, the election for such to be held in the same manner as is used in issuing bonds of such county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision and the said elections shall be called and provided for by officers in charge of the fiscal affairs of said county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision affected;
   4. Dormitories, laboratories, libraries, and other related facilities;
   5. Parks, golf links and fairways, tennis courts, swimming pools, playgrounds, athletic fields, grandstands and stadiums; buildings to be used for various types of sports, including baseball and football; buildings to be constructed and used for the housing of exhibits for fairs and educational purposes; buildings to be used for the housing of livestock, horses, cattle, swine, poultry, and agricultural exhibits for exhibition purposes; the erection and construction of buildings to be used for amusement purposes or educational purposes or a combination of the two; and such buildings to be used for fairs, expositions, or exhibitions in connection therewith;
   6. Combinations of sea wall, groin, and beach erosion protection systems;
   7. Public parking areas and public parking buildings;
   8. Purchase of lands used by the United States government as army camps for the training of soldiers during the war, when and if the same is declared surplus by the United States government or its authority, provided that a county shall only be allowed to purchase lands which were within its boundaries at the time such lands were acquired by the United States government or any division of the United States government;
   9. Parking meters on streets, thoroughfares, parkways, and any avenue of traffic, such meters to be located thereon or immediately adjacent thereto for the purpose of providing space for vehicles and authorizing the use of same for parking purposes upon the payment of a charge therefor;
   10. Purchase of existing public common carriers of passengers for hire and facilities necessary, incident, or needful thereto by the use of motor buses, trackless trolleys, electric trolleys, or any other means of transportation of passengers on the streets and highways;
   11. The purchase of land and the construction thereon of facilities for lease to industries, so as to relieve abnormal unemployment conditions; and
   12. Jails and all other structures and facilities which are necessary and convenient for the operation of jails.

History. Ga. L. 1937, p. 761, § 2; Ga. L. 1939, p. 362, § 1; Ga. L. 1949, p. 973, § 1; Ga. L. 1950, p. 20, § 1; Ga. L. 1950, p. 188, § 1; Ga. L. 1950, p. 422, § 1; Ga. L. 1951, p. 46, § 1; Ga. L. 1953, Jan.-Feb. Sess., p. 489, § 1; Ga. L. 1957, p. 410, § 1; Ga. L. 1957, p. 453, § 1; Ga. L. 1973, p. 588, § 1; Ga. L. 1980, p. 709, § 1; Ga. L. 1983, p. 839, § 1; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 36; Ga. L. 1987, p. 3, § 36; Ga. L. 1995, p. 286, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 862, § 2; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 36/SB 429; Ga. L. 2020, p. 795, § 1/SB 43.

The 2020 amendments. —

The first 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “provided, however, that any” for “provided, further, any” in the proviso of division (4)(C)(iv). The second 2020 amendment, effective August 5, 2020, in division (4)(C)(iv), inserted “, transmission,” twice, substituted “however, that any revenue” for “further, any revenue”, and inserted “by a governmental body with electric utility assets that have a net book value of less than $300 million”.

Law reviews.

For article surveying legislative and judicial developments in Georgia local government law for 1978-79, see 31 Mercer L. Rev. 155 (1979).

For annual survey of local government law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 289 (2005) and 58 Mercer L. Rev. 267 (2006).