17-5-507. State pledge of gasoline tax -- use. (1) The state pledges, appropriates, and directs to be credited as received to the debt service account[, as defined in 17-5-401,] that portion of the net proceeds from the collection of gasoline taxes that may from time to time be needed to comply with the principal and interest and reserve requirements stated in subsection (2) of this section. The pledge and appropriation made in this section must remain at all times a first and prior charge upon all money received as net proceeds from the collection of gasoline taxes. The term "net proceeds", as used in this section, means all funds in the state treasury as of any date, derived from the collection of the license tax imposed on gasoline distributors by 15-70-204, less the amount of all refunds of those taxes for which applications have been made pursuant to law but that have not yet been paid or rejected. The term "debt service account", as used in this section, means a separate highway fund that is created within the debt service fund type established by 17-2-102 and must be segregated by the treasurer from all other money in that or any other fund in the treasury and used only to pay highway bonds and interest on those bonds when due, so long as the bonds or interest remain unpaid.
     (2) Money in the debt service account must be used to:
     (a) pay interest and principal when due on highway bonds;
     (b) accumulate a reserve, in the amount required in subsection (2)(c), for the further security of those payments; and
     (c) maintain a reserve in an amount at least equal, after each interest and principal payment, to the maximum amount of interest and principal that will become due on all bonds that are then outstanding in any subsequent fiscal year.
     (3) Money received in the debt service account in excess of the principal, interest, and reserve requirements stated in subsection (2) must be transferred by the treasurer to the highway revenue account in the state special revenue fund. If the balance at any time on hand in the debt service account is not sufficient for compliance with subsection (2), the treasurer shall credit to that account an amount sufficient to restore the balance from the next receipts of net proceeds from the collection of gasoline taxes.

     History: En. Sec. 7, Ch. 477, L. 1975; amd. Sec. 14, Ch. 298, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 24, Ch. 130, L. 2005.