Arkansas Code Title 14, Subtitle 11, Chapter 84: Central Business Improvement District

Arkansas Code Title 14, Subtitle 11, Chapter 84: Central Business Improvement District 14-184-101. Title. This subchapter may be referred to and cited as the "Central Business Improvement District Act." 14-184-102. Purpose. This subchapter shall be construed as cumulative of existing laws relating to the creation, operation, and existence of municipal improvement districts and shall not repeal any existing law unless the law is in direct conflict with this subchapter. It is the intent of this subchapter to provide additional authority to municipalities for creation of improvement districts and to authorize and enumerate additional powers for these districts. 14-184-103. Legislative determinations. (a) It is determined and declared by the General Assembly that: (1) The deterioration of the central business districts of urban centers of the state by reason of obsolescence, overcrowding, faulty arrangement or design, deleterious land use, or a combination of these or other factors is a threat to the property tax and other revenue sources of municipalities; (2) Increases in population and automobile usage have created conditions of traffic congestion in central business districts, and such conditions constitute a hazard to the safety of pedestrians and impede the use of public rights-of-way; (3) The elimination of urban blight and decay and the modernization and general improvement of central business districts by governmental action are considered necessary to promote the public health, safety, and welfare of the communities; and (4) The restoration of central business districts is the appropriate subject for remedial legislation. (b) It is further determined and declared by the General Assembly that: (1) Municipalities should be encouraged to create self-financing improvement districts and

designated district management corporations to execute self-help programs to enhance local business climates; and (2) Municipalities should be given the broadest possible discretion in establishing self-help programs consistent with local needs, goals, and objectives. 14-184-104. Definitions. As used in this subchapter, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) "Acquire" means obtain property rights by gift, purchase, devise, bequest, eminent domain, lease, sublease, assignment of lease, or any combination or variant of these means; (2) "Assessed value" means value as assessed for ad valorem property tax purposes; (3) "Board" means the board of commissioners appointed; (4) "District" means the central business improvement district created by ordinance of the municipality; (5) "Governing body" means the city council, board of directors, commission, or other municipal body exercising general legislative power in the municipality; (6) "Municipality" means any city having the population required by 14-184-107; (7) "Owner" means record owner in fee simple; (8) "Plan or plan of improvement" means the general design plan, including any amendments to it that may be made from time to time of the proposed improvements in the district. 14-184-105. Construction. (a) This subchapter shall be construed liberally. (b) The enumeration of any object, purpose, power, manner, method, and thing shall not be deemed to exclude like or similar objects, purposes, powers, manners, methods, and things. 14-184-106. Other laws applicable.

Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, the provisions of Acts 1881, No. 84; Acts 1899, No. 183; and all other laws of the State of Arkansas pertaining to municipal improvement districts, in general, as they may be amended from time to time, shall be applicable to a central business improvement district and shall govern the procedures for the operation of a district's affairs including, without limitation: (1) Giving of any notice; (2) Appointment of assessors; (3) Making and filing of assessments of benefits or reassessments of benefits; (4) Annexation of additional territory to a district; (5) Collection of assessments; (6) Enforcement of delinquent assessments; and (7) All other matters relating to the internal operation of a district. 14-184-107. Authority to create districts. The governing body of any first-class or second-class municipality of the state is authorized to create, by ordinance, one (1) or more central business improvement districts in the manner and for the purposes provided in this subchapter. 14-184-108. Petition for organization -- Notice and hearing. (a) (1) (A) When persons claiming to be owners of two thirds (2/3) in assessed value, as shown by the last county assessment, of real property in the area proposed to comprise a central business improvement district, file with the city clerk a petition for the organization of a district for the purposes provided in this subchapter, it shall be the duty of the clerk to give notice that the petition will be heard at a meeting of the governing body named in the notice, which will be held more than fifteen (15) days after the filing of the petition. (B) Notice shall be published once a week for two (2) weeks, the last insertion to be not less than seven (7) days before the date fixed for the hearing. (2) (A) The mayor, if he sees fit, may call a special meeting of the governing body for the

purpose of hearing the petition. (B) This called meeting shall be held not less than fifteen (15) days after the date of the call, and notice of the hearing shall be published for the time and in the manner stated in this subsection. (3) The notice may be in the following form: Click here to view form (b) (1) This petition may limit the cost of the improvement either to a fixed sum or to a percentage of the assessed value of the real property in the district. (2) The petition may also set forth the names of the persons whom the petitioners request be named as members of the board of commissioners of the district. 14-184-109. Rules governing petitions. (a) After the filing of a petition for the creation of a central business improvement district, no petitioner shall be permitted to withdraw his name from it. (b) No petition with the requisite signatures shall be declared void on account of formal or insubstantial defects. (c) The governing body, at any time, may permit the petition to be amended to conform to the facts by correcting any errors in the description of the territory or in any other particular. (d) Similar petitions for the organization of the same district may be filed and together shall be regarded as one petition with the original. (e) All petitions filed prior to the hearing on the first petition filed shall be considered by the governing body in the same manner as if filed with the first petition placed on file. 14-184-110. Organizational expenses. A central business improvement district organized under this subchapter is authorized to pay reasonable compensation to those persons who have done necessary or desirable preliminary work in the organization of it, including the fees of abstractors and title companies, engineers, architects, and attorneys.

14-184-111. Board of commissioners. (a) (1) (A) In the ordinance creating a central business improvement district, the governing body shall appoint a minimum of five (5) persons who shall be owners of real property in the district or officers or stockholders of a corporation owning real property within the district as commissioners who shall compose a board of commissioners for the district. (B) In cities operating under a commission form of government, the mayor and city commissioners, by virtue of their offices, may be commissioners of each district and may compose the board of each district. (2) (A) At the initial meeting of commissioners, the governing body of the municipality shall divide randomly the commissioners into three (3) groups roughly equal in number. (B) (i) The first group of commissioners shall serve a term of two (2) years. (ii) The second group of commissioners shall serve a term of four (4) years. (iii) The third group of commissioners shall serve a term of six (6) years. (C) Following the initial group of commissioners, all commissioners shall serve a term of six (6) years. (3) The board of commissioners shall elect a chair and a secretary. (b) (1) (A) (i) All vacancies that may occur after the board shall have been organized shall be filled by the governing body. (ii) The vacating member shall serve, if possible, until a successor is appointed by the governing body of the municipality. (B) If all places on the board shall become vacant or those appointed shall refuse or neglect to act or shall cease to have the qualifications required for their original appointment, new members shall be appointed by the governing body as in the first instance. (2) (A) (i) The governing body shall have the power to remove the board or any member of it by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the whole number of the members of the governing body.

(ii) Removal shall be for cause only and after a hearing upon sworn charges preferred in writing by a property owner in the district. Ten (10) days' notice of the hearing on the charges shall be given. (B) The governing body shall have the power to remove the board or any member of it by a vote of the majority of the whole number of the members elected to the governing body upon the written petition of the owners of a majority in assessed value of the property located within the district after a hearing upon ten (10) days' notice to each member of the board affected. (c) The members of the board shall receive no compensation for their services but may be reimbursed for 14-184-112. Plans and estimated cost of improvement. (a) (1) As soon as is practicable after the qualification of its members, the board of commissioners for a central business improvement district shall form plans for the improvement as described in the petition and shall obtain estimates of the cost of it. (2) Prior to the filing of any assessment of benefits to accomplish the plan of improvement, a copy of the plans and the estimated cost for the accomplishment of the plans shall be filed in the office of the city clerk. (b) The plan may provide for the construction of improvements, and other implementation of the plan, in such sequence and in such parts as the board shall determine from time to time to be most advantageous to the district. (c) (1) The plan of improvement may be amended at any time by the board in order to include or delete such features as the board shall determine to be in the best interests of the district. (2) (A) A copy of the plan, as amended, shall be filed in the office of the city clerk, and, if the original assessment of benefits shall not have yet been filed, no further notice shall be necessary. (B) (i) If the assessment of benefits for the district shall have been filed and a levy of it enacted by ordinance, the board shall examine the amended plan and determine whether or not a reassessment of benefits shall be desirable. (ii) If the board shall determine that a reassessment is desirable, the board shall direct that a reassessment be prepared and filed as in the case of any other reassessment. However, if the amended plan shall provide for the construction of additional improvements the costs of which

are to be financed primarily from the issuance of bonds to be retired from the revenues from the additional improvements or from other sources, it shall not be necessary to reassess benefits. their actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties. 14-184-113. Expenditures for services. (a) (1) In the preparation of the plan of improvement, a central business improvement district is authorized to employ architects and engineers to prepare plans, specifications, and estimates of cost for the construction of the improvements and to supervise and inspect the construction. (2) In addition, the district is authorized to engage and pay attorneys, accountants, and consultants and to obtain and pay for such other professional and technical services as it shall determine to be necessary or desirable in assisting it to effectively carry out the functions, powers, and duties conferred and imposed upon it to accomplish and maintain the proposed improvement. (3) The district is further authorized to employ, on a full-time basis, such persons as shall be necessary to maintain, operate, supervise, repair, administer, or otherwise render assistance in the effecting of the plan and its continued benefit. (b) All expenditures under this section shall be taken as a cost of the improvement. 14-184-114. Abandonment of improvement. (a) (1) If for any cause the improvement shall not be made, the cost shall be a charge upon the real property in the central business improvement district and shall be raised and paid by an assessment upon the real property in the district as assessed for state and county purposes. (2) The assessment shall be levied by the governing body on the application of any person interested and shall be paid to the district to be distributed among the creditors of the district. (b) When any improvement is abandoned, it is made the duty of the board of commissioners to report to the governing body the total amount of the debts which it has incurred, to the end that the governing body may make adequate provision for their payment. 14-184-115. Powers of improvement district generally. A central business improvement district shall have all powers necessary or desirable to undertake and carry out any or all parts of the planned improvement including, but not limited

to, the following: (1) Existence as a body corporate, having the power to sue and to be sued and to contract in its name; (2) To own, acquire, improve, operate, maintain, sell, lease as lessor or lessee, and contract concerning, or otherwise deal in or dispose of, any and all real and personal property necessary or desirable for the accomplishment of the plan; (3) (A) To acquire, construct, install, operate, maintain, and contract regarding pedestrian or shopping malls, plazas, sidewalks or moving sidewalks, parks, parking lots, parking garages, offices, urban residential facilities including, without limitation, apartments, condominiums, hotels, motels, convention halls, rooms, and related facilities, and buildings and structures to contain any of these facilities, bus stop shelters, decorative lighting, benches or other seating furniture, sculptures, telephone booths, traffic signs, fire hydrants, kiosks, trash receptacles, marquees, awnings or canopies, walls and barriers, paintings or murals, alleys, shelters, display cases, fountains, child-care facilities, restrooms, information booths, aquariums or aviaries, tunnels and ramps, and pedestrian and vehicular overpasses and underpasses; (B) To acquire airspace for and to construct pedestrian walkways through buildings; and (C) To construct each and every other useful, necessary, or desired facility or improvement that may secure and develop industry and be conducive to improved economic activity within the district. (4) To landscape and plant trees, bushes and shrubbery, grass, flowers, and each and every other kind of decorative planting; (5) To install and operate or to lease public music and news facilities; (6) To acquire and operate buses, minibuses, mobile benches, and other modes of transportation; (7) To construct and operate child care facilities; (8) To acquire air rights for and to construct, operate, and maintain pedestrian overpasses, vehicular overpasses, public restaurants or other facilities within the air rights, to establish, operate, and maintain other restaurants or public eating facilities within the district, and to

lease space within the district for sidewalk cafe tables and chairs; (9) To construct lakes, dams, and waterways of whatever size; (10) To employ and provide special police facilities and personnel for the protection and enjoyment of the property owners and the general public using the facilities of the district; (11) To employ such persons as are necessary to procure such equipment as may be required to maintain the streets, alleys, malls, bridges, ramps, tunnels, lawns, trees, and decorative planting of each and every nature, and every structure or object of any nature whatsoever constructed or operated by the district; (12) To grant permits for newsstands, sidewalk cafes, and every other useful and desired private usage of public or private property; (13) To prohibit or restrict vehicular traffic on the streets within the district as the governing body may deem necessary and to provide the means for access by emergency vehicles to or in these areas; (14) To acquire, construct, reconstruct, extend, maintain, operate, repair, or lease to others for public use parking lots or parking garages, both above and below ground, or other facilities for the parking of vehicles, including the power to install these facilities in public and private areas, whether these areas are owned in fee simple, by easement, or by leasehold, with the approval and authority of the governing body, and, where desirable, to exchange property in kind by negotiations with private owners in the acquisition of property and property rights for the public purposes contemplated by this subchapter; (15) (A) To remove, by agreement or by the power of eminent domain, any existing structures or signs of any description in the district not conforming to the plan of improvement; and (B) To require, whether by agreement or by the exercise of eminent domain, any or all utilities servicing the district to lay such pipe, extend such wires, provide such facilities, or conform, modify, or remove existing facilities to effectuate the plan of improvement for the district; (16) To provide services for the improvement and operation of the district including, without limitation: (A) Promotion and marketing;

(B) Advertising; (C) Health and sanitation; (D) Public safety; (E) Security; (F) Traffic and parking improvements; (G) Recreation; (H) Cultural enhancement; (I) Consultation regarding planning, management, and development activities; (J) Maintenance of improvements; (K) Activities in support of business or residential recruitment, retention, or management development; (L) Aesthetic improvements, including the decoration, restoration, or renovation of any public place or building facade and exterior in public view that confers a public benefit; (M) Furnishing music in any public place; (N) Special event and festival management; (O) Professional management, planning, and promotion of the district; (P) Stabilization, maintenance, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings; and (Q) Design assistance; and (17) To do everything necessary or desirable to effectuate the plan of improvement for the district.

14-184-116. Power of eminent domain. (a) The right and power of eminent domain is conferred upon a central business improvement district to enter upon, take, and condemn private property for the construction of improvements described in the plan of improvement. (b) The right and power of eminent domain conferred by this section shall be exercised by the district in accordance with the procedures in 18-15-301 -- 18-15-307. (c) The right and power conferred by this section shall include, without limitation, the right and power to enter upon lands and proceed with the work of construction prior to the assessment and the payment of damages and compensation upon the posting of a deposit by the district in accordance with the procedure described in 18-15-301 -- 18-15-303. 14-184-117. Powers of municipal governing bodies. The governing body of any municipality shall have all powers necessary or desirable to undertake and carry out, or to assist a central business improvement district to undertake and carry out, all improvements described in the ordinance setting up the district including, but not limited to, the following: (1) (A) To close existing streets or alleys, or to open new streets and alleys, or to widen or narrow existing streets and alleys, in whole or in part. (B) These closings shall be subject to franchise, permit, or other occupancy right of utilities for existing facilities, except as provided in subdivision (8) of this section; (2) (A) To condemn and take easements necessarily incident to the plan of improvement adopted for the district. (B) Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, the rules and procedures set forth in 18-15-301 -- 18-15-307 shall govern all condemnation proceedings; (3) (A) To permit the district, on public property or rights-of-way, to install and operate, or to lease, public parking facilities, public music facilities, news facilities, and sidewalk cafe tables and chairs; (B) To construct lakes, dams, and waterways of whatever size;

(C) To landscape and plant trees, bushes, shrubbery, flowers, and each and every other kind of decorative planting; (D) To acquire air rights for the construction of pedestrian overpasses, vehicular overpasses, and public restaurants or facilities to be located in these spaces; and (E) To permit the purchase and operation of buses, minibuses, mobile benches, and other modes of transportation; (4) To provide special police facilities and the personnel for the protection and enjoyment of the property owners and the general public using the facilities of the district; (5) To maintain, as provided in this subchapter, all government-owned streets, alleys, malls, bridges, ramps, tunnels, lawns, and decorative plantings of each and every nature, and every structure or object of any nature whatsoever constructed and operated by the municipality; (6) To prohibit or restrict vehicular traffic on the streets within the district as may be deemed necessary and to provide the means for access by emergency vehicles to or in these areas; (7) To remove any existing structures or signs of any description in the district not conforming to the plan of improvements; and (8) Upon payment of reasonable compensation for it by the district, to require any or all utilities servicing the district to lay such pipe, extend such wires, provide such facilities, or conform, modify, or remove existing facilities to effectuate the plan of improvement for the district. 14-184-118. Supplemental annual assessments. (a) (1) In order to effectuate the plan of improvement and to maintain the improvements constructed under it, it may be desirable to provide additional funds for operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements, and to levy a supplemental annual assessment upon the property owners within a central business improvement district in order to provide funds for these purposes. (2) Supplemental annual assessment for operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements shall be in addition to that levied and collected upon the assessment of benefits which has been, or may be, pledged and mortgaged to retire bonded indebtedness of the district as authorized in this subchapter.

(b) (1) The petition requesting the creation of the district and the ordinances creating the district and levying the tax on the assessment of benefits to provide for the retirement of bonded indebtedness may also provide for a continuing supplemental annual levy of an assessment which shall be designated for the purposes of operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements of the improvements. (2) (A) If the petition requesting the creation of the district does not contain a provision requesting the levy of a supplemental annual assessment for operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements, a majority in value of the owners of real property within the district at any time may petition the governing body for the adoption of an ordinance levying such supplemental assessment. (B) If the petition is later filed, it shall be the duty of the governing body to adopt the requested ordinance upon inquiry only as to the sufficiency of the petition. (c) (1) The levy and collection of the supplemental annual assessment for operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements shall not operate to reduce the total of the assessed benefits which may be, or may have been, mortgaged and pledged to secure bonded indebtedness of the district. (2) Upon request of the board of commissioners, the annual supplemental assessment may be adjusted no more frequently than annually by the governing body. (3) (A) Collection of the supplemental assessment for operation, maintenance, repairs, and replacements shall be in the same manner as for the collection of assessment of benefits pledged to retire indebtedness of the district. (B) The failure to pay the supplemental assessments shall be enforced by proceedings in the same manner as other delinquent assessments. 14-184-119. Revenue-producing facilities. (a) (1) Nothing in this subchapter shall be deemed to limit or prohibit the operation of any facility which is a part of the plan of improvement as a revenue-producing facility. (2) Without limiting the generality of this provision, a central business improvement district may construct, operate, and maintain public restaurants, parking garages, and automobile serving facilities, places of amusement and entertainment, including facilities for the sale of food and refreshments and other similar public facilities, under circumstances which may

provide revenues exceeding the cost of the operations of them. (b) The revenues may be: (1) Used to defray the costs of general operation and maintenance of the district; (2) Used to retire indebtedness of the district; or (3) Set aside and pledged in separate funds to secure other indebtedness of the district. (c) The board of commissioners may authorize the lease of any of the facilities, or a portion of them constructed under the plan, including the parking garages, to other persons for such rental, upon such terms, and for such time as the board shall deem desirable. 14-184-121. Bonds -- Authorizing resolution. (a) The bonds of the district, whether payable from assessments, from revenues, or from both shall be authorized by a resolution of the board of commissioners. (b) The authorizing resolution may contain any of the terms, covenants, and conditions that are deemed desirable by the board including, without limitation, those pertaining to: (1) The maintenance of various funds and reserves; (2) The nature and extent of the security; (3) The issuance of additional bonds and the nature of the lien and pledge, parity or priority, in that event; (4) The custody and application of the proceeds of the bonds; (5) The collection and disposition of revenues; (6) The investing and reinvesting, in securities specified by the board, of any moneys during periods not needed for authorized purposes; and

(7) The rights, duties, and obligations of the district, the board, and of the holders and of the registered owners of the bonds. 14-184-122. Bonds -- Terms and conditions. (a) As the board of commissioners shall determine, the bonds may: (1) Be coupon bonds, payable to bearer, or may be registrable as to principal only or as to principal and interest, and may be made exchangeable for bonds of another denomination; (2) Be in such form and denomination; (3) Have such date or dates; (4) Be stated to mature at such times; (5) Bear interest payable at such times and at such rate or rates. However, no bond may bear interest at a rate exceeding the maximum rate allowed by law; (6) Be payable at such places within or without the State of Arkansas; (7) Be made subject to such terms of redemption in advance of maturity at such prices; and (8) Contain such terms and conditions. (b) The bonds shall have all the qualities of negotiable instruments under the laws of the State of Arkansas, subject to provisions as to registration, as set forth in this section. 14-184-123. Bonds -- Trust indenture. (a) The authorizing resolution may provide for the execution by the district with a bank or trust company, within or without the State of Arkansas, of a trust indenture. (b) The trust indenture may contain any terms, covenants, and conditions that are deemed desirable by the board including, without limitation, those pertaining to: (1) The maintenance of various funds and reserves; (2) The nature and extent of the security;

(3) The issuance of additional bonds and the nature of the lien and pledge, parity or priority, in that event; (4) The custody and application of the proceeds of the bonds; (5) The collection and disposition of assessments and of revenues; (6) The investing and reinvesting, in securities specified by the board, of any moneys during periods not needed for authorized purposes; and (7) The rights, duties, and obligations of the board and the holders and registered owners of the bonds. 14-184-124. Bonds -- Sale. (a) The bonds may be sold for such price, including without limitation sale at a discount, and at such rate of interest and in such manner as the board may determine by resolution. (b) [Repealed]. (c) [Repealed]. (d) [Repealed]. (e) Any bank, savings and loan association, or other financial institution regulated by an agency of the state in which it is incorporated, or the federal government may bid upon and purchase these bonds, notwithstanding the fact that a director, officer, employee, or shareholder of that financial institution is a member of the board of the district, and the provisions of 14-88-309, 14-88-310, and 14-88-402 shall not apply to any such transaction. 14-184-125. Bonds -- Execution and seal. (a) (1) (A) The bonds shall be executed by the manual or facsimile signature of the chairman of the board and by the manual signature of the secretary of the board. (B) The coupons attached to the bonds shall be executed by the facsimile signature of the chairman.

(2) In case any of the officers whose signatures appear on the bonds or coupons shall cease to be such officers before the delivery of the bonds or coupons, their signatures shall, nevertheless, be valid and sufficient for all purposes. (b) The district shall adopt and use a seal in the execution and issuance of the bonds, and each bond shall be sealed with the seal of the district. 14-184-126. Refunding bonds. (a) (1) Bonds may be issued for the purpose of refunding any bonds issued under this subchapter. (2) (A) Refunding bonds may be either sold or delivered in exchange for the bonds being refunded. (B) If sold, the proceeds may be either applied to the payment of the bonds being refunded or deposited in trust and there maintained in cash or investments for the retirement of the bonds being refunded, as shall be specified by the central business improvement district in the resolution or trust indenture securing the bonds. (b) (1) The resolution or trust indenture securing the refunding bonds may provide that the refunding bonds shall have the same priority on assessments or revenues pledged for their payment as was enjoyed by the bonds refunded. (2) Revenue refunding bonds shall be sold and secured in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter pertaining to the sale and security of the bonds initially issued. (c) Refunding bonds secured primarily by the mortgage and pledge of assessed benefits may also be issued in accordance with the laws governing refunding bonds of municipal improvement districts generally. 14-184-127. Obligation on bonds. (a) (1) It shall be plainly stated on the face of each bond that it has been issued under the provisions of this subchapter, that the bonds shall be obligations only of the central business improvement district, and that in no event shall they constitute any indebtedness for which the faith and credit of the municipality or any of its revenues are pledged. (2) No member of the board of commissioners shall be personally liable on the bonds or for any

damages sustained by anyone in connection with any contracts entered into in carrying out the purposes and intent of this subchapter unless he shall have acted with corrupt intent. (b) (1) The principal of, interest on, and paying agent's fees in connection with the bonds shall be secured by a lien on and pledge of, and shall be payable from, the assessments levied against the real property within the district or the revenues derived from the operation of revenue-producing facilities of the district including, without limitation, lease rentals as provided for in this subchapter, constructed or acquired under the provisions of this subchapter. (2) In this regard, the district is authorized to issue bonds for the purposes of constructing and equipping one (1) or more separate and distinct facilities as it may determine and, in the event more than one (1) facility is involved, to operate and pledge revenues from all such facilities as though a single project were involved. (c) (1) In the case of a separate facility financed by a separate bond issue, the district may pledge and use for debt service and reserves maintained in connection with the single project revenues derived from another project, either on a parity or subordinate lien basis as may be determined by the district, subject to the provisions of any resolutions or trust indentures which authorized and secured bonds previously issued. (2) The right to issue subsequent issues of bonds can, if the district so determines, be reserved in any authorizing resolution or trust indenture on either a parity or subordinate lien basis and upon such terms and conditions as the district may determine and specify in the particular authorizing resolution or trust indenture. 14-184-128. Bonds -- Tax exemption. (a) Bonds issued under the provisions of this subchapter and the interest on them shall be exempt from all state, county, and municipal taxes. (b) This exemption shall include income, inheritance, and estate taxes. 14-184-129. Public investment in bonds. (a) Any municipality; any board, commission, or other authority duly established by ordinance of any municipality; the boards of trustees, respectively, of the firemen's relief and pension fund and the policemen's pension and relief fund of any municipality; or the board of trustees of any retirement system created by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas may, in its

discretion, invest any of its funds not immediately needed for its purposes in bonds issued under the provisions of this subchapter. (b) Bonds issued under the provisions of this subchapter shall be eligible to secure the deposit of public funds. 14-184-130. Dissolution of district. (a) A central business improvement district created under this subchapter shall continue in existence in perpetuity unless dissolved by ordinance of the governing body to be enacted solely in the manner provided in this section: (1) A majority of the board of commissioners and a majority in value of the owners of real property in the district may petition the governing body for the dissolution of the district; or (2) The owners of real property in the district comprising two-thirds (2/3) in value of the real property may petition the governing body for the dissolution of the district; (3) Upon the filing with the clerk or recorder of the municipality in which the district is located of a petition in accordance with subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection, it shall then be the duty of the governing body to adopt an appropriate ordinance dissolving the district and providing for the distribution of its assets. (b) (1) If practicable, all funds of the district remaining after the payment of any outstanding indebtedness shall be distributed pro rata to the owners of real property within the district in proportion to the assessment of benefits as it appears according to the most recent reassessment of them; otherwise, funds which cannot be practicably refunded shall be paid to the municipality in which the district is located for its general account. (2) Title to all personal property owned by the district and title to all real property, improvements, easements, and other rights constructed or acquired by the district shall, unless otherwise provided in any conveyance, easement, or grant of right, pass to the municipality in which the district is located. (c) No district shall be dissolved at any time during which there shall be outstanding bonded indebtedness of the district unless funds sufficient to retire the indebtedness including all interest, redemption premium, if any, trustee's and paying agent's fees, and cost of publication of notices of redemption have been deposited in trust according to the terms of the resolution or trust indenture authorizing the bonded indebtedness.