Safe Roads Amendment of 1996

(a) The Legislature shall have power to authorize the issuing and selling of state bonds not exceeding in the aggregate five hundred fifty million dollars. The proceeds of said bonds hereby authorized to be issued and sold over a five-year period in the following amounts:
(1) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, one hundred ten million dollars;
(2) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, one hundred ten million dollars;
(3) The first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, one hundred ten million dollars;
(4) The first day of July, two thousand, one hundred ten million dollars;
(5) The first day of July, two thousand one, one hundred ten million dollars.
Any bonds not issued under the provisions of subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection may be carried forward and issued in any subsequent year.
(b) The proceeds of the bonds shall be used and appropriated for the following purposes:
(1) Matching available federal funds for highway construction in this state; and
(2) General highway construction or improvements in each of the fifty-five counties.
(c) When a bond issue as aforesaid is authorized, the Legislature shall at the same time provide for the collection of an annual state tax sufficient to pay as it may accrue the interest on such bonds and the principal thereof within and not exceeding twenty-five years. Such tax shall be levied in any year only to the extent that the moneys in the state road fund irrevocably set aside and appropriated for and applied to the payment of the interest on and the principal of said bonds becoming due and payable in such year are insufficient therefor. Any interest that accrues on the issued bonds prior to payment shall only be used for the purposes of the bonds.