Authority of the department; incur debt; issue and undertake guarantees of debt of other entities

A. The department is hereby authorized to issue, incur, and deliver debt evidenced by bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness, payable from or secured by sums deposited in, credited to, or to be received in, including sums received pursuant to letters of credit, by the department in the CWSRF. B. The department is further authorized to undertake and to issue and deliver evidences of its guarantee of the debt of other entities and is authorized to enter and execute pledges of the sums deposited in, credited to, or to be received in the CWSRF, including payments pursuant to letters of credit, to secure the debt of other entities. Such bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness, such guarantees, and such pledges issued and delivered pursuant to the authority hereof shall constitute special and limited obligations of the department, and shall not be secured by the full faith and credit of the state, any source of revenue of the state other than those sums on deposit in, credited to, or to be received in the CWSRF, including payments to be made pursuant to letters of credit. It is hereby found and determined that such bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness, guarantees, and pledges shall constitute revenue bonds, debts, or obligations within the meaning of Article VII, Section 6(C) of the Constitution of Louisiana and shall not constitute the incurring of state debt thereunder. C. Withdrawals from the CWSRF to pay debt service on any bond, note, or other evidence of indebtedness, obligation of guarantee of any debt, or pledge to secure any debt does not constitute and shall not be subject to annual appropriation by the legislature as provided by Article III, Section 16 of the Constitution of Louisiana. D. The department is hereby authorized to issue, execute, and deliver refunding bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness for the purpose of refunding, readjusting, restructuring, refinancing, extending, or unifying in whole or any part of its outstanding obligations, and the department is also authorized to issue short-term revenue notes for the purposes of anticipating any revenues to be received by the department in connection with the CWSRF.