Certificates of indebtedness; customary and necessary benefits

A. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary and as a complete and additional authority for incurring debt, any political subdivision, as defined in R.S. 33:2922, is hereby authorized to issue certificates of indebtedness maturing not more than five years from the dated date of such certificates for the purpose of paying customary and necessary benefits and/or services which will be available or provided to such political subdivision under a multi-year contract of not less than two years. B. The political subdivision shall not issue such certificates of indebtedness unless the political subdivision certifies to the State Bond Commission that: (1) The benefits and/or services are customary and necessary. (2) The cost of such benefits and/or services if contracted for on an annual basis is greater than the sum of the cost of such benefits and/or services over the term of the multi-year contract plus the costs of incurring debt. (3) There is no reasonable commercial alternative to obtaining such cost savings for the benefits and/or services other than on a multi-year contract basis. C. For purposes of this Section, the costs of incurring debt shall include the costs of issuance and the administrative costs, including interest costs, attributable to such debt.