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WIl',ard C. Doty, Chairman Page 3 June 1 , 1979 Minnesota Statutes' Chapter 475 is the general bonding authority for cities and provides most of the information,which you are seeking in this question. M.S. 475.52 dealing with bond issue purposes sets out a long list of authorized purposes and then adds that a city may issuebonds to provide money for any other authorized corporate purpose except current expense. In subd. 2 .of that same section, the statutes provide: "any city governed by a home rule charter may issue bonds for any purpose innumerated in subd. 1 , unless forbidden by. its`charter, except that any such city may issue bondsforacquisition of ambulençes, and related equipment nothwithstanding the provisions of its charter; and for other. purposesas authorized by its charter." Thus it appears that a home rule charter can limit';the: purposes for which bonds may be sold except as those purposes are' , set out in such other chapters and sections which contain an expression of the intent of the legislature to establish a policy which cannot be over-ridden by home rule charter. Examples of ;those. exceptions are discussed in answers to your earlier. questions. 'It appears that your home rule charter could set a to er net debt limit than that established b . .475.53 :(§_g/q% of assessed value). ee orney enera -s pinion 49-A-51 , Apr 13owever, a 1 i y of doing this is questionable since numerous cities have expressed an interest in seeing the statutory limit on net-debt raised and in fact many of them have been exempted fromthe general statutory limit by special law. • As far as charter provisions varying the application of the election requirements before issuance, contained in M.S. 475.58, part (5) under subd. 1 of that section permits a home rule charter to expand the category of bonds to be issued which are, not subject .to-an election, but the lan_,gj g_ he section apeeaarss_toprevent the charter from retiring an elec '• 1 Od hose ca - aeries of bond issues which the section e ludes'f oil h•_ - ion re iirrement. Seeenc osed the corresponsence and materia related to the restrictive char er provision on issuance of bonds in the Gilbert City Charter. In summarizing my response to question 5, I can only say that restrictive charter provi ' • . • be unworkable and confusin• and increase the cost of issuin• ba simpl,_becauicu on an• a• •itional ime required to check out and get legal opinions on the efficacy of those charter restrictions. In Question 6 you ask as to the type of bond instruments on which a charter may require . voter approval before issuance. That quest' . i is +ar.tiall answered b the ans • the last q,uastion, partially answered by the listing in ' . 8, .a xerox copy of which I am including. And the remainder of the types of bond issues which may be issued without an election is really impossible for me to list without a substantial research effort. That list would, however, include water and sewer bonds issued under M.S. 444.075, perhaps industrial revenue bonds, see the answer to question 4, and such other bonds as are specifically authorized without an election by other sections of the Minnesota Statutes. . In questio,n..,Zyou ask whether a charter may limy tax levies on bonds to actual principal , interest and debt service cost plus any over collection required by law. As far as I know, the revenueaepartment would not look on"levies for other than these items as debt retirement levies, qualifying as special levies and thus levies for other purposes would:` not be debt retirement levies or bond levies, even under present law. Thus, I think a charter provision could so limit tax levies for retirement of bonds.