The Legislature finds and declares the following: That the State of Alabama places a high priority on the recruitment of industries to locate or expand their operations in Alabama; that it is a vital economic development tool for the state to be able to offer strategic incentives to such industries in the form of limited financial commitments; that the Alabama Incentives Financing Authority has heretofore been created for the purpose of funding such financial commitments made prior to July 20, 1995; and that by the passage of Act 99-198 of the 1999 Regular Session it is the intention of the Legislature to enable the authority to meet commitments made by the state to industries committing to locate or expand in the state after such date and, further, to enable the authority to lease or convey title to worker training facilities to the Alabama Public School and College Authority and to the Alabama Industrial Development Training Institute.

The Legislature further finds and declares that the State of Alabama has a critical need (i) to test the state's computer hardware, firmware, and software systems to determine whether such systems are Y2K compliant and (ii) to implement modifications to or replacement of all or part of such systems so as to cause them to become Y2K compliant without creating new errors or side effects; that the cost to the state of making such systems Y2K compliant is more than it is desirable for the state to pay out of current General Fund revenues; that it is necessary and in the public interest for the Alabama Incentives Financing Authority to be given the power to issue bonds in order to fund such expenditures and to pledge for payment of such bonds the funds appropriated to the authority pursuant to Section 41-10-550 and Section 41-10-570.

Therefore, the Legislature finds that it is desirable and appropriate to grant to the Alabama Incentives Financing Authority sufficient powers to accomplish the goals and objectives set forth herein. Act 99-198 of the 1999 Regular Session shall be liberally construed in accordance with its remedial purposes.