48-5307. Regional transportation fund

A. A regional transportation fund is established for the authority. The fund consists of:

1. Monies received from the county transportation excise tax as provided in section 42-6106.

2. Monies appropriated by each municipality or the county.

3. Grants, gifts or donations from public or private sources.

4. Monies granted by the federal government or appropriated by the legislature.

5. Fares or other revenues collected by the authority in operating a public transportation system.

6. Monies from bonds issued by the board pursuant to article 2 of this chapter.

B. Subject to the powers granted to the board in article 2 of this chapter, the fiscal agent on behalf of the authority shall administer monies paid into the regional transportation fund.

C. The department of revenue shall collect all transportation excise tax monies pursuant to section 42-6106 and shall deposit them monthly pursuant to section 42-5014 in a fund designated for the regional transportation authority as the regional transportation fund.

D. Except as provided in this section, the beneficial interest in the fund is the authority that levied the transportation excise tax. This state or the county does not have a beneficial interest, either legal or equitable, in the fund, except for the repayment of election expenses.

E. Monies and investments in the regional transportation fund may be used and spent only as provided in this chapter. An appropriation of any nature is not required before the expenditure of any monies from the fund.

F. The regional transportation fund shall be divided into three separate accounts, designated as the bond account, the construction account and the bond proceeds account. Transfers between accounts shall be made only as provided in this section or in article 2 of this chapter.

G. Before the issuance of any bonds payable from the regional transportation fund as provided in article 2 of this chapter, transportation excise tax revenues shall be deposited in the construction account and spent as provided in this article. After the issuance of any bonds payable from the regional transportation fund as provided in article 2 of this chapter, transportation excise tax revenues shall be deposited in the bond account first until the bond account contains monies sufficient to meet all principal, interest or redemption requirements for the current period as required by any resolution of the board pertaining to the issuance of bonds. After all current period requirements for all of the bonds are deposited in the bond account, the balance of transportation excise tax revenues received for the current period shall be deposited in the construction account.