16.3  Legislative findings.
  The general assembly finds and declares as follows:
  1.  The establishment of the authority is in all respects for the benefit of the people of the state of Iowa, for the improvement of their health and welfare, and for the promotion of the economy, which are public purposes.
  2.  The authority will be performing an essential governmental function in the exercise of the powers and duties conferred upon it by this chapter.
  3.  There exists a serious shortage of safe and sanitary residential housing available to low or moderate income families.
  4.  This shortage is conducive to disease, crime, environmental decline and poverty and impairs the economic value of large areas, which are characterized by depreciated values, impaired investments, and reduced capacity to pay taxes and are a menace to the health, safety, morals and welfare of the citizens of the state.
  5.  These conditions result in a loss in population and further deterioration, accompanied by added costs to communities for creation of new public facilities and services elsewhere.
  6.  One major cause of this condition has been recurrent shortages of funds in private channels.
  7.  These shortages have contributed to reductions in construction of new residential units, and have made the sale and purchase of existing residential units a virtual impossibility in many parts of the state.
  8.  The ordinary operations of private enterprise have not in the past corrected these conditions.
  9.  A stable supply of adequate funds for residential financing is required to encourage new housing and the rehabilitation of existing housing in an orderly and sustained manner and to reduce the problems described in this section.
  10.  It is necessary to create a state finance authority to encourage the investment of private capital and stimulate the construction and rehabilitation of adequate housing through the use of public financing.
  11.  The interest costs paid by group homes of fifteen beds or less licensed as health care facilities or child foster care facilities for facility acquisition and indirectly reimbursed by the department of human services through payments for patients at those facilities who are recipients of medical assistance or state supplementary assistance are severe drains on the state’s budget. A reduction in these costs obtained through financing with tax-exempt revenue bonds would clearly be in the public interest.
  12.  There is a need in areas of the state for new construction of certain group homes of fifteen beds or less licensed as health care facilities or child foster care facilities to provide adequate housing and care for elderly Iowans and Iowans with disabilities, and to provide adequate housing and foster care for children.
  13.  There is a need to provide for early intensive intervention on behalf of juveniles which is designed to meet the juveniles’ needs and prevent future antisocial and criminal behavior and there is a need in areas of the state to establish facilities providing residential housing or treatment facilities for juveniles requiring a more enhanced level of services than those services currently available in the state’s existing foster care system.
  14.  The abstract attorney’s title opinion system promotes land title stability for determining the marketability of land titles and is a public purpose. A public purpose will be served by providing, as an adjunct to the abstract attorney’s title opinion system, a low cost mechanism to provide for additional guaranties of real property titles in Iowa. The title guaranties will facilitate mortgage lenders’ participation in the secondary market and add to the integrity of the land-title transfer system in the state.
  15.  Economic development and expansion of business, industry, and farming in the state is dependent upon the availability of financing of the development and expansion at affordable interest rates.
  16.  The pooling of private financing enhances the marketability of the obligations involved and increases access to other state, regional, and national credit markets.
  17.  The creation of an Iowa economic development bond bank program as provided in section 16.102 will make the pooling of private financing available to small businesses, farmers, agricultural landowners and operators, and commercial, industrial, and other business enterprises at favorable interest rates with reduced marketing costs.
  18.  All of the purposes stated in this section are public purposes and uses for which public moneys may be borrowed, expended, advanced, loaned, or granted.
[C77, 79, 81, §220.3; 82 Acts, ch 1187, §4]
83 Acts, ch 96, §157, 159; 85 Acts, ch 252, §27; 90 Acts, ch 1239, §5
C93, §16.3
96 Acts, ch 1129, §10; 2007 Acts, ch 54, §13; 2008 Acts, ch 1031, §16