CHAP. 196.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1, of chapter VIII of
the charter of the city of Danville, Virginia, approved February 17,
1890, entitled an act to incorporate the city of Danville, relating ta
temporary loans, the borrowing of money, the limit of outstanding
indebtedness, the issuing of certain bonds in serial form to be made
payable in annual installments, to the right of the city council to
create debts and to the maintenance of a sinking fund for certain
bonds of said city; as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
February 19, 1900, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
February 1, 1901, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
March 8, 1902, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved Decem-
ber 12, 1908, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved on the
5th day of February, 1916. (S. B. 324.)

Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section one, chapter VIII, of the charter of the city of Danville,
Virginia, relating to the improvement of roads in Pittsylvania
county, temporary loans, the borrowing of money, the limit of
outstanding indebtedness, the issuing of certain bonds in a
serial form to be made payable in annual installments, to the
right of the city council to create debts and to the maintenance
of a sinking fund for certain bonds of said city; as amended and
re-enacted by an act approved February nineteenth, nineteen
hundred, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved Feb-
ruary first, nineteen hundred and one, as amended and re-
enacted by an act approved March eighth, nineteen hundred
and two, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved De-
cember twelfth, nineteen hundred and three, as amended and
re-enacted by an act approved on the fifth day of February,
nineteen hundred and sixteen, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

CHAPTER VIII.

Section 1. The council shall have power and authority, in
the name and for the use and benefit of said city, to borrow
money on temporary loans for a period not exceeding four
months, and for amounts not exceeding in the aggregate at any
one time, the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000),
and issue therefor notes or other evidences of debt.

The council shall also have power and authority, in the
name and for the use and benefit of said city, to borrow money
and contract debts, and issue, negotiate and sell notes, bonds
and certificates of debt; and, moreover, to issue, negotiate and
sell bonds of the city to be used in the payment, discharge and
redemption of refunding of any outstanding bonds of said city,
whenever said bonds shall mature or become subject to call.
But said city shall not issue bonds, or other interest-bearing
obligations for any purpose, or in any manner, to an amount,
which including existing indebtedness, shall at any time exceed
eighteen per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate
in said city subject to taxation, as shown by the last preceding
assessment for taxes; provided, however, that in determining
this limitation to incur indebtedness, there shall not be incluaed
the classes of indebtedness specifically provided for by sub-sec-
tions (a) and (b) of section one hundred and twenty-seven of
the Constitution of Virginia.

That no bonds issued by the council of the city of Danville,
for and on behalf of said city of Danville after July first, nine-
teen hundred and sixteen, shall be made payable a greater num-
ber of years after their date than the estimated life of the im-
provement or undertaking on account of which the debt is to
be created; provided, that in no event shall a debt of said city
be made payable more than thirty years after the date thereof,
and provided further, that the city council may determine the
estimated life of any such improvement or undertaking and the
Judgment of the council in making said estimate shall be con-
clusive.

That all bonds, including refunding bonds, issued by said
city council for and on behalf of said city after July first, nine-
teen hundred and sixteen, shall be issued in serial form, that
is to say, the aggregate of the principal of the debt to be created
shall be divided into equal annual installments payable annually,
with the first annual installment falling due one year after the
date of said bond, and with interest payable annually or semi-
annually as the council may determine; provided, however, that
nothing herein contained shau ve construed to require the issue
in serial form of bonds or other obligations issued in anticina-
tion of the collection of the revenue of said city for the then
current year and maturing within one year from the date of
their issue.

Except for the current expenses aforesaid and the said
bonds issued to refund the bonded indebtedness of said city,
the said council shall not, in the name of said city, contract any
debt, or issue any bonds or other evidences of debt in an amount
exceeding ten thousand dollars, until the question of contract-
ing such indebtedness shall have first been submitted to a vote
of the qualified voters of said city, and shall be approved by
two-thirds of such voters, voting at such election, which two-
thirds shall include a maiority of the qualified registered voters
owning real estate in said city.

The council shall annually set aside from the resources of
said city a sum equal to one per centum of the aggregate bonded
indebtedness of said city, not payable within one year, whether
heretofore or hereafter contracted, except that no sinking fund
shall be required for bonds hereafter issued in serial form; pro-
vided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be con-
strued to authorize the council to discontinue any sinking fund
which may be required for bonds issued pursuant to clause (b)
of section one hundred and twenty-seven of the Constitution of
Virginia, of nineteen hundred and two. The fund thus set
aside shall be called the sinking fund, and shall be applied to
the payment of the bonded indebtedness of said city, as it shall
become due, and if no part be due and payable, the sinking fund
shall be invested in the bonds of other certificates of indebted-
ness of said city, or of the State of Virginia, or of the United
States, or of any State in this Union.

An emergency existing, this act is hereby declared an
emergency act, and shall be in force from its passage.