(A) There is created a body corporate and politic and an instrumentality of the State to be known as the South Carolina Infrastructure Facilities Authority. The members of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority comprise the authority to serve ex officio in the same capacity as they serve as members of the authority.

(B) The corporate purpose of the authority is assistance to local governments in constructing, extending, rehabilitating, repairing, replacing, and renewing infrastructure facilities necessary for public purposes and commercial, residential, and industrial development purposes or necessary or incidental to such purposes by providing grants, loans, bonds, and other forms of financial and technical assistance to local governments to finance any project or pay the cost of any project. The exercise by the authority of a power conferred in this chapter is an essential public function.