(A) Subject to division (C)(1) of this section and section 5537.26 of the Revised Code, the Ohio turnpike and infrastructure commission may fix, revise, charge, and collect tolls for each turnpike project, and contract in the manner provided by this section with any person desiring the use of any part thereof, including the right-of-way adjoining the paved portion, for placing thereon telephone, electric light, or power lines, service facilities, or for any other purpose, and fix the terms, conditions, rents, and rates of charge for such use, provided that no toll, charge, or rental may be made by the commission for placing in, on, along, over, or under the turnpike project, equipment or public utility facilities that are necessary to serve service facilities or to interconnect any public utility facilities.

Terms Used In Ohio Code 5537.13

  • Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
  • Bond proceedings: means the resolutions, trust agreements, certifications, notices, sale proceedings, leases, lease-purchase agreements, assignments, credit enhancement facility agreements, and other agreements, instruments, and documents, as amended and supplemented, or any one or more or any combination thereof, authorizing, or authorizing or providing for the terms and conditions applicable to, or providing for the security or sale or award or liquidity of, bonds, and includes the provisions set forth or incorporated in those bonds and bond proceedings. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Bond service charges: means principal, including any mandatory sinking fund or mandatory redemption requirements for the retirement of bonds, and interest and any redemption premium payable on bonds, as those payments come due and are payable to the bondholder or to a person making payment under a credit enhancement facility of those bond service charges to a bondholder. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Bond service fund: means the applicable fund created by the bond proceedings for and pledged to the payment of bond service charges on bonds provided for by those proceedings, including all moneys and investments, and earnings from investments, credited and to be credited to that fund as provided in the bond proceedings. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Bonds: means bonds, notes, including notes anticipating bonds or other notes, commercial paper, certificates of participation, or other evidences of obligation, including any interest coupons pertaining thereto, issued by the commission pursuant to this chapter. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Commission: means the Ohio turnpike and infrastructure commission created by section 5537. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Financing expenses: means all costs and expenses relating to the authorization, issuance, sale, delivery, authentication, deposit, custody, clearing, registration, transfer, exchange, fractionalization, replacement, payment, and servicing of bonds including, without limitation, costs and expenses for or relating to publication and printing, postage, delivery, preliminary and final official statements, offering circulars, and informational statements, travel and transportation, underwriters, placement agents, investment bankers, paying agents, registrars, authenticating agents, remarketing agents, custodians, clearing agencies or corporations, securities depositories, financial advisory services, certifications, audits, federal or state regulatory agencies, accounting and computation services, legal services and obtaining approving legal opinions and other legal opinions, credit ratings, redemption premiums, and credit enhancement facilities. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • Infrastructure fund: means the applicable fund or funds created by the bond proceedings, which shall be used to pay or defray the cost of infrastructure projects recommended by the director of transportation and evaluated and approved by the commission. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • Pledged revenues: means net revenues, moneys and investments, and earnings on those investments, in the applicable bond service fund and any other special funds, and the proceeds of any bonds issued for the purpose of refunding prior bonds, all as lawfully available and by resolution of the commission committed for application as pledged revenues to the payment of bond service charges on particular issues of bonds. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Public utility facilities: means tracks, pipes, mains, conduits, cables, wires, towers, poles, and other equipment and appliances of any public utility. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Revenues: means all tolls, service revenues, investment income on special funds, rentals, gifts, grants, and all other moneys coming into the possession of or under the control of the commission by virtue of this chapter, except the proceeds from the sale of bonds. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Service facilities: means service stations, restaurants, and other facilities for food service, roadside parks and rest areas, parking, camping, tenting, rest, and sleeping facilities, hotels or motels, and all similar and other facilities providing services to the traveling public in connection with the use of a turnpike project and owned, leased, licensed, or operated by the commission. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Special funds: means the applicable bond service fund and any accounts and subaccounts in that fund, any other funds or accounts permitted by and established under, and identified as a "special fund" or "special account" in, the bond proceedings, including any special fund or account established for purposes of rebate or other requirements under federal income tax laws. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • State agencies: means the state, officers of the state, and boards, departments, branches, divisions, or other units or agencies of the state. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • system: means all existing and future turnpike projects constructed, operated, and maintained under the jurisdiction of the commission. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Tolls: means tolls, special fees or permit fees, or other charges by the commission to the owners, lessors, lessees, or operators of motor vehicles for the operation of or the right to operate those vehicles on a turnpike project. See Ohio Code 5537.01
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Turnpike project: means any express or limited access highway, super highway, or motorway constructed, operated, or improved, under the jurisdiction of the commission and pursuant to this chapter, at a location or locations reviewed by the turnpike legislative review committee and approved by the governor, including all bridges, tunnels, overpasses, underpasses, interchanges, entrance plazas, approaches, those portions of connecting public roads that serve interchanges and are determined by the commission and the director of transportation to be necessary for the safe merging of traffic between the turnpike project and those public roads, toll booths, service facilities, and administration, storage, and other buildings, property, and facilities that the commission considers necessary for the operation or policing of the turnpike project, together with all property and rights which may be acquired by the commission for the construction, maintenance, or operation of the turnpike project, and includes any sections or extensions of a turnpike project designated by the commission as such for the particular purpose. See Ohio Code 5537.01

(B) Contracts for the operation of service facilities shall be made in writing. Such contracts, except contracts with state agencies or other governmental agencies, shall be made with the bidder whose bid is determined by the commission to be the best bid received, after advertisement, in accordance with section 7.16 of the Revised Code, for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in and in other publications that the commission determines. The notice shall state the general character of the service facilities operation proposed, the place where plans and specifications may be examined, and the time and place of receiving bids. Bids shall contain the full name of each person interested in them, and shall be in such form as the commission requires. The commission may reject any and all bids. All contracts for service facilities shall be preserved in the principal office of the commission.

(C)(1) Except as necessary to comply with covenants in bond proceedings in existence before July 1, 2013, for calendar years 2013 through 2023, the commission shall not increase the toll rates for any class of passenger vehicle as fixed on July 1, 2013, when both of the following apply:

(a) The tolls are collected and remitted in accordance with a multi-jurisdiction electronic toll collection agreement; and

(b) The distance traveled is thirty miles or less.

(2) Subject to division (C)(1) of this section, tolls shall be so fixed and adjusted as to provide funds at least sufficient with other revenues of the Ohio turnpike system, if any, to pay:

(a) The cost of maintaining, improving, repairing, constructing, and operating the Ohio turnpike system and its different parts and sections, and to create and maintain any reserves for those purposes;

(b) Any unpaid bond service charges on outstanding bonds payable from pledged revenues as such charges become due and payable, and to create and maintain any reserves for that purpose.

(D) Tolls are not subject to supervision, approval, or regulation by any state agency other than the turnpike and infrastructure commission.

(E) Revenues derived from each turnpike project shall be first applied to pay the cost of maintenance, improvement, repair, and operation and to provide any reserves therefor that are provided for in the bond proceedings authorizing the issuance of those outstanding bonds, and otherwise as provided by the commission. The bond proceedings also shall provide, subject to the provisions of any other applicable bond proceedings, for the pledge of all, or such part as the commission may determine of the pledged revenues and the applicable special fund or funds to the payment of the bond service charges, which pledge may be made to secure the bonds senior or subordinate to or on a parity with bonds theretofore or thereafter issued, if and to the extent provided in the bond proceedings. The pledge shall be valid and binding from the time the pledge is made; the revenues and the pledged revenues thereafter received by the commission immediately shall be subject to the lien of the pledge without any physical delivery thereof or further act, and the lien of the pledge shall be valid and binding as against all parties having claims of any kind in tort, contract, or otherwise against the commission, whether or not those parties have notice thereof. The bond proceedings by which a pledge is created need not be filed or recorded except in the records of the commission. The use and disposition of moneys to the credit of a bond service fund shall be subject to the applicable bond proceedings.

(F) The proceeds of bonds issued for the payment of the costs of infrastructure projects, net of the payment of all financing expenses and deposits into debt service reserves or other special funds as may be required in the applicable bond proceedings, shall be deposited to the infrastructure fund or funds and shall be exclusively used to pay the cost of infrastructure projects approved by the commission, except that income earned by the infrastructure fund may be used by the commission towards the payment of bond service charges.

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