Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 54 > Chapter 3 - Tennessee Tollway Act

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Ancillary agreements: means contracts or agreements facilitating the issuance and sale of bonds, including contracts or agreements providing for liquidity and credit enhancement and reimbursement agreements relating to the contracts or agreements providing for liquidity and credit enhancement. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Availability payments: means payments by a public entity to a private entity in connection with the development, maintenance, or operation of a user fee facility pursuant to a franchise agreement, concession agreement, or a combination of those agreements. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• board: means the board established in this chapter. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Bonds: means bonds, notes, renewal notes, refunding bonds, interim certificates, certificates of indebtedness, debentures, warrants, commercial paper, or other obligations or other evidence of indebtedness or evidence of borrowed money issued or entered into by or on behalf of the department to finance user fee facility projects. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Claim: means any claim brought against a governmental entity or its employee as permitted by this chapter. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concession agreement: means an agreement between a public entity and a private entity, or a consortium of private entities, under which the private entity or consortium accepts responsibility for the design, construction, financing, operation, or maintenance of a user fee facility for a period of years, collects revenues from the user fee facility for that period, and accepts the risk of revenues being sufficient to support the private entity's or consortium's capital, operations, and maintenance costs for the user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• development: means a portion of the process of bringing a user fee facility project to completion, including, but not limited to, planning, feasibility analysis, environmental evaluation, preliminary engineering, design, acquisition of rights-of-way, relocation of utilities, permitting, environmental mitigation, contracting, funding, and construction. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Employee: means and includes any official (whether elected or appointed), officer, employee or servant, or any member of any board, agency, or commission (whether compensated or not), or any officer, employee or servant thereof, of a governmental entity, including the sheriff and the sheriff's employees and, further including regular members of voluntary or auxiliary firefighting, police, or emergency assistance organizations. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Facility: means a highway, bridge, tunnel, parking lot or garage, or other paved surface or structure that is designed to carry or contain land transportation vehicles, or another transportation-related facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Franchise agreement: means an agreement between a public entity and a private entity, or a consortium of private entities, under which the private entity or consortium accepts responsibility for the design, construction, operation, or maintenance of a user fee facility for a period of years in exchange for payment from the public entity, which may include, but is not limited to, periodic availability payments from the public entity. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• fund: means each separate fund established in this chapter, or all such funds, as the context may require, and includes accounts and subaccounts in the fund or funds. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Governmental entity: means any political subdivision of the state of Tennessee including, but not limited to, any municipality, metropolitan government, county, utility district, school district, nonprofit volunteer fire department receiving funds appropriated by a county legislative body or a legislative body of a municipality, human resource agency, community action agency or nonprofit corporation that administers the Head Start or Community Service Block Grant programs, public building authority, and development district created and existing pursuant to the constitution and laws of Tennessee, or any instrumentality of government created by any one (1) or more of the named local governmental entities or by an act of the general assembly. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Hedging agreements: means interest rate swap or exchange agreements, agreements establishing interest rate floors or ceilings, or both, and other interest rate hedging agreements relating to bonds. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• High occupancy user fee lane: means a high occupancy vehicle lane that may be used by an operator of a vehicle carrying fewer than the number of persons specified for the high occupancy vehicle lane if the operator pays a user fee. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Injury: means death, injury to a person, damage to or loss of property or any other injury that one may suffer to one's person, or estate, that would be actionable if inflicted by a private person or such person's agent. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Managed lane: means a highway lane where operational strategies are proactively implemented and operated in response to changing traffic conditions, including, but not limited to, a user fee lane, high occupancy vehicle lane, or high occupancy user fee lane. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Open road user fee system: means a system for the collection of user fees via electronic means without the use of physical payment booths. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• operation: means activity associated with the management, operation, and maintenance of a completed user fee project, including, but not limited to, collecting user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State funding board: means the state funding board established in §. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• User fee: means a fee or charge for the use of a user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fee facility: means a facility where the development or operation of the facility is wholly or partially funded with user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fee facility project: means a capital project involving the development or operation of a user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fee lane: means a highway lane that may be used by an operator of a vehicle if the operator pays a user fee. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fee revenue: means revenues or moneys received from the collection of user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105