(a) The authority shall have any and all powers necessary or convenient to its usefulness in carrying out and effectuating the purposes and provisions of this chapter which are not in conflict with the Constitution of this state, including, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the following powers:

(1) To sue and be sued in contract and in tort and to complain and defend in all courts;

(2) To adopt and alter a corporate seal;

(3) To adopt, amend, and repeal bylaws, rules and regulations, and policies and procedures for the regulation of its affairs and the conduct of its business, the election and duties of officers and employees of the authority, and such other matters as the authority may determine;

(4) To appoint and select officers, agents, and employees, including professional and administrative staff and personnel, financial advisers, consultants, fiscal agents, trustees, and accountants and to fix their compensation and pay their expenses, including the power to contract with any department, agency, board, commission, or authority of state government for professional, technical, clerical, and administrative support as may be required;

(5) To procure or to provide insurance against any loss in connection with its programs, property, and other assets;

(6) To borrow money and to issue notes and bonds and other obligations to accomplish its public purposes and to provide for the rights of the lenders or holders thereof;

(7) To pledge, mortgage, convey, assign, hypothecate securities, or otherwise encumber any property of the authority, including, but not limited to, real property, fixtures, personal property, intangible property, revenues, income, charges, fees, or other funds and to execute any lease, trust indenture, trust agreement, resolution, agreement for the sale of the authority's bonds, loan agreement, mortgage, deed to secure debt, trust deed, security agreement, assignment, or other agreement or instrument as may be necessary or desirable, in the judgment of the authority, to secure any such bonds, which instruments or agreements may provide for foreclosure or forced sale of any property of the authority upon default in any obligation of the authority, either in payment of principal, premium, if any, or interest or in the performance of any term or condition contained in any such agreement or instrument; the state, on behalf of itself and each political subdivision, public body corporate and politic, or taxing district therein, waives any right it or such political subdivision, public body corporate and politic, or taxing district may have to prevent the forced sale or foreclosure of any property of the authority upon such default and agrees that any agreement or instrument encumbering such property may be foreclosed in accordance with law and the terms thereof;

(8) To extend credit, to make loans, to participate in the making of loans, to provide credit enhancement, and to provide or procure insurance;

(9) To collect fees and charges in connection with its bonds, loans, commitments, insurance, credit enhancement, and servicing, including, but not limited to, reimbursement of costs of financing;

(10) To sell loans, security interests, and other obligations of the authority at public or private sale; to negotiate modifications or alterations in loans, security interests, and other obligations of the authority; to foreclose on any security interest in default or commence any action to protect or enforce any right conferred upon it by any law, security agreement, deed of trust, deed to secure debt, contract, or other agreement; to bid for and purchase property which was the subject of such loan, security interest, or other obligation of the authority at any foreclosure or at any other sale; to acquire or take possession of such property; and to exercise any and all rights as provided by law or contract for the benefit or protection of the authority or holders of the authority's notes, bonds, or other obligations;

(11) To procure or to make and execute contracts, agreements, and other instruments, including interest rate swap or currency swap agreements, letters of credit, or other credit facilities or agreements, and to take such other actions and do such other things as the authority may deem appropriate to secure the payment of any loan, lease, or purchase payment owed to the authority or any bonds or other obligations issued by the authority, including the power to pay the cost of obtaining any such contracts, agreements, and other instruments;

(12) To receive and use the proceeds of any tax levied by the state or a local government or taxing district of the state enacted for the purposes of providing credit enhancement or for any other purpose for which the authority may use its own funds pursuant to this chapter;

(13) To receive and administer gifts, grants, and devises of money and property of any kind; to administer trusts; and to receive such part of the proceeds paid to the State of Georgia pursuant to funds received by the state pursuant to the settlement of the lawsuit filed by the state against certain tobacco companies (State_of_Georgia,_et_al._v._Philip_Morris,_Inc.,_et_al., Civil Action #E-61692, V19/246 (Fulton County Superior Court, 19 December 9, 1998)), as the General Assembly shall from time to time appropriate for the purposes of the authority, and to sell, convey, or otherwise encumber such moneys appropriated from the proceeds of such settlement by capitalizing or securitizing the same and entering into contracts pertaining thereto in order to enable the authority, in its judgment, to better accomplish the purposes of this chapter;

(14) To acquire real and personal property in its own name to promote any of the public purposes of the authority or for the administration and operation of the authority;

(15) To provide and administer grant moneys for any of the public purposes of the authority and to comply with all conditions attached thereto; (16) To contract for any period, not exceeding 50 years, with the state, any institution, department, agency, or authority of the state, or any local government within the state for the use by the authority of any facilities or services of any such entity or for the use by any such entity of any facilities or services of the authority, provided that such contracts shall deal with such activities and transactions as the authority and any such entity with which the authority contracts are authorized by law to undertake;

(17) To invest any accumulation of its funds, including, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, funds received from the issuance of bonds and any sinking funds or reserves in any manner as it determines is in its best interests and to purchase its own bonds and notes;

(18) To hold title to any project financed by it, but it shall not be required to do so;

(19) To establish eligibility standards for financing and financial assistance and technical assistance authorized for projects under this chapter;

(20) To sell or otherwise dispose of unneeded or obsolete equipment or property of every nature and every kind;

(21) To lease as lessor any facility or any project for such rentals and upon such terms and conditions as the authority considers advisable and not in conflict with this chapter;

(22) To sell by installment or otherwise to sell by option or contract for sale and to convey all or any part of any item of any project or facility for such price and upon such terms and conditions as the authority considers advisable and which are not in conflict with this chapter;

(23) To manage property, intangible, real, and personal, owned by the authority or under its control by lease or by other means;

(24) To do any and all things necessary, desirable, convenient, or incidental for the accomplishment of the objectives of this chapter and to exercise any power usually possessed by private corporations performing similar functions which is not in conflict with the public purposes of the authority or the Constitution and laws of this state, including:

(A) The power to retain accounting and other financial services;

(B) The power to purchase all kinds of insurance, including, without limitation, insurance against tort liability and against risks of damage to property;

(C) The power to indemnify and hold harmless any parties contracting with the authority or its agents from damage to persons or property; and

(D) The power to act as self-insurer with respect to any loss or liability and to create insurance reserves;

(25) To incorporate one or more nonprofit corporations as subsidiary corporations of the authority for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers of the authority and to accomplish any of the purposes of the authority. Any such subsidiary corporation shall be a nonprofit corporation, a public body, a political subdivision of the state, and an instrumentality of the state and shall exercise essential governmental functions. Any subsidiary corporations created pursuant to this power shall be created pursuant to Chapter 3 of Title 14, the "Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code," and the Secretary of State shall be authorized to accept such filings. The members of the board of directors of any such corporation shall be appointed by the authority and may include persons who are members of the authority; provided, however, that a majority of the members of the board of directors of any such corporation shall be persons who are not members of the authority and who are not officials or employees of the State of Georgia. Upon dissolution of any subsidiary corporation of the authority, any assets shall revert to the authority or to any successor to the authority or, failing such succession, to the State of Georgia. The authority shall not be liable for the debts or obligations or bonds of any subsidiary corporation or for the actions or omissions to act of any subsidiary corporation unless the authority expressly so consents;

(26) To lease any authority owned facilities or property or any state owned facilities or property which the authority is managing under contract with the state; and no such lease agreement shall be deemed to be a contract subject to any law requiring that contracts shall be let only after receipt of competitive bids;

(27) To provide advisory, technical, consultative, training, management, educational, project assistance, and other services related to the purposes of the authority to the state and any institution, department, agency, or authority of the state, to any local government, or to any nonprofit or for profit business, corporation, partnership, association, sole proprietorship, or other entity or enterprise and to enter into contracts with the foregoing including without limitation the Department of Industry, Trade, and Tourism, to provide such services; and the state, any institution, department, agency, or authority of the state, including without limitation the Department of Industry, Trade, and Tourism, and any local government are authorized to enter into contracts with the authority for such services, to perform all duties required by the contract, and to pay for such services as may be provided them;

(28) To impose restrictive covenants which shall be deemed to be running with the land to any person, corporation, partnership, or other form of business entity which receives financial assistance from the authority, which form of financial assistance shall include tax credits, bond financing, grants, guarantees of the authority, guarantees of the state, insurance of the authority, and all other forms of financial assistance, regardless of whether the authority enjoys privity of estate or whether the covenant touches and concerns the property burdened; and such restrictive covenants shall be valid for a period of up to the later of 40 years or the termination or satisfaction of such financial assistance, notwithstanding any other provision of law;

(29) To enter into partnership agreements, to sell and purchase partnership interests, and to serve as general or limited partner of a partnership created to further the public purposes of the authority;

(30) To allocate and issue any federal or state tax credits for which the authority is designated as the state allocating agency;

(31) To make and execute contracts and all other instruments necessary or convenient for the performance of its duties and the exercise of its powers and functions under this chapter;

(32) To cooperate with and exchange services, personnel, and information with any federal, state, or local governmental agency;

(33) To adopt regulations for its own governance regarding cost-effective distribution of authority funds and prioritization of projects, subject to the direction of the General Assembly with regard to funds appropriated for the purposes of the authority; and

(34) To contract with any department, agency, board, commission, or authority of state government for any purpose necessary or incidental to carrying out or performing the duties, responsibilities, or functions of the authority in exercising the power and management of the authority; provided, however, such contracts shall not delegate the authorization of the issuance of any bonds or other indebtedness of the authority. No part of the funds or assets of the authority shall be distributed to any department, authority, agency, board, or commission of the state unless otherwise provided by law, except that the authority shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to reimburse expenses incurred and, except as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the authority, to fulfill the purposes of the authority as set forth in this chapter. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as precluding the provision by any department, authority, board, commission, or agency of the state and the authority of joint or complementary services or programs within the scope of their respective powers. The Department of Industry, Trade, and Tourism is authorized to acquire, construct, operate, maintain, expand, and improve a project for the purposes of the authority, and for the public good and general welfare, to contract with the authority for any such acquisition, construction, operation, maintenance, expansion, or improvement and to pay the cost of such project from any lawful fund source available to the department, including without limitation, where applicable, funds received by appropriation, proceeds of general obligation debt, funds of local government, grants of the United States or any agency or instrumentality thereof, gifts, and otherwise.

(b) The powers enumerated in each paragraph of subsection (a) of this Code section are cumulative of and in addition to those powers enumerated in the other paragraphs of subsection (a) of this Code section and elsewhere in this chapter and no such power limits or restricts any other power of the authority.

(c) This chapter, being for the welfare of this state and being for the welfare of its citizens, shall be liberally construed to effect the purposes specified in this chapter.

(d) No portion of the state ceiling, as defined in Code Section 36-82-182, shall be set aside or reserved, and no separate pool or share shall be created within the state ceiling, for the purpose of reserving for or allocating to the authority a portion of the state ceiling for use by the authority in the financing of, or the provision of financial assistance for, any enterprise. The distribution to the authority by the Department of Community Affairs of any portion of the state ceiling for the purpose of permitting the financing of any enterprise shall be accomplished based upon the merits of each enterprise and shall be accomplished upon the same terms and conditions, without preference or priority of any kind, as shall be applicable to the distribution of any portion of the state ceiling for the benefit of any enterprise proposed to be financed by a local authority.

(e) No personal financial information submitted to the authority in connection with any of its programs shall be subject to public disclosure.

(f) All contracts of the authority with any department, agency, board, commission, or authority of state government shall be subject to review and approval by a subcommittee of the board of directors to consist of the Lieutenant Governor, who shall chair such subcommittee; the commissioner of community affairs; and the commissioner of industry, trade, and tourism.