(a) Accretion shall refer to the process by which a discount is earned over the life of a zero coupon or capital appreciation bond.

(b) Accrued interest shall mean the amount of interest earned by the bondholder since the last payment date.

(c) Arbitrage rebate shall mean a payment, including a late payment, to the United States Treasury for earnings from proceeds of tax-exempt bonds in excess of federally allowed limitations.

(d) Date of issuance shall mean the earliest date by which either securities were delivered to the purchaser or the issuer received payment of proceeds from the issuance of debt.

(e) Debt shall mean all State-supported debt as defined in section 67-a of the State Finance Law.

(f) Debt service account shall mean an account or accounts used for the payment of principal and interest on securities and also payments made or received under swap agreements.

(g) Debt service reserves shall mean any cash and investments in a fund that has been established to pay future debt service.

(h) Effective interest rate shall mean the rate that, when used to discount the debt service requirements on new debt, produces a present value equal to the proceeds of such new debt (including accrued interest) net of any premiums or discounts and any underwriting spread and issuance costs that are not recoverable through escrow account earnings.

(i) Fiscal year shall mean the State fiscal year.

(j) Issuance costs include all costs incurred to issue debt, including, but not limited to, underwriters' discount, insurance costs (net of rebates from refunded debt, if any), financing costs (including, but not limited to, rating agency fees, financial advisor fees, swap advisor fees, and State bond issuance fees), and other related costs (including, but not limited to, printing, legal, accounting, administrative, and trustee expenses).

(k) Market discount shall mean the amount by which the gross proceeds received for securities issued was less than their par amount.

(l) Market premium shall mean the original issue premium received in excess of the par amount of securities.

(m) Par amount shall mean the face amount of a security at which it will be redeemed at maturity except in the case of zero coupon and capital appreciation bonds in which case it shall mean original issue value equal to the amount received at issuance.

(n) Project proceeds account shall mean the account or accounts related to a specific statutory debt authorization established to receive and hold proceeds from a debt issue, exclusive of issuance costs and payments on refunded debt, if any.

(o) State bond issuance fee shall mean any fee paid upon the issuance of debt collected pursuant to section 2976 of the Public Authorities Law.

(p) Statutory purpose shall mean the purpose for which debt may be issued as established in State statute.

(q) State-reported debt shall mean debt excluding debt issued by:

(r) Swap agreement shall mean an interest rate exchange or similar agreement as defined by section 69(d) of the State Finance Law. Without limiting such definition, swap agreements shall include derivative and hedge transactions such as "swaps," "interest rate locks," "caps," "floors," "collars," and similar arrangements which affect, or have the potential of affecting, the issuer's cost of borrowing.