As used in this act:

“Agricultural activity” means any person, partnership, or corporation which is engaged primarily in raising, preparing, or marketing crops, livestock, or related products.

“Acquisition” means the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, equipping, expansion, extension, improvement, rehabilitation or remodeling of a project.

“Authority” or “industrial and commercial development authority” means a public instrumentality of the Commonwealth and a body politic and corporate, created pursuant to section 4¹ of this act.

“Board” means the governing body of an authority created pursuant to section 4 of this act.

“Bonds” means and includes any notes, instruments, refunding notes and bonds and other evidences of indebtedness or obligations.

“Commercial facilities” means and includes, but is not limited to, wholesale, retail and other mercantile facilities, warehouse and distribution facilities, service facilities, office facilities, hotel or motel facilities, shopping centers, department stores and international, national and regional headquarters facilities, health care facilities, education facilities, facilities for persons requiring special care, research and development facilities and tourism, recreational and sports facilities.

“Commonwealth agency” means any agency, authority or other instrumentality of the Commonwealth.

“Construction” or “to construct” means and includes the equipping, erection, extension, installation, renovation, enlargement or repair of structures employed in, or related to, projects comporting with the intent of this act, and also includes activities substantially related to such equipping, erection, extension, installation, renovation, enlargement or substantial repair of structures employed in, or related to, such projects.

“Cost of the project” or “cost” means and includes any and all costs of a project, including, but not limited to, any and all costs and expenses of acquisition of all land, interests in land, property, rights, buildings, structures, equipment, furnishings and other tangible or intangible property comprising the project, the expense of demolishing, removing or relocating any buildings or structures on lands acquired or to be acquired and the expense of acquiring any lands to which such buildings or structures may be moved or relocated, financing charges and other costs of financing and issuing bonds, interest expenses prior to and during construction and for a period of twelve months thereafter, costs of engineering, financial, accounting and legal services, plans, specifications, studies, surveys necessary or incidental to determining the feasibility or practicability of constructing the project, administrative expenses, reserves for interest and such other expenses as may be necessary or incidental to the development, implementation or use of the project and the placing of the same in operation. In addition, “cost of the project” or “cost” may include working capital or other capital needs related to industrial, commercial or other economic activities or operating costs of public facilities, provided, however, that working capital, operating costs and other capital needs shall be limited as a percentage of the cost of the project financed with the proceeds of bonds issued under this act by regulations, statements of policy, guidelines or rulings issued by the Department of Commerce.

“Department” means the Department of Commerce² of the Commonwealth.

“Disaster relief project” means any undertaking to rehabilitate, repair, reconstruct, clean up, replace or otherwise return to economic use any land, site, structure, or facility, including machinery, equipment and tools damaged or lost due to disaster of flood or fire or other casualty. In order to qualify as a disaster relief project, a project must be located within a county designated as a disaster area by the President of the United States.

“Energy conversion facilities” means an improvement to industrial, commercial or other facilities which change their fuel consumption capability to a fuel determined by an authority or the financing authority to be more desirable than the fuel used by the occupant of the project at the time application is made to the authority.

“Energy producing facilities” means and includes facilities to create, extract, transmit, or store energy or energy producing substances, including, but not limited to coal mine operations, oil and gas operations, solar, nuclear, hydro or geothermal energy operations, except the production of electrical energy by a utility entity.

“Federal agency” or “Federal Government” means and includes the United States of America, the President of the United States of America, and any department of or corporation, agency or instrumentality heretofore or hereafter created, designated or established by the United States of America.

“Financing authority” means the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority created by section 6.1³ of this act.

“Financing board” means the governing body of the financing authority.

“Governmental body” or “governmental bodies” means the body or board authorized by law to enact ordinances or adopt resolutions for the particular municipality.

“Industrial development agency” means those nonprofit corporations or foundations or associations which have been certified as industrial development agencies by the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority Board pursuant to the act of May 17, 1956 (1955 P.L. 1609, No. 537), known as the “Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority Act.”⁴

“Industrial facilities” means and includes any property, real or personal, which is used for manufacturing, warehousing, transportation of goods for manufacturing or sale, offices, research and development and other facilities of trades or services which perform activities ancillary to industrial activity.

“Interagency project” means any project which meets the definition of “project” under the provisions of the act of March 1, 1988 (P.L. 82, No. 16), known as the “Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority Act,”⁵ as now or may hereafter be amended, which has been referred to the financing authority in accordance with section 6.3(a)⁶ of this act.

“Municipal authority” means an authority organized and existing under the act of May 2, 1945 (P.L. 382, No. 164), known as the “Municipality Authorities Act of 1945,”⁷ as now or may hereafter be amended.

“Municipality” means any county, city, town, borough or township of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, each of which political subdivisions are separate incorporated municipalities of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the purposes of this act.

“Pollution control facilities” means and includes any property, real or personal, which is to be used to abate, reduce, remediate or aid in the prevention, control, collection, treatment, disposal or monitoring of noise, air, water or thermal pollution, solid or liquid waste or other pollutants without limitation thereto and may include property or equipment which is to be installed primarily to supplement or to replace existing property or equipment not meeting acceptable pollution control standards or which is to be supplemented or replaced to comply with an order or citation to eliminate pollution issued by any Federal, Commonwealth or local agency having jurisdiction.

“Project” means industrial facilities, commercial facilities, pollution control facilities, energy conversion facilities, energy producing facilities, disaster relief project facilities, public facilities and other facilities or activities which promote any of the public purposes set forth in section 2⁸ or 2.1⁹ of this act, including any land, interests in land, easements, appurtenances, improvements, buildings, structures, equipment, furnishings or other real or personal property, whether tangible or intangible, or interest therein or any combination thereof. In addition, the project may include working capital and other capital needs for industrial, commercial and other economic or cost-savings activities and may consist solely of the financing of operating expenses. The financing of projects may be with tax-exempt bonds or taxable bonds issued pursuant to this act and may be direct through application of bond proceeds or other funds to pay project costs or indirect through stock purchases or such other means as an authority or the financing authority may approve.

“Project applicant” means any individual, public or private corporation, partnership, association, firm or other entity, whether or not created for the purpose of making a profit, or any Commonwealth agency or any municipality or any municipal authority which requests an authority or the financing authority to participate in the financing of one or more projects in the manner provided by this act for use by one or more project users.

“Project user” means any individual, public or private corporation, partnership, association, firm, municipality, municipal authority, Commonwealth agency or other entity, whether or not created for the purpose of making a profit, which owns, leases or uses all or any part of a project and may include a project applicant.

“Public facility” means any facility owned or leased by a municipality, municipal authority or Commonwealth agency which serves a public purpose, including, but not limited to, park facilities, water and sewer facilities, waste treatment facilities, waste disposal facilities, roads and transportation facilities and systems of every kind, public parking facilities, correctional facilities, jails and court facilities, police and firefighting facilities, library facilities, child care facilities, educational facilities and health care facilities.

“Secretary” means the Secretary of Commerce of the Commonwealth.

“Taxable bonds” means bonds or other evidences of indebtedness the interest on which is includable in gross income for Federal income taxation purposes.

“Tax-exempt bonds” means bonds or other evidences of indebtedness the interest on which is excludable from gross income for Federal income taxation purposes.

“Utility entity” means any public or private company, corporation or other entity engaged primarily in an activity regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.