(1) “Authority” or “medical school authority” means any public corporation organized pursuant to this chapter;

(2) “Bio-medical research facility” means a facility that engages in the study of biological processes and diseases with the ultimate goal of developing effective treatments and cures;

(3) “Bonds” or “revenue bonds” means bonds, notes, interim certificates or other obligations of an authority issued pursuant to this chapter, or pursuant to any other law, as supplemented by, or in conjunction with, this chapter;

(4) “Cost,” as applied to any project, means and includes the cost of acquisition or construction, the cost of labor, materials, and equipment, the cost of all lands, property rights, easements and franchises required; financing charges, interest and debt service prior to and during construction and up to one (1) year thereafter; costs of plans and specifications, services and estimates of costs and of revenues; costs of engineering and legal services; all expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of such acquisitions or constructions; and administrative, legal and engineering expenses and such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the acquisition or construction or the financing authorized in this chapter;

(5) “Dental school” means an educational facility created and operated as part of a program that grants the degree of doctor of dental surgery or doctor of dental medicine to the graduates of such educational facility;

(6) “Governing body” means the body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality are vested, and in the case of counties means the legislative body of any county;

(7) “Graduate medical education” means the period of didactic and clinical education in a medical specialty or subspecialty which follows the completion of a recognized undergraduate medical education and which prepares physicians for the independent practice of medicine in that specialty or subspecialty, also referred to as residency education;

(8) “Lessee” means a private nonprofit or public educational institution, which provides a medical education program;

(9) “Medical education program” means a program of study that is a biomedical research program, dental program, nursing program, medical program, including graduate medical education, or allied health program;

(10) “Medical school” means an educational facility created and operated as part of a program that grants the degree of doctor of medicine to the graduates of such educational facility or provides graduate medical education;

(11) “Municipality” means any county, metropolitan government or incorporated city or town in this state located in a county having a population of not less than ninety-one thousand eight hundred (91,800), according to the 2000 federal census or any subsequent federal census;

(12) “Project” means any facilities or group of facilities to be used for a medical school, dental school, biomedical research, graduate medical education, nursing degree programs, or allied health profession degree programs; and also includes, but is not limited to, roads, streets, utility services, such as water, sanitary sewer, electricity, gas and natural gas, and telecommunications that are constructed, leased, equipped, renovated or acquired as a supporting system or facility for any of the purposes set forth in this chapter; provided, that any such supporting system or facility is dedicated for public use and further provided that there is no medical education program granting the same degree as the proposed project in the same county at the time of issuance of any debt;

(13) “Revenues” of a project means all revenues derived from and on account of a project, directly or indirectly, and any revenues paid, contributed or pledged to an authority by the state or a municipality pursuant to law, agreement or otherwise;

(14) “State” means the state of Tennessee and, unless otherwise indicated by the context, any agency, authority, branch, bureau, commission, corporation, department or instrumentality of the state, now or hereafter existing; and

(15) “THEC” means the Tennessee higher education commission.