The commissioners shall be or continue to be a public body politic and corporate established as an instrumentality exercising public and essential governmental functions to provide for the public health and welfare and shall have the power, in its own name and on its own behalf, to acquire, hold, use and dispose of its system revenues and other moneys, and to provide for and secure the payment of any bonds and the rights of the holders thereof.
N.J.S. § 58:14-34.13