COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 87
(By Senator Snyder and Unger)
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[Originating in the Committee on Education;
reported March 2, 2001.]
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A BILL to amend article nine-d, chapter eighteen of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
six-a; and to amend and reenact section fifteen of said
article, all relating to creation of the schools for growth
counties fund; legislative findings; providing funding
sources for the fund; defining "growth county"; providing
the manner of allocating moneys distributed from the fund;
and providing that it is the intent of the Legislature to
provide funding for construction needed to provide
additional space and facilities in counties experiencing substantial increases in student enrollment which create a
need for additional space and facilities.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article nine-d, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section six-
a; and that section fifteen of said article be amended and
reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9D. SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY.
§18-9D-6a. Schools for growth counties fund.
(a) The Legislature finds:
(1) That growth counties have special needs regarding school
construction and improvements;
(2) That requiring full day, every day kindergarten has been
especially expensive for growth counties;
(3) That the use of enrollment figures from the previous
year for calculating an allocation in accordance with the state
aid formula also adds to the financial problems that growth
counties experience; and
(4) That although the allowance for increased enrollment
helps growth counties, it is intended for the operation of the
schools and is intended primarily for school construction and
improvements.
(b) There is hereby created in the state treasury a special
revenue fund named the schools for growth counties fund.
(1) Beginning in fiscal year two thousand two, any amount of
money deposited in the school construction fund created pursuant
to the provisions of section six of this article that exceed the
amounts deposited during the fiscal year beginning the first day
of July, two thousand, and ending on the thirtieth day of June,
two thousand one, shall be deposited in the schools for growth
counties fund created in this section: Provided, That the amount
deposited shall not exceed five million dollars in any fiscal
year.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the term "growth
county" means a county in which there has been more than five
percent growth in the second month headcount enrollment between
school year one thousand nine hundred ninety-one - one thousand
nine hundred ninety-two and school year two thousand - two
thousand-one and in every nine-year period thereafter.
(3) Any growth county designated to receive funds from the
schools for growth counties fund shall first provide matching
funds in a ratio not less than one dollar for every two dollars
designated from the fund for that county and shall meet all other
funding requirements of the authority.
(4) Moneys accruing to the schools for growth counties fund
in any specific fiscal year that exceed the moneys requested by
qualified growth counties shall revert to the school construction
fund.
(c) The school building authority shall distribute funds
from the schools for growth counties fund pursuant to the
following:
(1) The school building authority may use the funds
appropriated pursuant to this section only for school
construction or improvements in counties classified as growth
counties for either the current or previous two fiscal years; and
(2) The school building authority may use the funds
appropriated pursuant to this section only for school
construction or improvements in counties that the school building
authority determines need additional building space as a result
of the increase in net enrollment.
§18-9D-15. Legislative intent; distribution of money.
(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to empower the
school building authority to facilitate and provide state funds
and to administer all federal funds provided for the construction
and major improvement of school facilities so as to meet the
educational needs of the people of this state in an efficient and economical manner. The authority shall make funding
determinations in accordance with the provisions of this article
and shall assess existing school facilities and each facility's
school major improvement plan in relation to the needs of the
individual student, the general school population, the
communities served by the facilities and facility needs
statewide.
(b) An amount that is no more than three percent of the sum
of moneys that are determined by the authority to be available
for distribution during the then current fiscal year from: (1)
Moneys paid into the school building capital improvements fund
pursuant to section ten, article nine-a of this chapter; (2) the
issuance of revenue bonds for which moneys in the school building
debt service fund are pledged as security; (3) moneys paid into
the school construction fund pursuant to section six of this
article; and (4) any other moneys received by the authority,
except moneys paid into the school major improvement fund
pursuant to section six of this article, may be allocated and may
be expended by the authority for projects that service the
educational community statewide or, upon application by the state
board, for educational programs that are under the jurisdiction
of the state board. In addition, upon application by the state board or the administrative council of an area vocational
educational center established pursuant to article two-b of this
chapter, the authority may allocate and expend under this section
moneys for school major improvement projects proposed by the
state board or an administrative council for school facilities
under the direct supervision of the state board or an
administrative council, respectively: Provided, That the
authority may not expend any moneys for a school major
improvement project proposed by the state board or the
administrative council of an area vocational educational center
unless the state board or an administrative council has submitted
a ten-year school major improvement plan, to be updated annually,
pursuant to section sixteen of this article: Provided, however,
That the authority shall, before allocating any moneys to the
state board or the administrative council of an area vocational
educational center for a school improvement project, consider all
other funding sources available for the project.
(c) An amount that is no more than two percent of the moneys
that are determined by the authority to be available for
distribution during the current fiscal year from: (1) Moneys
paid into the school building capital improvements fund pursuant
to section ten, article nine-a of this chapter; (2) the issuance of revenue bonds for which moneys in the school building debt
service fund are pledged as security; (3) moneys paid into the
school construction fund pursuant to section six of this article;
and (4) any other moneys received by the authority, except moneys
deposited into the school major improvement fund, shall be set
aside by the authority as an emergency fund to be distributed in
accordance with the guidelines adopted by the authority.
(d) The remaining moneys determined by the authority to be
available for distribution during the then current fiscal year
from: (1) Moneys paid into the school building capital
improvements fund pursuant to section ten, article nine-a of this
chapter; (2) the issuance of revenue bonds for which moneys in
the school building debt service fund are pledged as security;
(3) moneys paid into the school construction fund pursuant to
section six of this article; and (4) any other moneys received by
the authority, except moneys deposited into the school major
improvement fund, shall be allocated and expended on the basis of
need and efficient use of resources, the basis to be determined
by the authority in accordance with the provisions of section
sixteen of this article.
(e) If a county board of education proposes to finance a
project that is approved pursuant to section sixteen of this article through a lease with an option to purchase leased
premises upon the expiration of the total lease period pursuant
to an investment contract, the authority may allocate no moneys
to the county board in connection with the project: Provided,
That the authority may transfer moneys to the state board of
education, which, with the authority, shall lend the amount
transferred to the county board to be used only for a one-time
payment due at the beginning of the lease term, made for the
purpose of reducing annual lease payments under the investment
contract, subject to the following conditions:
(1) The loan shall be secured in the manner required by the
authority, in consultation with the state board, and shall be
repaid in a period and bear interest at a rate as determined by
the state board and the authority and shall have such terms and
conditions as are required by the authority, all of which shall
be set forth in a loan agreement among the authority, the state
board and the county board;
(2) The loan agreement shall provide for the state board and
the authority to defer the payment of principal and interest upon
any loan made to the county board during the term of the
investment contract, and annual renewals of the investment
contract, among the state board, the authority, the county board and a lessor: Provided, That in the event a county board, which
has received a loan from the authority for a one-time payment at
the beginning of the lease term, does not renew the subject lease
annually until performance of the investment contract in its
entirety is completed, the county board is in default and the
principal of the loan, together with all unpaid interest accrued
to the date of the default, shall at the option of the authority,
in consultation with the state board, become due and payable
immediately or subject to renegotiation among the state board,
the authority and the county board: Provided, however, That if
a county board renews the lease annually through the performance
of the investment contract in its entirety, the county board
shall exercise its option to purchase the leased premises:
Provided further, That the failure of the county board to make a
scheduled payment pursuant to the investment contract constitutes
an event of default under the loan agreement: And provided
further, That upon a default by a county board, the principal of
the loan, together with all unpaid interest accrued to the date
of the default, shall at the option of the authority, in
consultation with the state board, become due and payable
immediately or subject to renegotiation among the state board,
the authority and the county board: And provided further, That if the loan becomes due and payable immediately, the authority,
in consultation with the state board, shall use all means
available under the loan agreement and law to collect the
outstanding principal balance of the loan, together with all
unpaid interest accrued to the date of payment of the outstanding
principal balance; and
(3) The loan agreement shall provide for the state board and
the authority to forgive all principal and interest of the loan
upon the county board purchasing the leased premises pursuant to
the investment contract and performance of the investment
contract in its entirety.
(f) To encourage county boards to proceed promptly with
facilities planning and to prepare for the expenditure of any
state moneys derived from the sources described in this
subsection, any county board failing to expend money within three
years of the allocation to the county board shall forfeit the
allocation and thereafter is ineligible for further allocations
pursuant to this subsection until the county board is ready to
expend funds in accordance with an approved facilities plan:
Provided, That the authority may authorize an extension beyond
the three-year forfeiture period not to exceed an additional two
years. Any amount forfeited shall be added to the total funds available in the school construction fund of the authority for
future allocation and distribution.
(g) The remaining moneys that are determined by the
authority to be available for distribution during the then
current fiscal year from moneys paid into the school major
improvement fund pursuant to section six of this article shall be
allocated and distributed on the basis of need and efficient use
of resources, the basis to be determined by the authority in
accordance with the provisions of section sixteen of this
article: Provided, That the moneys may not be distributed to any
county board that does not have an approved school major
improvement plan or to any county board that is not prepared to
commence expenditures of the funds during the fiscal year in
which the moneys are distributed: Provided, however, That any
moneys allocated to a county board and not distributed to that
county board shall be deposited in an account to the credit of
that county board, the principal amount to remain to the credit
of and available to the county board for a period of two years.
Any moneys which are unexpended after a two-year period shall be
redistributed on the basis of need from the school major
improvement fund in that fiscal year.
(h) No local matching funds may be required under the provisions of this section: Provided, That nothing in this
section may be construed to prohibit the requirement of matching
funds from counties receiving funding from the schools for growth
counties fund. However, the responsibilities of the county
boards of education to maintain school facilities are not negated
by the provisions of this article. To be eligible to receive an
allocation of school major improvement funds from the authority,
a county board must have expended in the previous fiscal year an
amount of county moneys equal to or exceeding the lowest average
amount of money included in the county board's maintenance budget
over any three of the previous five years and must have budgeted
an amount equal to or greater than the average in the current
fiscal year: Provided, however, That the state board of
education shall promulgate rules relating to county boards'
maintenance budgets, including items which shall be included in
the budgets.
(i) Any county board may use moneys provided by the
authority under this article in conjunction with local funds
derived from bonding, special levy or other sources.
Distribution to a county board or to the state board or the
administrative council of an area vocational educational center
pursuant to subsection (b) of this section may be in a lump sum or in accordance with a schedule of payments adopted by the
authority pursuant to guidelines adopted by the authority.
(j) Funds in the school construction fund shall first be
transferred and expended as follows:
Any funds deposited in the school construction fund shall be
expended first in accordance with an appropriation by the
Legislature. To the extent that funds are available in the
school construction fund in excess of that amount appropriated in
any fiscal year, the excess funds may be expended in accordance
with the provisions of this article: Provided, That
notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary,
growth counties remain eligible to receive allocations from the
school construction fund and the school major improvement fund.
Any projects which the authority identified and announced for
funding on or before the first day of August, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-five, or identified and announced for funding on
or before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-five, shall be funded by the authority in an
amount which is not less than the amount specified when the
project was identified and announced.
(k) It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage county
boards to explore and consider arrangements with other counties that may facilitate the highest and best use of all available
funds, which may result in improved transportation arrangements
for students, or which otherwise may create efficiencies for
county boards and the students. In order to address the intent
of the Legislature contained in this subsection, the authority
shall grant preference to those projects which involve
multicounty arrangements as the authority shall determine
reasonable and proper.
(l) County boards shall submit all designs for construction
of new school buildings to the school building authority for
review and approval prior to preparation of final bid documents.
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FINANCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
On page three, section six-a, line thirteen, before the word
"Any" by adding the following sentence "The school building
authority shall designate those counties which are eligible
growth counties.";
On page seven, section fifteen, line nineteen, by striking
out the word "such" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "the";
And,
On page seven, section fifteen, line twenty, by striking out
the words "as are".
Adopted
Rejected