Senate Bill No. 84
(By Senator Ross)
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[Introduced January 14, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9D-3, §18-9D-15 and §18-9D-16 of
the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to
the distribution of moneys by the school building authority;
providing that county school boards may spend authority moneys
on any school that has been included in an approved
comprehensive educational facilities plan; providing that no
one criterion, especially the economies of scale, may dominate
other statutory criteria when decisions are made to award
grant moneys; and requiring the school building authority to
undergo legislative rule-making review and have its guidelines
approved as legislative rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9D-3, §18-9D-15 and §18-9D-16 of the code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 9D. SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY.
§18-9D-3. Powers of authority.
The school building authority has the power:
(1) To sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded;
(2) To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure;
(3) To contract to acquire and to acquire, in the name of the
authority, by purchase, lease-purchase not to exceed a term of
twenty-five years, or otherwise, real property or rights or
easements necessary or convenient for its corporate purposes and to
exercise the power of eminent domain to accomplish those purposes;
(4) To acquire, hold and dispose of real and personal property
for its corporate purposes;
(5) To make bylaws for the management and rule of its affairs
and to propose legislative rules for promulgation in accordance
with article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code as may be
required by the provisions of this article or as may be necessary
to carry out the provisions of this article;
(6) To appoint, contract with and employ attorneys, bond
counsel, accountants, construction and financial experts,
underwriters, financial advisers, trustees, managers, officers and
such other employees and agents as may be necessary in the judgment
of the authority and to fix their compensation: Provided, That
contracts entered into by the school building authority in
connection with the issuance of bonds under this article to provide professional and technical services, including, without limitation,
accounting, actuarial, underwriting, consulting, trustee, bond
counsel, legal services and contracts relating to the purchase or
sale of bonds are subject to the provisions of article three,
chapter five-a of this code: Provided, however, That
notwithstanding any other provisions of this code, any authority of
the attorney general of this state relating to the review of
contracts and other documents to effectuate the issuance of bonds
under this article shall be is exclusively limited to the form of
the contract and document: Provided further, That the attorney
general of this state shall complete all reviews of contracts and
documents relating to the issuance of bonds under this article
within ten calendar days of receipt of the contract and document
for review;
(7) To make contracts and to execute all instruments necessary
or convenient to effectuate the intent of and to exercise the
powers granted to it by this article;
(8) To renegotiate all contracts entered into by it whenever,
due to a change in situation, it appears to the authority that its
interests will be best served;
(9) To acquire by purchase, eminent domain or otherwise all
real property or interests in the property necessary or convenient
to accomplish the purposes of this article;
(10) To require proper maintenance and insurance of any project authorized under this section, including flood insurance
for any facility within the one hundred year flood plain at which
authority funds are expended;
(11) To charge rent for the use of all or any part of a
project or buildings at any time financed, constructed, acquired or
improved, in whole or in part, with the revenues of the authority;
(12) To assist any county board of education that chooses to
acquire land, buildings and capital improvements to existing school
buildings and property for use as public school facilities, by
lease from a private or public lessor for a term not to exceed
twenty-five years with an option to purchase pursuant to an
investment contract with the lessor on such terms and conditions as
may be determined to be in the best interests of the authority, the
state board of education and the county board of education,
consistent with the purposes of this article, by transferring funds
to the state board of education as provided in subsection (d),
section fifteen of this article for the use of the county board of
education;
(13) To accept and expend any gift, grant, contribution,
bequest or endowment of money and equipment to, or for the benefit
of, the authority or any project under this article, from the state
of West Virginia or any other source for any or all of the purposes
specified in this article or for any one or more of such those
purposes as may be specified in connection with the gift, grant, contribution, bequest or endowment;
(14) To enter on any lands and premises for the purpose of
making surveys, soundings and examinations;
(15) To contract for architectural, engineering or other
professional services considered necessary or economical by the
authority to provide consultative or other services to the
authority or to any regional educational service agency or county
board requesting professional services offered by the authority, to
evaluate any facilities plan or any project encompassed in the
plan, to inspect existing facilities or any project that has
received or may receive funding from the authority or to perform
any other service considered by the authority to be necessary or
economical. Assistance to the region or district may include the
development of pre-approved systems, plans, designs, models or
documents; advice or oversight on any plan or project; or any other
service that may be efficiently provided to regional educational
service agencies or county boards by the authority;
(16) To provide funds on an emergency basis to repair or
replace property damaged by fire, flood, wind, storm, earthquake or
other natural occurrence, the funds to be made available in
accordance with guidelines of the school building authority;
(17) To transfer moneys to custodial accounts maintained by
the school building authority with a state financial institution
from the school construction fund and the school improvement fund created in the state treasury pursuant to the provisions of section
six of this article, as necessary to the performance of any
contracts executed by the school building authority in accordance
with the provisions of this article;
(18) To enter into agreements with county boards and persons,
firms or corporations to facilitate the development of county board
projects and county board facilities plans. The county board
participating in an agreement shall pay at least twenty-five
percent of the cost of the agreement. Nothing in this section
shall be construed to supersedes, limits or impairs the authority
of county boards to develop and prepare their projects or plans;
(19) To encourage any project or part thereof to provide
opportunities for students to participate in supervised, unpaid
work-based learning experiences related to the student's program of
study approved by the county board. The work-based learning
experience must be conducted in accordance with a formal training
plan approved by the instructor, the employer and the student and
which sets forth at a minimum the specific skills to be learned,
the required documentation of work-based learning experiences, the
conditions of the placement, including duration and safety
provisions, and provisions for supervision and liability insurance
coverage as applicable. Projects involving the new construction
and renovation of vocational-technical and adult education
facilities should provide opportunities for students to participate in supervised work-based learning experiences, to the extent
practical, which meet the requirements of this subdivision.
Nothing in this subdivision may be construed to affect registered
youth apprenticeship programs or the provisions governing those
programs; and
(20) To do all things necessary or convenient to carry out the
powers given in conferred by this article.
§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 serve 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 subsection 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 rules proposed for promulgation by the
authority.
(d) An amount that is no more than five 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, may be reserved by the
authority for multiuse vocational-technical education facilities
that may include post-secondary programs as a first priority use.
The authority may allocate and expend under this subsection moneys
for any purposes authorized in this article on multiuse
vocational-technical education facilities and for equipment and
equipment updates at the facilities. If the projects approved
under this subsection do not require the full amount of moneys
reserved, moneys above the amount required may be allocated and
expended in accordance with other provisions of this article. A
county board, the state board, an administrative council or the
joint administrative board of a vocational-technical education
facility which includes post-secondary programs may propose
projects for facilities or equipment, or both, which are under the
direct supervision of the respective body: Provided, That the
authority shall, before allocating any moneys for a project under
this subsection, consider all other funding sources available for
the project.
(e) 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.
(f) 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.
(g) 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. Funds may not be distributed to any county board
that does not have a comprehensive educational facility plan
approved by the state board and the school building authority or to
any county board that is not prepared to commence expenditure of
the funds during the fiscal year in which the moneys are
distributed.
(h) 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.
(i) No local matching funds may be required under the
provisions of this section. 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, That the state board of education
shall promulgate propose rules for promulgation relating to county
boards' maintenance budgets, including items which shall be included
in the budgets.
(j) 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.
(k) 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. 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.
(l) 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.
(m) 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: Provided,
That a vendor who has been debarred pursuant to the provisions of
sections thirty-three-a through thirty-three-f, inclusive, article
three, chapter five-a of this code, may not bid on or be awarded a
contract under this section.
(n) The authority may elect to disburse funds for approved
construction projects over a period of more than one year subject
to the following:
(1) The authority may not approve the funding of a school
construction project for more than three years;
(2) The authority may not approve the use of more than fifty
percent of the revenue available for distribution in any given
fiscal year for projects that are to be funded over more than one
year; and
(3) In order to encourage local participation in funding school
construction projects, the authority may set aside limited funding,
not to exceed five hundred thousand dollars, in reserve for one
additional year to provide a county the opportunity to complete
financial planning for a project prior to the allocation of
construction funds. Any such funding shall be on a reserve basis
and converted to a part of the construction grant only after all
project budget funds have been secured and all county commitments have been fulfilled. Failure of the county to solidify the project
budget and meet its obligations to the state within eighteen months
of the date the funding is set aside by the authority will result
in expiration of the reserve and the funds shall be reallocated by
the authority in the succeeding funding cycle.
§18-9D-16. Facilities and major improvement plans generally;
need-based eligibility.
(a) To facilitate the goals as stated in section fifteen of
this article and to assure the prudent and resourceful expenditure
of state funds for construction projects as described in subsection
(d) of said section fifteen, each county board of education shall
submit a countywide comprehensive educational facilities plan that
addresses the facilities and major improvement needs of the county
and includes up-to-date projections of student enrollments pursuant
to such guidelines as shall be adopted legislative rules proposed
for promulgation by the authority in accordance with this section
and in accordance with each county's facilities plan approved by the
state board of education. Any project receiving funding must be in
furtherance of the approved countywide facilities plan and any
school included in the approved county-wide facilities plan is
eligible for funding by the authority.
(1) To assure efficiency and productivity in the project
approval process, the countywide facilities plan may be submitted
only after a preliminary plan, a plan outline or a proposal for a plan has been submitted to the authority. Selected members of the
authority, which selection shall include citizen members, shall then
meet promptly with those persons designated by the county board to
attend the facilities plan consultation. The purpose of the
consultation is to assure understanding of the general goals of the
school building authority as stated in subsection (a), section
fifteen of this article and the specific goals encompassed in the
following criteria and to discuss ways the plan may be structured
to meet those goals.
(2) The guidelines rules for the development of a facilities
plan must state the manner, timeline and process for submission of
any plan to the authority; project specifications considered
appropriate by the authority; and those matters which are considered
by the authority to be important reflections of how the project will
further the overall goals of the authority as stated in subsection
(a), section fifteen of this article.
(b) To facilitate the goals as stated in section fifteen of
this article and to assure the prudent and resourceful expenditure
of state funds derived from the school major improvement fund, each
county board of education shall submit to the authority a ten-year
countywide school major improvement plan that addresses the major
improvement needs of each school within the county. If the state
board of education or the administrative council of an area
vocational educational center chooses to seek funding for a major improvement project from the authority pursuant to subsection (f)
of said section, the state board or the administrative council shall
submit a ten-year school major improvement plan that addresses the
major improvement needs of the school or area vocational educational
center for which funding is sought. Each ten-year school major
improvement plan must be prepared pursuant to guidelines adopted
legislative rules proposed for promulgation by the authority in
accordance with this section and must be updated annually to reflect
projects completed, current enrollment projections and new or
continuing needs. Any school major improvement project funded by
the authority must be in furtherance of the approved school major
improvement plan.
The guidelines rules for the development and annual updates of
a ten-year school major improvement plan must state the manner,
timeline and process for submission of any plan, including a repair
and replacement schedule for school facilities, to the authority;
the maintenance specifications considered appropriate by the
authority; and those matters which are considered by the authority
to be important reflections of how the major improvement project or
projects will further the overall goals of the authority as stated
in subsection (a), section fifteen of this article.
(c) The guidelines rules regarding submission of the facilities
plans and school major improvement plans must include requirements
for public hearings, comments or other means of providing broad-based input within a reasonable time period as the authority
may consider appropriate. The submission of each plan must be
accompanied by a synopsis of all comments received and a formal
comment by the county board, the state board or the administrative
council of an area vocational educational center submitting the
plan.
The guidelines rules regarding project specifications may
include such matters as energy efficiency, preferred siting,
construction materials, maintenance plan or any other matter related
to how the project is to proceed. If a county board of education
proposes to finance a construction project through a lease with an
option to purchase pursuant to an investment contract as described
in subsection (e), section fifteen of this article, the
specifications for the project must include the term of the lease,
the amount of each lease payment, including the payment due upon
exercise of the option to purchase, and the terms and conditions of
the proposed investment contract.
(d) The guidelines rules pertaining to quality educational
facilities must require that a facilities plan address how the
current facilities do not meet and how the proposed plan and any
project thereunder under the proposed plan does meet the following
goals, which shall be equally considered and weighted by the
authority in making its funding decisions:
(1) Student health and safety;
(2) Economies of scale, including compatibility with similar
schools that have achieved the most economical organization,
facility utilization and pupil-teacher ratios taking into account
that population sparsity affects school sizes, transportation times
and costs;
(3) Reasonable travel time and practical means of addressing
other demographic considerations: Provided, That maximum reasonable
travel times are thirty minutes for kindergarten through grade five,
forty-five minutes for grades six through eight and sixty minutes
for grades nine through twelve;
(4) Multicounty and regional planning to achieve the most
effective and efficient instructional delivery system;
(5) Curriculum improvement and diversification, including
computerization, distance learning and other technology and advanced
senior courses in science, mathematics, language arts and social
studies;
(6) Innovations in education;
(7) Adequate space for projected student enrollments; and
(8) To the extent constitutionally permissible, each facilities
plan must address the history of efforts taken by the county board
to propose or adopt local school bond issues or special levies.
If the project is to benefit more than one county in the
region, the facilities plan must state the manner in which the cost
and funding of the project will be apportioned among the counties.
(e) The guidelines rules pertaining to quality educational
facilities must require that a school major improvement plan address
how the proposed plan and any project thereunder under the proposed
plan meet the following goals set forth in subsection (d) of this
section:
(1) Student health and safety, including, but not limited to,
critical health and safety needs; and
(2) Economies of scale, including regularly scheduled
preventive maintenance Provided, That each county board's school
maintenance plan must address regularly scheduled maintenance for
all facilities within the county.
(f) Each county board's facilities plan and school major
improvement plan must prioritize all the construction projects or
major improvement projects, respectively, within the county. A
school major improvement plan submitted by the state board or the
administrative council of an area vocational educational center must
prioritize all the school improvement projects contained in the
plan. The priority list is one of the criteria to be considered by
the authority in determining how available funds must are to be
expended. In prioritizing the projects, the county board, the state
board or the administrative council submitting a plan shall make
determinations in accordance with the objective criteria formulated
by the school building authority.
(g) Each facilities plan and school major improvement plan must include the objective means to be used in evaluating implementation
of the overall plan and each project included therein in the plan.
The evaluation must measure each project's furtherance of each
applicable goal stated in this section and any guidelines adopted
hereunder under this article, as well as the overall success of any
project as it relates to the facilities plan or school major
improvement plan and the overall goals of the authority.
(h) The state department of education shall conduct on-site
inspections, at least annually, of all facilities which have been
funded wholly or in part by moneys from the authority or state board
to ensure compliance with the county board's facilities plan and
school major improvement plan as related to the facilities; to
preserve the physical integrity of the facilities to the extent
possible; and to otherwise extend the useful life of the facilities:
Provided, That the state board shall submit reports regarding its
on-site inspections of facilities to the authority within thirty
days of completion of the on-site inspections: Provided, however,
That the state board shall promulgate rules regarding the on-site
inspections and matters relating thereto, in consultation with the
authority, as soon as practical and shall submit proposed rules for
legislative review no later than the first day of December, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-four.
(i) The authority may adopt guidelines propose rules for
promulgation for requiring that a county board modify, update, supplement or otherwise submit changes or additions to an approved
facilities plan or for requiring that a county board, the state
board or the administrative council of an area vocational
educational center modify, update, supplement or otherwise submit
changes or additions to an approved county board facilities plan or
school major improvement plan. The authority shall provide
reasonable notification and sufficient time for the change or
addition as delineated in guidelines developed rules proposed for
promulgation by the authority.
(j) Based on its on-site inspection or notification by the
authority to the state board that the changes or additions to a
county's board facilities plan or school major improvement plan
required by the authority have not been implemented within the time
period prescribed by the authority, the state board shall restrict
the use of the necessary funds or otherwise allocate funds from
moneys appropriated by the Legislature for those purposes set forth
in section nine, article nine-a of this chapter.
(k) In proposing rules for the distribution of school building
funds, as required under the provisions of this article, the
authority shall comply with all provisions relating to legislative
rules as set forth in article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code. Guidelines previously adopted by the authority are invalid
and without effect until such time as the authority has proposed
those guidelines as legislative rules and the rules have been approved for promulgation by the Legislature.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to amend certain provisions
relating to the award and distribution of grant moneys from the
school building authority. It provides that county school boards
may spend authority moneys on any school that has been included in
an approved comprehensive educational facilities plan; makes
explicit that no one criterion, especially the economies of scale,
may dominate other statutory criteria when decisions are made to
award grant moneys; and requires the school building authority to
undergo legislative rule-making review and have its guidelines
approved as legislative rules.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.