AB 331

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the California Constitution, prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (A) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (B) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (C) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (D) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2012, a state general obligation bond act that would provide funds to construct and modernize education facilities, to become operative only if approved by the voters at the next statewide general election, and to provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at that election. (2) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (Greene Act) requires the State Allocation Board (board) to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. Existing law requires the Director of General Services to administer the Greene Act and authorizes the board to appoint an assistant executive officer, employ additional staff members and secure office space and furnishings to support the assistant executive officer, and fix the salary and compensation of the assistant executive officer. This bill instead would require the Director of General Services to administer the Greene Act at the direction of the board and pursuant to regulations adopted by the board and would authorize the board to appoint its legal counsel, employ additional staff members and secure office space and furnishings to support the legal counsel, and fix the salary and compensation of the legal counsel. (3) Existing law requires a school district, in consultation with the local career technical education advisory committee, to certify it has considered the need for vocational and career technical facilities to adequately meet its program needs and requires the committee to provide written confirmation that the need for vocational and career technical facilities is being adequately met within the district. This bill would exempt elementary school construction and modernization projects from the requirements regarding the adequacy of vocational and career technical facilities described above. (4) Existing law requires a school district that applies to receive funding for new construction to determine projected enrollment for the 5th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made and authorizes a school district to submit an enrollment projection for the 5th or 10th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made. This bill would allow the school district to calculate projected enrollment for the 5th or 10th year beyond the fiscal year in which the application is made. (5) Existing law requires the ongoing eligibility of a school district for new construction funding to be determined by making specified calculations, one of which is to add the number of pupils that may be adequately housed in the existing school building capacity of a school district to the number of pupils for whom facilities were provided from any state or local funding source after the existing school building capacity was determined. This bill would revise the calculation described above by specifying that the 2nd addend is the number of pupils for whom permanent facilities were provided from any state source or permanent facilities provided entirely from a local funding source after the existing school building capacity was determined. (6) Existing law requires that funding for an approved new construction school facilities project be released equal to the amount of the local match when the school district certifies that it has entered into a binding contract for completion of the project. The same certification is required to be made in connection with the release of disbursements for modernization projects. This bill would require the school district instead to certify that it has entered into a binding contract for professional services or for construction, or both, in order to complete the approved project. (7) This bill would correct an erroneous cross-reference and make other technical, nonsubstantive changes.