Senate Bill 1160c1

    Florida Senate - 1998                           CS for SB 1160

    By the Committee on Education and Senator Dyer





    304-2043-98

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to school district

  3         expenditures; amending s. 237.081, F.S.;

  4         revising provisions relating to the

  5         advertisement of a school board's tentative

  6         budget; requiring the inclusion of specified

  7         information; authorizing rules; providing an

  8         effective date.

  9

10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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12         Section 1.  Section 237.081, Florida Statutes, is

13  amended to read:

14         237.081  Public hearings; budgets to be submitted to

15  Department of Education.--

16         (1)  The school board of each district must shall cause

17  a summary of its tentative budget, including the proposed

18  millage levies as provided for by law, and graphs illustrating

19  a historical summary of financial and demographic data, to be

20  advertised at least one time as a full-page advertisement in

21  the a newspaper with the largest of general circulation

22  published in the district or to be posted at the courthouse

23  door if there be no such newspaper.

24         (2)(a)  The advertisement must include a graph

25  illustrating the historical summary of financial and

26  demographic data for each of the following data values which

27  shall be plotted along the vertical axis of each graph:

28         1.  Total revenue provided to the school district from

29  all sources for the corresponding fiscal year, including all

30  federal, state, and local revenue.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 1998                           CS for SB 1160
    304-2043-98




  1         2.  Total revenue provided to the school district for

  2  the corresponding fiscal year for current operations.

  3         3.  Total revenue provided to the school district for

  4  the corresponding fiscal year for fixed capital outlay

  5  projects.

  6         4.  Total revenue provided to the school district for

  7  the corresponding fiscal year for debt service.

  8         5.  Total number of unweighted full-time equivalent

  9  students, inclusive of all programs listed in s. 236.081.

10         6.  Total revenue provided to the school district for

11  current operations divided by the number of unweighted

12  full-time equivalent students for the corresponding fiscal

13  year.

14         7.  Total number of employees of the school district

15  for the corresponding fiscal year.

16         8.  Total number of employees of the school district

17  classified as instructional personnel under s. 228.041 for the

18  corresponding fiscal year.

19         (b)  Each graph must include a separate histogram

20  corresponding to the financial and demographic data for each

21  of the following fiscal years, which shall be plotted along

22  the horizontal axis of each graph:

23         1.  Current fiscal year.

24         2.  Fiscal year that is 5 years before the current

25  fiscal year.

26         3.  Fiscal year that is 10 years before the current

27  fiscal year.

28         (c)  The numeric value of the financial and demographic

29  data corresponding to each histogram must be included in each

30  graph.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 1998                           CS for SB 1160
    304-2043-98




  1         (3)  The advertisement shall appear adjacent to the

  2  advertisement required pursuant to s. 200.065. The

  3  Commissioner of Education may adopt rules necessary to provide

  4  specific requirements for the format of the advertisement.

  5         (4)  The board shall hold public hearings to adopt

  6  tentative and final budgets pursuant to s. 200.065.  The

  7  hearings shall be primarily for the purpose of hearing

  8  requests and complaints from the public regarding the budgets

  9  and the proposed tax levies and for explaining the budget and

10  proposed or adopted amendments thereto, if any.  The school

11  board shall then require the superintendent to transmit

12  forthwith two copies of the adopted budget to the Department

13  of Education for approval as prescribed by law and regulations

14  of the state board.

15         Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 1998.

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17          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
18                             SB 1160

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20  The committee substitute would require school boards' annual
    advertisements of tentative budgets and proposed millage
21  levies to be accompanied by a series of graphs depicting a
    summary of specified financial and demographic data for the
22  current fiscal year and for fiscal years five and ten years
    prior to the current year.
23
    The information is to be presented at least once in a
24  full-page advertisement in the newspaper with the largest
    circulation in the district.
25
    The Commissioner of Education would be authorized to adopt any
26  rules that may be necessary to provide school boards with
    specific format requirements for the advertisements.
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