HB 379

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to use of school district millage;
3	amending ss. 200.065 and 1011.71, F.S.; expanding
4	authorized school board millage levy funding to include
5	payment of premiums for property and casualty insurance
6	necessary to insure school district educational plants;
7	limiting expenditures of operating revenues; providing an
8	effective date.
9
10	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
11
12	Section 1.  Paragraph (a) of subsection (9) of section
13	200.065, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
14	200.065  Method of fixing millage.--
15	(9)(a)  In addition to the notice required in subsection
16	(3), a district school board shall publish a second notice of
17	intent to levy additional taxes under s. 1011.71(2). Such notice
18	shall specify the projects or number of school buses anticipated
19	to be funded by such additional taxes and shall be published in
20	the size, within the time periods, adjacent to, and in
21	substantial conformity with the advertisement required under
22	subsection (3). The projects shall be listed in priority within
23	each category as follows: construction and remodeling;
24	maintenance, renovation, and repair; motor vehicle purchases;
25	new and replacement equipment; payments for educational
26	facilities and sites due under a lease-purchase agreement;
27	payments for renting and leasing educational facilities and
28	sites; payments of loans approved pursuant to ss. 1011.14 and
29	1011.15; payment of costs of compliance with environmental
30	statutes and regulations; payment of premiums for property and
31	casualty insurance necessary to insure the educational plants of
32	the school district; payment of costs of leasing relocatable
33	educational facilities; and payments to private entities to
34	offset the cost of school buses pursuant to s. 1011.71(2)(i).
35	The additional notice shall be in the following form, except
36	that if the district school board is proposing to levy the same
37	millage under s. 1011.71(2) which it levied in the prior year,
38	the words "continue to" shall be inserted before the word
39	"impose" in the first sentence, and except that the second
40	sentence of the second paragraph shall be deleted if the
41	district is advertising pursuant to paragraph (3)(e):
42
43	NOTICE OF TAX FOR SCHOOL
44	CAPITAL OUTLAY
45
46	The   (name of school district)   will soon consider a
47	measure to impose a   (number)   mill property tax for the
48	capital outlay projects listed herein.
49	This tax is in addition to the school board's proposed tax
50	of   (number)   mills for operating expenses and is proposed
51	solely at the discretion of the school board. THE PROPOSED
52	COMBINED SCHOOL BOARD TAX INCREASE FOR BOTH OPERATING EXPENSES
53	AND CAPITAL OUTLAY IS SHOWN IN THE ADJACENT NOTICE.
54	The capital outlay tax will generate approximately $
55	(amount)  , to be used for the following projects:
56
57	(list of capital outlay projects)
58
59	All concerned citizens are invited to a public hearing to
60	be held on   (date and time)   at   (meeting place)  .
61	A DECISION on the proposed CAPITAL OUTLAY TAXES will be
62	made at this hearing.
63	Section 2.  Paragraph (j) is added to subsection (2) of
64	section 1011.71, Florida Statutes, and paragraph (a) of
65	subsection (5) of that section is amended, to read:
66	1011.71  District school tax.--
67	(2)  In addition to the maximum millage levy as provided in
68	subsection (1), each school board may levy not more than 2 mills
69	against the taxable value for school purposes for district
70	schools, including charter schools at the discretion of the
71	school board, to fund:
72	(j)  Payment of premiums for property and casualty
73	insurance necessary to insure the educational plants of the
74	school district.
75
76	Violations of these expenditure provisions shall result in an
77	equal dollar reduction in the Florida Education Finance Program
78	(FEFP) funds for the violating district in the fiscal year
79	following the audit citation.
80	(5)(a)  It is the intent of the Legislature that, by July
81	1, 2003, revenue generated by the millage levy authorized by
82	subsection (2) should be used only for the costs of
83	construction, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, and repair of
84	the educational plant; for the purchase, lease, or lease-
85	purchase of equipment, educational plants, and construction
86	materials directly related to the delivery of student
87	instruction; for the rental or lease of existing buildings, or
88	space within existing buildings, originally constructed or used
89	for purposes other than education, for conversion to use as
90	educational facilities; for payment of premiums for property and
91	casualty insurance necessary to insure the educational plants of
92	the school district; for the opening day collection for the
93	library media center of a new school; for the purchase, lease-
94	purchase, or lease of school buses or the payment to a private
95	entity to offset the cost of school buses pursuant to paragraph
96	(2)(i); and for servicing of payments related to certificates of
97	participation issued for any purpose prior to the effective date
98	of this act. Costs associated with the lease-purchase of
99	equipment, educational plants, and school buses may include the
100	issuance of certificates of participation on or after the
101	effective date of this act and the servicing of payments related
102	to certificates so issued. For purposes of this section,
103	"maintenance and repair" is defined in s. 1013.01. Each year
104	operating revenues are made available through the payment of
105	property and casualty insurance premiums from revenues generated
106	under this subsection or subsection (2), such operating revenues
107	may be expended only for nonrecurring operational expenditures
108	of the school district.
109
110	A district that violates these expenditure restrictions shall
111	have an equal dollar reduction in funds appropriated to the
112	district under s. 1011.62 in the fiscal year following the audit
113	citation. The expenditure restrictions do not apply to any
114	school district that certifies to the Commissioner of Education
115	that all of the district's instructional space needs for the
116	next 5 years can be met from capital outlay sources that the
117	district reasonably expects to receive during the next 5 years
118	or from alternative scheduling or construction, leasing,
119	rezoning, or technological methodologies that exhibit sound
120	management.
121	Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007.

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