HB 511

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to uses of the district school tax;
3	amending ss. 200.065 and 1011.71, F.S.; including health,
4	property, and casualty insurance costs as authorized uses
5	of school district millage; specifying nonapplication of
6	certain expenditure restrictions to school districts
7	meeting certain class size requirements; 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 health, property, and
31	casualty insurance costs of the school district; payment of
32	costs of leasing relocatable educational facilities; and
33	payments to private entities to offset the cost of school buses
34	pursuant to s. 1011.71(2)(i). The additional notice shall be in
35	the following form, except that if the district school board is
36	proposing to levy the same millage under s. 1011.71(2) which it
37	levied in the prior year, the words "continue to" shall be
38	inserted before the word "impose" in the first sentence, and
39	except that the second sentence of the second paragraph shall be
40	deleted if the district is advertising pursuant to paragraph
41	(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 subsection (5) of that
65	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)  Health, property, and casualty insurance costs of the
73	school district.
74
75	Violations of these expenditure provisions shall result in an
76	equal dollar reduction in the Florida Education Finance Program
77	(FEFP) funds for the violating district in the fiscal year
78	following the audit citation.
79	(5)(a)  It is the intent of the Legislature that, by July
80	1, 2003, revenue generated by the millage levy authorized by
81	subsection (2) should be used only for the costs of
82	construction, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, and repair of
83	the educational plant; for the purchase, lease, or lease-
84	purchase of equipment, educational plants, and construction
85	materials directly related to the delivery of student
86	instruction; for the rental or lease of existing buildings, or
87	space within existing buildings, originally constructed or used
88	for purposes other than education, for conversion to use as
89	educational facilities; for the opening day collection for the
90	library media center of a new school; for the purchase, lease-
91	purchase, or lease of school buses or the payment to a private
92	entity to offset the cost of school buses pursuant to paragraph
93	(2)(i); and for servicing of payments related to certificates of
94	participation issued for any purpose prior to the effective date
95	of this act. Costs associated with the lease-purchase of
96	equipment, educational plants, and school buses may include the
97	issuance of certificates of participation on or after the
98	effective date of this act and the servicing of payments related
99	to certificates so issued. For purposes of this section,
100	"maintenance and repair" is defined in s. 1013.01.
101	(b)  For purposes not delineated in paragraph (a) for which
102	proceeds received from millage levied under subsection (2) may
103	be legally expended, a district school board may spend no more
104	than the following percentages of the amount the district spent
105	for these purposes in fiscal year 1995-1996:
106	1.  In fiscal year 2000-2001, 40 percent.
107	2.  In fiscal year 2001-2002, 25 percent.
108	3.  In fiscal year 2002-2003, 10 percent.
109	(c)  Beginning July 1, 2003, revenue generated by the
110	millage levy authorized by subsection (2) must be used only for
111	the purposes delineated in paragraph (a).
112	(d)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this
113	subsection, if through its adopted educational facilities plan a
114	district has clearly identified the need for an ancillary plant,
115	has provided opportunity for public input as to the relative
116	value of the ancillary plant versus an educational plant, and
117	has obtained public approval, the district may use revenue
118	generated by the millage levy authorized by subsection (2) for
119	the acquisition, construction, renovation, remodeling,
120	maintenance, or repair of an ancillary plant.
121
122	A district that violates these expenditure restrictions shall
123	have an equal dollar reduction in funds appropriated to the
124	district under s. 1011.62 in the fiscal year following the audit
125	citation. The expenditure restrictions do not apply to any
126	school district that has met the current year class size
127	reduction requirements of s. 1003.03 and certifies to the
128	Commissioner of Education that all of the district's
129	instructional space needs for the next 5 years can be met from
130	capital outlay sources that the district reasonably expects to
131	receive during the next 5 years or from alternative scheduling
132	or construction, leasing, rezoning, or technological
133	methodologies that exhibit sound management.
134	Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007.

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