Senate Bill sb0574
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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    By Senator Bennett
    21-458-07
  1                      A bill to be entitled
  2         An act relating to district school taxation;
  3         amending ss. 200.065 and 1011.71, F.S.;
  4         expanding authorized uses of revenues from a
  5         specified levy of school board millage to
  6         include payment of premiums for property and
  7         casualty insurance necessary to insure school
  8         district educational plants; limiting the uses
  9         of operating funds made available through such
10         expenditures of those revenues; deleting an
11         obsolete provision; providing an effective
12         date.
13  
14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
15  
16         Section 1.  Paragraph (a) of subsection (9) of section
17  200.065, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
18         200.065  Method of fixing millage.--
19         (9)(a)  In addition to the notice required in
20  subsection (3), a district school board shall publish a second
21  notice of intent to levy additional taxes under s. 1011.71(2).
22  Such notice shall specify the projects or number of school
23  buses anticipated to be funded by such additional taxes and
24  shall be published in the size, within the time periods,
25  adjacent to, and in substantial conformity with the
26  advertisement required under subsection (3). The projects
27  shall be listed in priority within each category as follows:
28  construction and remodeling; maintenance, renovation, and
29  repair; motor vehicle purchases; new and replacement
30  equipment; payments for educational facilities and sites due
31  under a lease-purchase agreement; payments for renting and
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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07
 1  leasing educational facilities and sites; payments of loans
 2  approved pursuant to ss. 1011.14 and 1011.15; payment of costs
 3  of compliance with environmental statutes and regulations;
 4  payment of costs of leasing relocatable educational
 5  facilities; and payments to private entities to offset the
 6  cost of school buses pursuant to s. 1011.71(2)(i); and payment
 7  of premiums for property and casualty insurance necessary to
 8  insure the educational plants of the school district. The
 9  additional notice shall be in the following form, except that
10  if the district school board is proposing to levy the same
11  millage under s. 1011.71(2) which it levied in the prior year,
12  the words "continue to" shall be inserted before the word
13  "impose" in the first sentence, and except that the second
14  sentence of the second paragraph shall be deleted if the
15  district is advertising pursuant to paragraph (3)(e):
16  
17                     NOTICE OF TAX FOR SCHOOL
18                          CAPITAL OUTLAY
19  
20         The ...(name of school district)... will soon consider
21  a measure to impose a ...(number)... mill property tax for the
22  capital outlay projects listed herein.
23         This tax is in addition to the school board's proposed
24  tax of ...(number)... mills for operating expenses and is
25  proposed solely at the discretion of the school board.  THE
26  PROPOSED COMBINED SCHOOL BOARD TAX INCREASE FOR BOTH OPERATING
27  EXPENSES AND CAPITAL OUTLAY IS SHOWN IN THE ADJACENT NOTICE.
28         The capital outlay tax will generate approximately
29  $...(amount)..., to be used for the following projects:
30  
31             ...(list of capital outlay projects)...
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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07
 1  
 2         All concerned citizens are invited to a public hearing
 3  to be held on ...(date and time)... at ...(meeting place)....
 4         A DECISION on the proposed CAPITAL OUTLAY TAXES will be
 5  made at this hearing.
 6         Section 2.  Paragraph (j) is added to subsection (2) of
 7  section 1011.71, Florida Statutes, and paragraph (a) of
 8  subsection (5) of that section is amended, to read:
 9         1011.71  District school tax.--
10         (2)  In addition to the maximum millage levy as
11  provided in subsection (1), each school board may levy not
12  more than 2 mills against the taxable value for school
13  purposes for district schools, including charter schools at
14  the discretion of the school board, to fund:
15         (j)  Payment of premiums for property and casualty
16  insurance necessary to insure the educational plants of the
17  school district.
18  
19  Violations of these expenditure provisions shall result in an
20  equal dollar reduction in the Florida Education Finance
21  Program (FEFP) funds for the violating district in the fiscal
22  year following the audit citation.
23         (5)(a)  It is the intent of the Legislature that, by
24  July 1, 2003, revenue generated by the millage levy authorized
25  by subsection (2) should be used only for the costs of
26  construction, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, and repair
27  of the educational plant; for the purchase, lease, or
28  lease-purchase of equipment, educational plants, and
29  construction materials directly related to the delivery of
30  student instruction; for the rental or lease of existing
31  buildings, or space within existing buildings, originally
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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07
 1  constructed or used for purposes other than education, for
 2  conversion to use as educational facilities; for property and
 3  casualty insurance premiums necessary to insure the
 4  educational plants of the school district; for the opening day
 5  collection for the library media center of a new school; for
 6  the purchase, lease-purchase, or lease of school buses or the
 7  payment to a private entity to offset the cost of school buses
 8  pursuant to paragraph (2)(i); and for servicing of payments
 9  related to certificates of participation issued for any
10  purpose prior to the effective date of this act. Costs
11  associated with the lease-purchase of equipment, educational
12  plants, and school buses may include the issuance of
13  certificates of participation on or after the effective date
14  of this act and the servicing of payments related to
15  certificates so issued. For purposes of this section,
16  "maintenance and repair" is defined in s. 1013.01. Operating
17  revenues that are made available through the payment of
18  property and casualty insurance premiums from revenues
19  generated under this subsection or subsection (2) may be
20  expended only for nonrecurring operational expenditures of the
21  school district.
22  
23  A district that violates these expenditure restrictions shall
24  have an equal dollar reduction in funds appropriated to the
25  district under s. 1011.62 in the fiscal year following the
26  audit citation. The expenditure restrictions do not apply to
27  any school district that certifies to the Commissioner of
28  Education that all of the district's instructional space needs
29  for the next 5 years can be met from capital outlay sources
30  that the district reasonably expects to receive during the
31  next 5 years or from alternative scheduling or construction,
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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07
 1  leasing, rezoning, or technological methodologies that exhibit
 2  sound management.
 3         Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007.
 4  
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 6                          SENATE SUMMARY
 7    Expands the authorized uses of revenues from a specified
      levy of school board millage to include the payment of
 8    premiums for property and casualty insurance necessary to
      insure school district educational plants. Requires that
 9    the operating funds made available through such
      expenditures of those revenues be used only for
10    nonrecurring operational expenditures of the school
      district.
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