BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 132
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Date of Hearing: August 17, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 132 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: July 13, 2011
Policy Committee: Education Vote:6-4
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Allocation Board (SAB), on or
before July 1, 2012, to review guidelines, rules, regulations,
procedures, and policies for the modernization of school
facilities to ensure they reflect state planning priorities, as
specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the governing board of a school district to consider
whether a new schoolsite or an addition to an existing
schoolsite reflects state planning priorities.
2)Requires the State Department of Education (SDE), through
their normal course of providing assistance to districts
during the schoolsite property acquisition process, to ensure
the district is meeting state planning priorities, as
specified.
3)Requires the governor's five year infrastructure plan to
include information provided by SDE and SAB on the extent
which all of the following are consistent with state planning
priorities:
a) Guidelines, rules, regulations, and policies/procedures
for the modernization of school facilities adopted by the
SAB.
b) Site selections standards developed by SDE for use by
districts.
c) Standards developed by SDE for use by districts to
ensure the design and construction of school facilities are
educationally appropriate and promote school safety.
FISCAL EFFECT
SB 132
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1)GF administrative costs of $328,000 to the Office of Planning
and School Construction for additional staff to analyze the
state's planning priorities and the existing statutes,
regulations, and SAB policies for the modernization program.
Likewise, if necessary, staff would need to conduct a
regulatory process to ensure policies/procedures comply with
the state's planning priorities.
2)Unknown, state school facilities bond cost pressure, likely in
the hundreds of thousands to low millions, if eligible uses of
state modernization funds are expanded to include expenditures
to comply with state planning priorities.
3)AB 127 (Nunez), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2006, authorized
Proposition 1D: the Kindergarten-University Public Education
Facilities Bond Act of 2006 for $10.416 billion. The voters
passed Proposition 1D on November 7, 2006. Of the $10.416
billion, $7.329 billion was allocated for K-12 education
facilities, including $3.3 billion for modernization projects.
As of June 2011, there are approximately $1.35 billion in
modernization funds available for allocation.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Existing law establishes all of the following state
planning priorities:
a) To promote infill development and equity by
rehabilitating, maintaining, and improving existing
infrastructure.
b) To protect environmental and agricultural resources by
protecting, preserving, and enhancing the state's most
valuable natural resources.
c) To encourage efficient development patterns by ensuring
that any infrastructure associated with development, other
than infill development, supports new development that does
all of the following:
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i) Uses land efficiently.
ii) Is built adjacent to existing developed areas to the
extent consistent with the environmental priorities
above.
iii) Is located in an area appropriately planned for
growth.
iv) Is served by adequate transportation and other
essential utilities and services.
v) Minimizes ongoing costs to taxpayers.
According to the author, "High quality schools serve as the
cornerstone of sustainable, healthy communities. School
quality and location affects local land use and transportation
patterns, community vitality, economic development and, most
importantly, student outcomes. Unfortunately, schools are
typically absent from sustainability-oriented infrastructure
and policy discussions. Many state school facility policies
are not structured to support broader sustainable development
objectives. AB 132 will begin the process of ensuring the
state school facility infrastructure investment achieves the
state's goals of community and economic vitality and
environmental health."
2)Existing law establishes the State School Facilities Program
(SSFP), administered by the SAB, to provide funding primarily
to local education agencies (LEAs) to construct or modernize
education facilities. The SSFP receives funding from a variety
of sources, including the state GF and proceeds from the sale
of general obligation (G.O.) bonds. Programs under the SSFP
include modernization new construction, career technical
education facilities, and charter school facilities.
3)Will this bill lead to the expanded use of state modernization
funds to ensure school districts are complying with the
state's planning priorities ? Current law authorizes
modernization funds to be used for an improvement to extend
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the life of, or to enhance the physical environment of, the
school. Statute further specifies improvement only includes
the costs related to the direct physical improvement of the
building, including design, engineering, testing, inspection,
plan checking, construction management, demolition,
construction, the replacement of portable classrooms, etc.
Also, existing law prohibits grant funds from being used for
costs associated with acquisition and development of real
estate or routine maintenance and repair.
This bill requires the SAB, on or before July 1, 2012, to
review guidelines, rules, regulations, procedures, and
policies for the modernization of school facilities to ensure
they reflect state planning priorities, as specified. It is
unclear if the SAB's review will lead to an expansion of the
use of modernization grant funds beyond existing law to
include compliance with the state's planning priorities. In
essence, this measure provides the SAB with discretion in
ensuring these priorities are met and funding changes may be
part of this review. The committee may wish to consider this
issue.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081