BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 111 (Fuller) - School facilities: military installations
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|Version: March 4, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 6 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: April 27, 2015 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 111 would appropriate $61 million from the General
Fund to the California Department of Education (CDE) for school
construction grants to school districts with public schools
located on military installations. The funds would be used to
meet the state/local matching share requirements for specified
federal grants.
Fiscal
Impact: One-time General Fund appropriation of $61 million in
2015-16 to meet the state/local matching requirement for
specified federal school construction grants. This
appropriation would allow the state to draw down $240 million in
federal funds for construction grants to public schools on
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military installations.
Background: Current law establishes the School Facility Program (SFP)
under which the state provides general obligation bond funding
for various school construction projects. Proposition 1D, the
Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of
2006, was approved by the voters in November of 200 and
authorized the sale of $10.4 billion in general obligation
bonds, including $7.3 billion for K-12 education facilities.
Proposition 1D allocated specified amounts from the sale of
these bonds for modernization, new construction, charter
schools, career technical education facilities, joint use
projects, new construction on severely overcrowded school sites,
and high performance incentive grants to promote energy
efficient design and materials. In addition, portions of the
amounts allocated for new construction and modernization were
authorized for purposes of funding smaller learning communities
and small high schools and for seismic retrofit projects.
In 2010, the United States Department of Defense evaluated and
reviewed the physical condition of the 160 public schools on
military installations in the United States. Based on the
findings of this assessment, the DOD developed a "Priority List"
of public schools on military installations with the most
serious condition and/or capacity deficiencies. The federal
Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) was tasked with
administering the Public Schools on Military Installations
(PSMI) program to provide construction, renovation, and repair
funding to address these deficiencies.
Congress has provided $945 million in federal funds to the OEA
for the program since 2011, including a recent $175 million
increase in funding provided in House Resolution 83 in 2015.
That measure also established a 20 percent non-federal matching
requirement from the state and local education authority (LEA)
as a condition of federal funding. If a local match is not
provided, the OEA may skip eligible school projects on the
Priority List if the match is not provided. According to the
OEA, once a project on the list has been skipped it will no
longer be considered for funding.
The OEA indicates that there is approximately $464 million
remaining in the PSMI, and estimates that as many as 33 schools
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on the list could be assisted. California has 11 schools in six
districts that are within the top 33 on the Priority List.
Proposed Law:
This bill appropriates $61 million from the General Fund to
the CDE for the 2015-16 fiscal year for apportionment to school
districts to meet the matching share requirements of the PSMI
program to construct, renovate, repair, or expand elementary and
secondary public schools located on military installations.
Related
Legislation: SB 121 (Fuller) requires that school construction
projects on military installations that are eligible for
specified federal grants be given priority for funding under the
state SFP. That bill has been referred to the Education
Committee, but has not been heard.
Staff
Comments: This bill is intended to provide the full 20 percent
state/local match for approximately $240 million in federal
funds that would be available for construction grants to 11
schools on military installations in California. State bond
authority for new construction and modernizations programs has
essentially been depleted since 2012.
Since 2009, the State Allocation Board (SAB) has been making
"unfunded approvals" for approved projects waiting to convert to
funding apportionments when bonds are sold and cash becomes
available. In addition, since November 1, 2012, the SAB has
maintained an "Applications Received Beyond Bond Authority"
list. According to the Office of Public School Construction,
one of the 11 schools that this bill seeks to assist has an
unfunded application pending under the School Facility Program.
In addition, four of the schools have modernization eligibility
but have not applied for state funding, and six of the schools
previously applied for, and received modernization funding
through the School Facilities Program. SB 111 would provide a
direct General Fund appropriation for these projects on the
basis of their eligibility for federal funds. The Committee may
wish to consider whether it is appropriate to provide General
Funds for these 11 schools, when there are numerous other
schools awaiting state funding that may have a greater need
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based on state priorities, or whether there are other priorities
for limited General Funds.
In 2012, the SAB established a subcommittee to explore
alternatives for assisting districts with providing the required
20 percent local match for projects on the DOD Priority List.
The subcommittee considered a number of options, including
reservation of bond authority, transfer of bond authority, loans
for the matching share, waiver of the local matching share
requirement, and facility hardship funding, but none of these
options were determined to be viable. Ultimately, the SAB
recommended that the Legislature provide funding for military
base schools in California in the next bond proposal in order to
cover the total need for these types of projects.
The CDE indicates that costs to administer the distribution of
funds to affected school districts would be minor. Staff notes
that the funds appropriated by this bill would count towards the
Proposition 98 minimum guarantee of funding for K-14 education.
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