CA AB 247

Title: Education finance: school facilities: Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024.
Author: Lori D. Wilson

Summary
AB 247, as amended, Muratsuchi. Education finance: school facilities: Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024. (1) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (1) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (2) has been passed by a 2/3 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (3) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (4) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election.This bill would set forth the Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024 as a state general obligation bond act that would provide $14,000,000,000 to construct and modernize education facilities, as specified. This bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at an unspecified 2024 statewide election. The bill would also provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at that election.(2) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities.This bill would require the Department of General Services to process all applications received under the act on and after an unspecified date and to present those applications to the State Allocation Board within 120 days of receipt. The bill would require a school district that applies for bond funding under the act to supply designated information about the facilities at each school in the school district to the State Department of Education. The bill would amend the methodology for calculating the local contribution a school district is required to make in order to be eligible to receive state funding under the act, as specified.The bill would authorize the allocation of state funds under the act for the replacement of school buildings that are at least 50 years old, for specified assistance to school districts with a school facility located on a military installation, as specified, and small school districts, as defined, and for the testing and remediation of lead levels in water fountains and faucets used for drinking or preparing food on schoolsites, as provided. The bill would authorize new construction and modernization grants to be used for seismic mitigation purposes, certain health and safety projects, and, among other things, to establish schoolsite-based infrastructure to provide broadband internet access. The bill would also authorize modernization grants to be used for the control, management, or abatement of lead. The bill would increase the maximum level of total bonding capacity, as defined, that a school district could have in order to be eligible for financial hardship assistance under the act from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000. The bill, commencing in the 2025–26 fiscal year, would increase that $15,000,000 maximum by a specified inflation adjustment. The bill would authorize the State Allocation Board to provide assistance for purposes of procuring interim housing to school districts and county offices of education impacted by a natural disaster for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency. The bill would also make conforming changes.The bill would make these provisions effective upon the adoption of the Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024 by the voters at the unspecified 2024 statewide election.

Status
In committee: Held under submission.

Bill Documents
CA AB 247 - 07/13/23 - Amended Senate
07/13/23 - CA AB 247 (07/13/23 - Amended Senate)