School facilities: joint occupancy: high-performance grants and tax credits.

(1) The Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 (bond act) , approved by the voters as Proposition 1D at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance and sale of a total of $10,416,000,000 in general obligation bonds. The bond act requires that $100,000,000 of the proceeds from the sale of those bonds be allocated for purposes of incentive grants to promote the use of designs and materials in new construction and modernization projects that include attributes of high-performance schools. Existing law authorizes a school district to enter into leases and agreements relating to real property and buildings to be used jointly by the school district and any private person, firm, local governmental agency, or corporation, requires the governing board of a school district to own the site upon which a building is to be used in this manner before entering into a lease or agreement, and requires a lease or agreement to include a provision requiring the private person, firm, local governmental agency, or corporation to construct, or provide for the construction, on the demised premises of a building or buildings for the joint use of the school district and the private person, firm, local governmental agency, or corporation. This bill would authorize the State Allocation Board to provide an incentive grant to school districts to fund the use of designs and materials characteristic of high-performance schools for school districts executing a joint-occupancy agreement and would authorize the incentive grant to be used for high-performance components of a new construction or modernization project at any schoolsite within the school district. The bill would provide that incentive grant eligibility is established by entering into a joint-occupancy lease and agreement and would require the agreement to generate income for the school district within 7 years after the agreement is entered into. (2) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law authorize various credits against the taxes imposed by those law, including a credit for the startup expenses of constructing a child care facility, as specified. This bill would authorize a specified tax credit, as applicable, for a developer, contractor, investor, or combination of private sector partners that execute a joint occupancy agreement with school districts, as described above, or execute an agreement with the governing board of a school district to purchase, lease, or exchange school property in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would authorize the tax credit to be a specified percentage of the total cost to the developer, contractor, investor, or combination of private sector partners of the joint-occupancy project for up to 7 taxable years. The bill would authorize a school district or county office of education to establish a foundation with the authority to accept tax-deductible donations from a private sector entity that is a party to a joint-occupancy agreement. The bill would also authorize a governing board of a school district to enter into an agreement with a private sector entity or nonprofit entity for purposes of improving educational facilities and would authorize that agreement to include provisions authorizing the private sector entity or nonprofit entity to use the improved educational facilities at times that do not conflict with operations or extracurricular activities of the school district if the private sector entity or nonprofit entity contributes substantial resources to improving the educational facilities, as specified.