Bonds: school districts and community college districts.

(1) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district or community college district to order an election and submit to the electors of the district the question whether the bonds of the district should be issued and sold to raise money for specified purposes. Existing law requires the bonds to bear a rate of interest that does not exceed 8% per annum and requires the number of years the whole or any part of the bonds are to run to not exceed 25 years. This bill would require the ratio of total debt service to principal for each bond series to not exceed 4 to one. The bill would require each bond, as defined, that allows for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, a capital appreciation bond, maturing more than 10 years after its date of issuance to be subject to redemption before its fixed maturity date, as specified, beginning no later than the 10th anniversary of the date the bond was issued. The bill would authorize a school district or community college district with a note issued before December 31, 2013, to seek from the State Board of Education or the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, as applicable, a one-time waiver from certain requirements of this bill if 2 specified conditions are satisfied. (2) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district or community college district, before the sale of bonds, to adopt a resolution as an agenda item at a public meeting that includes specified information. This bill would require, if the sale includes bonds that allow for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, capital appreciation bonds, the agenda item to identify that bonds that allow for the compounding of interest are proposed and require the governing board of the school district or community college district to be presented with specified information concerning the bonds. The bill would require the resolution to be publicly noticed on at least 2 consecutive meeting agendas, first as an information item and 2nd as an action item. (3) Additionally and alternatively to the authority described above, existing law authorizes the legislative body of an issuer, by resolution, to provide for the issuance of bonds or refunding bonds. This bill would provide that bonds issued pursuant to this authority by a school district or community college district that do not allow for the compounding of interest may have a maturity that is greater than 30 years, but not greater than 40 years, if certain requirements are satisfied. The bill would require a school district or community college district that intends to issue bonds that allow for the compounding of interest, including, but not limited to, capital appreciation bonds, pursuant to this authority to conform the bond issuance to certain requirements otherwise applicable to bonds issued by a school district or community college district pursuant to the authority specified in (1) , above.