Higher education facilities: Recommitment to Higher Education Bond Act of 2016.

Existing law, 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 (a) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (b) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the members elected to each house of the Legislature, (c) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (d) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would enact the Recommitment to Higher Education Bond Act of 2016 to authorize an unspecified amount of state general obligation bonds, as scheduled, to provide aid to the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University to construct and modernize education facilities. The proceeds of these bonds would be deposited in the 2016 California Community Colleges Capital Outlay Bond Fund and the 2016 University Capital Outlay Bond Fund, which this bill would establish. The bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, and the bill would provide for its submission to the voters at that election.