School facilities: K-14 School Investment Bond Act of 2016.

(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. This bill would revise the definition of modernization under the act to include the replacement of facilities on a site containing a permanent structure that is at least 25 years old or, in the case of a portable classroom, that is at least 20 years old, as specified. The bill would reduce the minimum amount that an applicant school district under the act must set aside for ongoing and major maintenance of school buildings from 3% to 2% of the total general fund expenditures of that district in a fiscal year. The bill would delete a provision requiring the State Allocation Board to conduct an evaluation of the cost of new construction and modernization of small high schools in conjunction with a specified pilot program. The bill would require each school district that elects to participate in a new construction or modernization program to reestablish eligibility, as specified, and to conduct an inventory of existing facilities for purposes of maintaining a statewide school facilities inventory. The bill would authorize a grant for new construction or modernization under the act to be used for seismic mitigation purposes and for related design, study, and testing costs, and require the State Allocation Board, in the development of guidelines and regulations, to provide a school district with maximum flexibility in the design, modernization, and new construction of school facilities. The bill would require the Office of Public School Construction to recommend regulations to the State Allocation Board to provide school districts with flexibility in designing instructional facilities. The bill would require the State Department of Education, the Division of the State Architect, the Office of Public School Construction, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control to convene for purposes of developing an interagency plan to streamline the school facilities construction application, review, and audit processes in order to reduce the time and improve the efficiency of the school facilities construction process. The bill would require that this interagency plan be submitted to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2017. (2) 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. The existing Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006, among other things, authorized the issuance and sale of bonds in the total amount of $10,416,000,000. The 2006 bond act specified that $1,900,000,000 of that total amount was for allocation for new construction of school facilities of applicant school districts, and the 2006 bond act also specified that up to 10.5% of that amount was available for purposes of seismic repair, reconstruction, or replacement. This bill would enact the K–14 School Investment Bond Act of 2016 to authorize an unspecified amount of state general obligation bonds, as scheduled, to provide aid to school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, charter schools, and the California Community Colleges to construct and modernize education facilities. The proceeds of these bonds would be deposited in the 2016 State School Facilities Fund, and the 2016 California Community College Capital Outlay Bond Fund, which the bill would establish as specified. The bill would amend a provision of the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 to require the unencumbered balance of the amount available for purposes of seismic repair, reconstruction, or replacement to be transferred to the 2016 State School Facilities Fund for allocation under the K–14 School Investment Bond Act of 2016, as specified. The proposed 2016 bond act, and the proposed amendment to the 2006 bond act, would become operative only if approved by the voters at an unspecified 2016 statewide election. The bill would provide for the submission of these provisions to the voters at that election. (3) This bill would specify that certain of its provisions would become operative only if the K–14 School Investment Bond Act of 2016 is approved by the voters at an unspecified 2016 statewide election. (4) This bill would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes in related provisions of existing law.