Senate Bill sb0574

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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574

    By Senator Bennett





    21-458-07

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to district school taxation;

  3         amending ss. 200.065 and 1011.71, F.S.;

  4         expanding authorized uses of revenues from a

  5         specified levy of school board millage to

  6         include payment of premiums for property and

  7         casualty insurance necessary to insure school

  8         district educational plants; limiting the uses

  9         of operating funds made available through such

10         expenditures of those revenues; deleting an

11         obsolete provision; providing an effective

12         date.

13  

14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

15  

16         Section 1.  Paragraph (a) of subsection (9) of section

17  200.065, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:

18         200.065  Method of fixing millage.--

19         (9)(a)  In addition to the notice required in

20  subsection (3), a district school board shall publish a second

21  notice of intent to levy additional taxes under s. 1011.71(2).

22  Such notice shall specify the projects or number of school

23  buses anticipated to be funded by such additional taxes and

24  shall be published in the size, within the time periods,

25  adjacent to, and in substantial conformity with the

26  advertisement required under subsection (3). The projects

27  shall be listed in priority within each category as follows:

28  construction and remodeling; maintenance, renovation, and

29  repair; motor vehicle purchases; new and replacement

30  equipment; payments for educational facilities and sites due

31  under a lease-purchase agreement; payments for renting and

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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07




 1  leasing educational facilities and sites; payments of loans

 2  approved pursuant to ss. 1011.14 and 1011.15; payment of costs

 3  of compliance with environmental statutes and regulations;

 4  payment of costs of leasing relocatable educational

 5  facilities; and payments to private entities to offset the

 6  cost of school buses pursuant to s. 1011.71(2)(i); and payment

 7  of premiums for property and casualty insurance necessary to

 8  insure the educational plants of the school district. The

 9  additional notice shall be in the following form, except that

10  if the district school board is proposing to levy the same

11  millage under s. 1011.71(2) which it levied in the prior year,

12  the words "continue to" shall be inserted before the word

13  "impose" in the first sentence, and except that the second

14  sentence of the second paragraph shall be deleted if the

15  district is advertising pursuant to paragraph (3)(e):

16  

17                     NOTICE OF TAX FOR SCHOOL

18                          CAPITAL OUTLAY

19  

20         The ...(name of school district)... will soon consider

21  a measure to impose a ...(number)... mill property tax for the

22  capital outlay projects listed herein.

23         This tax is in addition to the school board's proposed

24  tax of ...(number)... mills for operating expenses and is

25  proposed solely at the discretion of the school board.  THE

26  PROPOSED COMBINED SCHOOL BOARD TAX INCREASE FOR BOTH OPERATING

27  EXPENSES AND CAPITAL OUTLAY IS SHOWN IN THE ADJACENT NOTICE.

28         The capital outlay tax will generate approximately

29  $...(amount)..., to be used for the following projects:

30  

31             ...(list of capital outlay projects)...

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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07




 1  

 2         All concerned citizens are invited to a public hearing

 3  to be held on ...(date and time)... at ...(meeting place)....

 4         A DECISION on the proposed CAPITAL OUTLAY TAXES will be

 5  made at this hearing.

 6         Section 2.  Paragraph (j) is added to subsection (2) of

 7  section 1011.71, Florida Statutes, and paragraph (a) of

 8  subsection (5) of that section is amended, to read:

 9         1011.71  District school tax.--

10         (2)  In addition to the maximum millage levy as

11  provided in subsection (1), each school board may levy not

12  more than 2 mills against the taxable value for school

13  purposes for district schools, including charter schools at

14  the discretion of the school board, to fund:

15         (j)  Payment of premiums for property and casualty

16  insurance necessary to insure the educational plants of the

17  school district.

18  

19  Violations of these expenditure provisions shall result in an

20  equal dollar reduction in the Florida Education Finance

21  Program (FEFP) funds for the violating district in the fiscal

22  year following the audit citation.

23         (5)(a)  It is the intent of the Legislature that, by

24  July 1, 2003, revenue generated by the millage levy authorized

25  by subsection (2) should be used only for the costs of

26  construction, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, and repair

27  of the educational plant; for the purchase, lease, or

28  lease-purchase of equipment, educational plants, and

29  construction materials directly related to the delivery of

30  student instruction; for the rental or lease of existing

31  buildings, or space within existing buildings, originally

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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
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 1  constructed or used for purposes other than education, for

 2  conversion to use as educational facilities; for property and

 3  casualty insurance premiums necessary to insure the

 4  educational plants of the school district; for the opening day

 5  collection for the library media center of a new school; for

 6  the purchase, lease-purchase, or lease of school buses or the

 7  payment to a private entity to offset the cost of school buses

 8  pursuant to paragraph (2)(i); and for servicing of payments

 9  related to certificates of participation issued for any

10  purpose prior to the effective date of this act. Costs

11  associated with the lease-purchase of equipment, educational

12  plants, and school buses may include the issuance of

13  certificates of participation on or after the effective date

14  of this act and the servicing of payments related to

15  certificates so issued. For purposes of this section,

16  "maintenance and repair" is defined in s. 1013.01. Operating

17  revenues that are made available through the payment of

18  property and casualty insurance premiums from revenues

19  generated under this subsection or subsection (2) may be

20  expended only for nonrecurring operational expenditures of the

21  school district.

22  

23  A district that violates these expenditure restrictions shall

24  have an equal dollar reduction in funds appropriated to the

25  district under s. 1011.62 in the fiscal year following the

26  audit citation. The expenditure restrictions do not apply to

27  any school district that certifies to the Commissioner of

28  Education that all of the district's instructional space needs

29  for the next 5 years can be met from capital outlay sources

30  that the district reasonably expects to receive during the

31  next 5 years or from alternative scheduling or construction,

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    Florida Senate - 2007                                   SB 574
    21-458-07




 1  leasing, rezoning, or technological methodologies that exhibit

 2  sound management.

 3         Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007.

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 6                          SENATE SUMMARY

 7    Expands the authorized uses of revenues from a specified
      levy of school board millage to include the payment of
 8    premiums for property and casualty insurance necessary to
      insure school district educational plants. Requires that
 9    the operating funds made available through such
      expenditures of those revenues be used only for
10    nonrecurring operational expenditures of the school
      district.
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