HBA-TBM S.B. 1728 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 1728
By: Cain
Public Education
5/6/2001
Engrossed



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, the state equalizes certain bond payments for a school
district under the instructional facilities allotment (IFA) and the
existing debt allotment (EDA).  The local share of the guaranteed yield is
required to be paid from interest and sinking fund (I&S) taxes levied to
raise revenue to pay the principal and interest on debt.  Although the
district is authorized to legally use a variety of other local funds for
debts payments, those funds cannot count toward the district's local share,
thus causing some districts to levy higher than necessary I&S taxes to
receive the full guaranteed yield from the state.  Senate Bill 1728
authorizes a district to use alternative local funds to meet the district's
local share.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

Senate Bill 1728 amends the Education Code to provide that the amount of
taxes budgeted to be collected by a public school district for payment of
eligible bonds under the instructional facilities allotment and the
existing debt allotment is authorized to include:  

 _bond taxes collected in the current school year; 

 _bond taxes collected in a preceding school year in excess of the amount
necessary to pay the districts's share of actual debt service on bonds in
that year;  

 _maintenance and operations taxes collected in the current or the
preceding school year in excess of the amount used to generate other state
financial assistance for the district; or  

 _any local money, including donations and grants, not obtained from a
governmental source or used to generate other state financial assistance
for the district.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.