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Committee advances proposal to ease rules for rural school facilities funding
Summary
The House Committee on Education voted to introduce RS32537C1, which would change how the Public School Facilities Cooperative Fund is used, remove a district supervisor requirement for projects under $5 million and adjust repayment and priority rules for the fund.
Representative Doug Pickett, sponsor and a member of the Idaho House from District 27, asked the House Committee on Education to introduce RS32537C1, a draft that would change how a long-dormant public school facilities fund can be used by rural districts.
Pickett said the measure would remove a requirement that the state appoint a district supervisor to oversee construction projects under $5,000,000, making it easier for smaller school districts to access the Public School Facilities Cooperative Fund. "This RS represents legislation that addresses the ongoing need for rural public school facilities funding," Pickett told the committee.
The bill would extend the fund’s reach for districts that have already put bonds to voters but whose bond capacity proved insufficient. It preserves an existing payback index — described in the draft as comprising property-value measures, unemployment and average income — and would retain a 20-year amortization for district payback tied to the bond term. Pickett told the committee the change would also move one slot on the reviewing panel from the State Board executive director to the superintendent of public instruction.
Pickett described the priority order for how the state would apply available dollars: first to existing indebtedness, second to indebtedness created under this program, and third to future obligations. He said the proposal would allow districts with gaps between bond-authorized work and actual needs to get an approved plan before taking a two-thirds bond proposal to voters that could incorporate this funding. "It would remove that requirement for projects up to $5,000,000 in value," Pickett said.
Fiscal documents cited by Pickett said the proposal would combine a previously directed $25,000,000 from a bond-level equalization vehicle with the Public School Facilities Cooperative Fund, and that amount was described in presentation materials as contributing to an approximate $50,500,000 fiscal pool in the bill’s framing. Pickett said the draft was prepared with input from multiple legislators and staff and that it intends to unlock funding that has sat unused since 2006.
A motion to introduce RS32537C1 was made and approved by voice vote. The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the hearing transcript; the chair directed that the RS be introduced after the voice vote.
