Committee backs amendment to allow up to $500,000 from dissolved Edmore school to local political subdivision; final vote postponed

The Senate Finance and Taxation Committee discussed Senate Bill 2158, a measure that would permit a dissolving school district to transfer up to $500,000 of unobligated cash balances to a political subdivision located wholly or partly inside the dissolving district. Committee members heard attorney general staff, the Edmore superintendent, education groups and a county reorganization committee member before voting to accept an amendment clarifying the bill’s language; the committee postponed a final vote to a later date.

The bill was presented to the committee as a corrective measure to resolve a drafting conflict in current law and to reflect the intent of prior legislation, Senator Scheibley said. "We believe 21 58 completes all those hurdles to get this plan done," he said, noting the school year fiscal year ends June 30 and urging an emergency clause to effect a dissolution this year.

The attorney general’s office urged a change in wording from a mandatory directive to discretionary language. "When you put a 'shall' in, it's a directive," Lisonbee Hicks, assistant attorney general and general counsel to the State Board of Public School Education, told the committee. Hicks said the amendment also narrows recipients so any political subdivision receiving funds must be "located either…