Committee advances TEFRA approval for Alta Vista School financing to full Board

The Budget & Finance Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted May 12 to forward to the full Board a TEFRA resolution that would allow the California Enterprise Development Authority (CETA) to issue up to $20 million in tax-exempt revenue obligations to finance projects for Alta Vista School.

Vishal Trivedi of the Controller's office told the committee the city itself would not be obligated on the debt and that the action is a required procedural approval under federal tax rules. Trivedi said the jurisdictional public hearing requirements were met: the city published notice on March 17 and held a toll-free public hearing on March 26, which produced no public comments.

Under the request, proceeds would be loaned to Alta Vista School, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, to finance or refinance acquisition, construction, renovation and equipping of educational facilities located at 450 Somerset Street and 2558 Mission Street; amounts for those projects were described as not to exceed $2,000,000 and $18,000,000 respectively, for an aggregate cap of $20,000,000.

Trivedi explained the federal Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) and noted that issuance would be through the joint-powers authority of which the city and county are members. He said the proposed issuance is being processed as conduit debt and will not create a fiscal obligation for the City and County of San Francisco.

Chair Matt Haney moved to send the resolution to the full Board with a positive recommendation; Supervisors Asha Safa Yi and Gordon Mar joined him in the recorded roll-call vote. The full Board will consider final approval and any bond-issuance documents in a subsequent meeting.

Next steps: the item will appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda (per the clerk's announcement) for further consideration and any final action on the financing request.