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Senate accepts conference report and passes SB1 to fund public school building needs
Summary
After House amendments and conference committee negotiations, the Senate accepted a joint conference committee report and passed substitute Senate Bill 1 on funding for public school buildings (20 ayes, 3 nays, 6 absent). The bill includes amendments restricting shifts of previously shifted district funds and directs a legislative review of specified provisions in 1994.
Senate Bill 1, a measure to fund public school building needs, returned from the House with amendments on March 31, 1993. Senator Lane Beatty and other sponsors described a set of changes including a modest increase to an equalization rate, a provision tying certain funds more tightly to capital uses (limiting districts’ ability to re‑shift previously diverted local funds back into other uses), and adjustments to wage comparison calculations used in the bill’s five‑point incentive test.
Negotiations produced disagreement over a paragraph on page 9 that would prevent districts that previously shifted local funds from shifting them back to other uses; proponents said the change protects capital funding and equalization goals, while critics warned it could lock poor districts out of necessary operating resources. Beatty moved to refuse to concur with some House language and to pursue a conference committee to reconcile the language; the Senate appointed a conference committee and later received a joint conference committee report.
The Senate accepted the conference committee report and the amended substitute SB1. The Senate recorded final passage on a roll call showing 20 ayes, 3 nays and 6 absent. The joint conference committee report also included an instruction that the legislature review a contested subsection during the 1994 general session to assess impacts across the state's 40 school districts.
What happens next: With the Senate’s concurrence and passage, the substitute SB1 will proceed through final enrollment and transmittal consistent with legislative processes; the Senate also directed that the flagged subsection be reviewed in the 1994 general session.
