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S1125......................................................by STATE AFFAIRS SCHOOLS - SAFE/HEALTHY - Adds to existing law to provide a statutory mechanism for school districts to abate unsafe conditions by using lottery moneys, by levying up to the school district's statutory maximum, or by getting a judicial confirmation for a health and safety levy. 02/08 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing 02/09 Rpt prt - to Loc Gov
S1125|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO |||| Fifty-fifth Legislature First Regular Session - 1999IN THE SENATE SENATE BILL NO. 1125 BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE 1 AN ACT 2 RELATING TO SAFE SCHOOLS; AMENDING CHAPTER 16, TITLE 33, IDAHO CODE, BY THE 3 ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION 33-1613, IDAHO CODE, REQUIRING ABATEMENT OF 4 UNSAFE AND UNHEALTHY CONDITIONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PROVIDING MECHANISMS 5 FOR DOING SO; AMENDING CHAPTER 8, TITLE 33, IDAHO CODE, BY THE ADDITION OF 6 A NEW SECTION 33-808, IDAHO CODE, CREATING A HEALTH AND SAFETY LEVY AND 7 PROVIDING FOR LEGAL NOTICE AND HEARING AND, IF NECESSARY, JUDICIAL CONFIR- 8 MATION BEFORE IMPOSITION OF SUCH A LEVY; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY, PROVIDING 9 RETROACTIVE APPLICATION AND PROVIDING THE EFFECT ON CERTAIN LOTTERY 10 MONEYS. 11 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho: 12 SECTION 1. That Chapter 16, Title 33, Idaho Code, be, and the same is 13 hereby amended by the addition thereto of a NEW SECTION , to be 14 known and designated as Section 33-1613, Idaho Code, and to read as follows: 15 33-1613. SAFE ENVIRONMENT CONDUCIVE TO LEARNING REQUIRED. (1) Inspection. 16 It is the duty of the board of trustees of every school district at least once 17 in every school year to require an independent inspection of the district's 18 school facilities to determine whether those school facilities comply with the 19 health and safety standards made applicable to the district by statute or by 20 rule of the state board of education. The inspection shall be done pursuant to 21 section 39-4130, Idaho Code, or pursuant to any alternative comparable or more 22 demanding inspection authorized by rule of the state board of education. The 23 results of the inspection shall be presented to the board of trustees for 24 their review and consideration. 25 (2) Abatement and Reporting. The board of trustees shall, in their sole 26 discretion, accept or reject the results of the inspection in whole or in part 27 and in so doing shall identify any unsafe or unhealthy conditions in the dis- 28 trict. The board of trustees shall require that the unsafe or unhealthy condi- 29 tions be abated and shall instruct the district's personnel to take necessary 30 steps to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions. The board of trustees must 31 issue a report in the same school year in which the inspections are made 32 declaring whether any unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified have not been 33 abated. The state board of education may, by rule, provide for uniform report- 34 ing of unsafe and unhealthy conditions and for uniform reporting of abatement 35 or absence of abatement of unsafe and unhealthy conditions. 36 (3) Abatement. If the school district can abate all unsafe or unhealthy 37 conditions identified with the funds available to the district, it shall do 38 so, and it need not separately account for the costs of abatement nor segre- 39 gate funds expended for abatement. If the school district cannot abate all 40 unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified with the funds available to the dis- 41 trict, the board of trustees shall direct that a plan of abatement be pre- 42 pared. The plan of abatement shall provide a timetable not to extend beyond 43 the following school year for abatement of unsafe and unhealthy conditions 2 1 identified. The district shall immediately begin to implement its plan of 2 abatement and must separately account for its costs of abatement of unsafe or 3 unhealthy conditions and separately segregate funds for the abatement of 4 unsafe or unhealthy conditions as required by subsection (4) of this section. 5 (4) Special Provisions for Implementation of Plan of Abatement. 6 (a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law concerning expenditure of 7 lottery moneys distributed to the school district, all lottery moneys pro- 8 vided to the school district for the school year in which the school dis- 9 trict was unable to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified and 10 all lottery moneys for the following school year shall be segregated and 11 expended exclusively for the abatement of unsafe and unhealthy conditions 12 identified until such time as all of the unhealthy and unsafe conditions 13 identified are abated. 14 (b) If the lottery moneys referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection 15 will, in the board of trustees' estimation, be insufficient to abate the 16 unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified, the plan of abatement shall 17 identify additional sources of funds to complete the abatement of the 18 unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The board of trustees may choose from 19 among the following sources, or from other sources of its own identifica- 20 tion, but the plan of abatement must identify sufficient sources for 21 abatement. 22 (i) If the school district is not levying under chapter 8, title 23 33, Idaho Code, at the maximum levies allowed by law for levies that 24 may be imposed by the board of trustees without an election, the 25 board of trustees may increase any of those levies as allowed by law 26 for the school year following the school year in which it was unable 27 to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified. 28 (ii) If the school district is levying under chapter 8, title 33, 29 Idaho Code, at the maximum levies allowed by law for levies that may 30 be imposed by the board of trustees without an election; or, if after 31 increasing those levies to the maximum levies allowed by law for 32 levies that may be imposed by the board of trustees without an elec- 33 tion, there will still be insufficient funds to abate unsafe or 34 unhealthy conditions identified, the school district may, after giv- 35 ing notice and conducting a hearing, impose a safety and health levy 36 as provided in section 33-808, Idaho Code. The hearing shall consider 37 whether the plan of abatement sets forth an efficient method of abat- 38 ing the unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified and whether or to 39 what extent the district must resort to a safety and health levy to 40 abate the unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified. 41 (c) All moneys raised and expended for abatement under this subsec- 42 tion shall be separately accounted for and documented. All moneys 43 raised pursuant to a safety and health levy shall be applied exclu- 44 sively to abatement of unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified in 45 the previous school year or the current school year during which the 46 levy is in place, and any moneys raised in excess of the amounts 47 actually spent to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified 48 shall not be otherwise expended in that school year, but shall be 49 retained by the school district and used to reduce the maintenance 50 and operations levy for the following year in the amount of the unex- 51 pended safety and health levy. 52 SECTION 2. That Chapter 8, Title 33, Idaho Code, be, and the same is 53 hereby amended by the addition thereto of a NEW SECTION , to be 54 known and designated as Section 33-808, Idaho Code, and to read as follows: 3 1 33-808. SAFETY AND HEALTH LEVY. (1) Safety and Health Levy Created. In 2 addition to the levies otherwise established by law, there is hereby estab- 3 lished a safety and health levy. A school district may impose a safety and 4 health levy when authorized by section 33-1613, Idaho Code. 5 (2) Notice and Hearing. No school district may adopt a safety and health 6 levy without giving legal notice pursuant to chapter 1, title 60, Idaho Code, 7 at least thirty (30) days in advance of its intention to hold a hearing to 8 consider whether the plan of abatement sets forth an efficient method of abat- 9 ing the unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified and whether, or to what 10 extent, the district must resort to a safety and health levy to abate the 11 unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified. 12 (3) Maximum Levy -- Judicial Confirmation. The maximum safety and health 13 levy shall be twenty-five ten-thousandths (.00025); provided, that when a 14 school district will not be able to abate the unsafe or unhealthy conditions 15 described in section 33-1613, Idaho Code, with a safety and health levy of 16 twenty-five ten-thousandths (.00025), but must levy a larger amount to abate 17 the unsafe or unhealthy conditions, the school district may petition the dis- 18 trict court pursuant to the procedures of chapter 13, title 7, Idaho Code, for 19 a judicial confirmation of the necessity for levying the larger amount. In 20 considering a petition for a judicial confirmation under this section, the 21 district court shall proceed as provided in chapter 13, title 7, Idaho Code, 22 except that the substantive issues to be decided shall be whether unsafe or 23 unhealthy conditions exist in the school district, whether the plan of abate- 24 ment sets forth an efficient method of abating the unsafe and unhealthy condi- 25 tions identified, and whether the school district is eligible to impose a 26 safety and health levy under this section and under section 33-1613, Idaho 27 Code, in the larger amount because that larger amount is necessary to abate 28 the unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The issues of fact in the judicial con- 29 firmation shall be decided by a preponderance of evidence. 30 (4) Term of Levy. The term of the safety and health levy authorized by 31 this section is one (1) year. 32 SECTION 3. An emergency existing therefor, which emergency is hereby 33 declared to exist, this act shall be in full force and effect on and after its 34 passage and approval, and retroactively to January 1, 1999. Provided however, 35 this act shall not apply to any expenditure of lottery moneys during the 36 1998-1999 school year that were legally encumbered before the time of the pas- 37 sage and approval of this act.
Statement of Purpose
RS 08879
The purpose of this bill is to provide an additional
method by which unsafe conditions in a public school will be
abated. When a school district has unsafe conditions in any of
its schools, it is the district's obligation to abate those
conditions. If the district can abate unsafe conditions from
its existing revenues, it may do so without resorting to any
of the procedures of this bill. Otherwise, the district (1)
must apply all of its lottery monies to abate unsafe
conditions, (2) must apply any increased levies that it may
levy up to its statutory maximum to abate unsafe conditions,
and (3) after public notice and hearing, and judicial
confirmation, if necessary, may levy a health and safety levy.
The school district must apply all the proceeds of the health
and safety levy to abatement of unsafe conditions; those not
necessary must be returned to the property owners through a
lowered maintenance and operations levy the following year.
This bill is intended to give school districts a method
of financing abatement of unsafe conditions that will satisfy
the requirements of the decision of the Supreme Court of Idaho
in Idaho Schools for Equal Educational Opportunity v. State, 1998 Opinion
No. 131, issued December 30, 1998.
Statement of Fiscal Impact
This bill has no fiscal impact on the State treasury.
The impact on local school districts will vary with facility
conditions.
CONTACT: SENATOR DIEDE 332-1345
SENATOR TWIGGS 332-1300
S1125