Legislative leaders attempting to replace November statewide school facilities bond with June bond
Published: February 10, 2016
Democratic leaders in the Legislature are negotiating with the Governor’s Office on a potential deal to place a school facilities bond on the June 2016 ballot, with the overall intent that the bond measure already qualified for the November ballot would then be removed. As of this writing, there is no deal yet — but legislators will need to act by the end of this week to make the June timeline and avoid a costly supplemental ballot.
The legislators’ plan is to amend Assembly Bill 531 (O’Donnell) today if and when a deal is reached. The bill would then need to obtain two-thirds approval in both houses and be signed by the Governor by midnight on February 16.
Details of the Negotiations to Date
To secure the Governor’s approval on a bill, legislative leaders are seeking to address his previously stated goal of reducing the state’s role in school construction. At the same time, the Governor is seeking a promise that the backers of the already qualified bond, the California Building Industry Association and Coalition for Adequate School Housing, will remove their $9 billion bond initiative from the November ballot.
As of Feb. 9, CASH indicates they would consider removing their initiative if and when a June bond were approved by the voters, but not before that.
While exact details may change over the next few days, the proposed bill would apply only to distribution of funds under this June bond proposal, and it would generally not change the current School Facilities Program. However, money from a June bond would likely require more local contribution than the current program requires and would possibly not be available to reimburse school districts for already completed projects that qualified under the current program.
As of now, there is no agreement regarding the size of the bond, but CSBA believes it to be about $4 billion, which would help serve as a “bridge” until another bond measure is approved. There is also no agreement yet about the distribution of funds between new construction and modernization, or whether the community colleges would be included.
A key goal for proponents of the June bond is to secure some state facilities funding this year while clearing the larger bond measure from the November statewide ballot — a move they believe improves the chances for passage of a Proposition 30 tax extension in November.
Next Steps
CSBA Governmental Relations Department is closely monitoring negotiations, and will report on updates as they happen. We will continue to engage in discussions in the Capitol and analyze any proposal that comes together with particular interest in how the measure impacts the state’s role in school construction, how it might impact school districts and county offices with various needs, and how schools would be served by the broader deal necessary to secure the Governor’s approval of the bill.