School capital construction-constitutional amendment.

23LSO-0344
2023
STATE OF WYOMING
23LSO-0344
Introduced
2.0

Senate Joint Resolution NO. SJ0014

School capital construction-constitutional amendment.

Sponsored by: Senator(s) Scott, Biteman, Brennan, Salazar and Steinmetz and Representative(s) Andrew and Hornok

A JOINT RESOLUTION

for

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution to transfer responsibility to construct school facilities to school districts by providing mandatory and optional state funding mechanisms; and to provide a ballot statement.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING,
two-thirds of all the members of the two houses, voting separately, concurring therein:

Section 1.

The following proposal to amend Wyoming Constitution, Article 7 by creating a new Section 24 is proposed for submission to the electors of the State of Wyoming at the next general election for approval or rejection to become valid as a part of the Constitution if ratified by a majority of the electors at the election:

Article 7, Section 24.

Provision of school facilities.

(a)

The legislature shall by law provide a system for public school capital construction, subject to the following:

(i)

The local school districts shall be primarily responsible for providing school facilities through bonds or other means;

(ii)

The decision of the voters in an election authorizing capital expenditures for public school capital construction, however financed, shall be final and neither a school district nor the state shall be required to fund any capital expenditure rejected by the voters;

(iii)

The cost of paying bonds and interest shall be equalized so that the required district mill levy does not exceed what the mill levy would be if the district had an assessed valuation equal to the state average per person assessed valuation, with the applicable federal census information being used to determine the number of persons. Equalization may be provided for capital construction financed by other means;

(iv)

Financing of the equalization may include appropriations or dedicated sources of funds and shall include, if necessary, a statewide mill levy at a rate to ensure payment of the equalization. Compliance with the debt limitation imposed by article 16, section 5 of this constitution shall be determined using only the school district's share of the payment for the debt;

(v)

The Legislature shall provide a system to determine which facilities are not needed for education and therefore are not subject to equalization;

(vi)

The Legislature may appropriate funds to relieve hardship.

Section 2.

That the Secretary of State shall endorse the following statement on the proposed amendment:

In 2001, the Wyoming Supreme Court decided in
State v. Campbell County School District
that providing school facilities was the responsibility of the state, and not an individual school district. School districts had previously provided school facilities and had financed the construction of these facilities through local bond issues approved by the voters and repaid by a local property tax. The system enacted by the Legislature to comply with the Wyoming Supreme Court decision no longer works because the funding source the legislature relied on, primarily bidding bonuses from new coal leases, no longer yields significant revenue.

This amendment will return school capital construction to a local system with the addition of mandatory state equalization aid to raise the amount raised by the local tax up to what a statewide levy would raise on a per person basis. The amendment also authorizes, but does not require, the Legislature to appropriate additional funds to relieve undue hardships experienced by school districts seeking to complete capital projects.

(END)

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SJ0014