Changes came to a capital outlay obligations bill in committee.

 

Senate Education committee members unanimously approved an amended version of House Bill 1297, which revises certain provisions regarding capital outlay obligations.

 

Amendments made to HB 1297 permit districts to raise their C/O levy to a level necessary to cover their capital outlay obligations and allows them to utilize the $2,800 per-student alternative cap.

 

Committee members also voted to remove a provision, which was added on the House floor, lowering the level of taxable valuation of taxable property for which a certificate, purchase contract or agreement could be entered into by a district from 1.5 to 0.5 percent.

 

ASBSD supports the amended version of the bill.

 

“Taking out what happened on the House floor is fine with us,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany testified, adding that the addition of valuation threshold provision to the bill on the House floor created “an entirely different discussion” about capital outlay than what was originally in the bill.

 

Rep. Spencer Gosch, the bill’s prime sponsor, said the valuation threshold amendment from the House floor “wasn’t the idea” he initially intended to address, but rather introduced the bill allow districts cover the capital outlay debts they entered into prior to the changes made to C/O in 2016.

 

“It’s put them in a bind,” Rep. Gosch said of the changes made in 2016 that limited what a district could collect from the capital outlay levy. “This affects a lot of school districts.”

 

HB 1297 as amended now heads to the Senate floor for review and, if approved, would return to the House for concurrence or conference committee creation.

 

For updates on the bill, check the ASBSD Blog, Bill Tracker page, Twitter feed or Facebook page.