The CASH Facility Planners Meeting Update for October 2018 is now available and includes information regarding:
Click here to view the update.
~ CASH Staff
The Legislature concluded its business for 2018 on Friday, August 31. The following is a summary of the status of bills that CASH has engaged on. Our next legislative update will be after the September 30th deadline for the Governor to sign or veto bills. The CASH advocacy team will do a comprehensive update on the state budget, key legislation, and regulatory issues at the CASH Fall Conference in Newport Beach.
AB 195 (Obernolte) – Local Bond Ballot Labels
This bill was chaptered into law in 2017, making significant changes to the requirements for local bond ballot labels. AB 195 requires the ballot label to include the amount of money to be raised annually and the rate and duration of the tax to be levied. This is misleading and confusing to voters when applied to bonds.
Over the past year, CASH worked with a large coalition pursuing a fix to AB 195, pushing for a resolution before the Legislature adjourned for summer recess on July 6. We were successful in getting Budget Trailer Bill SB 863 into print, which would have provided a two-year-suspension to the AB 195 provisions for local bonds. However, the Legislature ultimately did not take SB 863 up for a vote, as they were awaiting assurance from the Governor that he was prepared to sign the bill. That assurance did not come before the August 10 deadline for schools and other public agencies to file local bond resolutions with their counties for the November 2018 election. CASH will continue to work with the coalition of stakeholders to pursue a permanent solution through the legislative process in 2019. (Chapter 105/Statutes of 2017)
The Legislature concludes its business on Friday, August 31st, so the final stretch of this year’s Legislative Session is upon us. The Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees met on Thursday, August 16th to review Suspense File bills, and the final two weeks will involve hearing bills that were approved by the Appropriations Committees on the Senate and Assembly Floors. The following is a summary of legislation on the CASH bill list that was approved by the Appropriations Committees, with the exception of AB 2570 (Nazarian) regarding Mandatory Use of Green Cleaning Products, which was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Some bills were amended in the Appropriations Committees, and CASH will have more information on the amendments when it becomes available.
CASH will report next in two weeks when the Legislature concludes its business for the year on August 31st and after September 30th, which is the last day that the Governor has to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature. The CASH advocacy team will be making a full presentation on all legislative and regulatory issues during the Fall Conference in Newport Beach on Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
Today the State Allocation Board (Board) met to hear routine business items, adopt regulatory amendments to the Career Technical Education Facilities Program, and receive a report on the Material Inaccuracy provision. Additionally, in her Executive Officer Statement, Lisa Silverman addressed the issue of accepting applications once bond authority has been exhausted, which was not on the agenda for discussion or action at today’s Board meeting.
Executive Officer Statement
Ms. Silverman reported on the stakeholder meeting conducted July 11, 2018, on the proposed regulation to cease accepting applications once bond authority has been exhausted. Ms. Silverman indicated that OPSC received a significant amount of input on the proposal. Based on that stakeholder feedback and absent further Board direction, Ms. Silverman announced that Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) staff are not bringing forth an action item to amend the regulations at this time. CASH opposed the proposal and had urged the Board to defer action at its June 27, 2018 meeting and to thoroughly vet the impacts of the proposal.
Thank you to all of the CASH members who actively engaged in this process by contacting their legislators or providing comments at the stakeholder meeting. Your efforts made a difference in achieving this positive outcome!
Ms. Silverman also announced that OPSC has tentatively scheduled the first stakeholder meeting to develop the Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program for Tuesday, August 28, 2018 at the Department of General Services Offices in West Sacramento. Budget trailer bill AB 1808 provides $100 million for school districts to build new or retrofit existing facilities for the purpose of providing full-day kindergarten classrooms.
Regulatory Amendments to the Career Technical Education Facilities Program
The Board approved regulatory amendments to the Career Technical Education Facilities Program (CTEFP) to create additional criteria for tie-breakers in the funding order of applications. During the processing of applications for the fourth funding cycle, there were multiple instances of tied rankings in the funding order. The approved amendments include three new subsections to define the criteria for funding order when a tie exists among two or more CTEFP approved applications:
Material Inaccuracy Overview
The Board received a report outlining the material inaccuracy statute, Education Code Section 17070.51, and historical background of its application in the past. Chair Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez indicated that the report was brought forward at this time to educate the Board members about this provision.
Information on the Application of Construction Cost Index Adjustments
This item was withdrawn from the agenda. Chair Wong-Hernandez indicated that staff needed additional time to research the issue, and it will come back to a future meeting, possibly in September.
School Facility Program Workload List
The Unfunded List (Lack of AB 55 Loans) dated June 27, 2018 includes projects worth a total of $507,936,867. This includes $84.5 million for 52 projects for Charter School Facilities Program Preliminary Apportionments for Design and Site funding.
The workload list dated July 31, 2018 contains projects worth the following:
New Construction: $2,480,363,845
Modernization: $1,644,677,102
Total: $4,125,040,947
The next State Allocation Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 26 at 2 pm.
~Rebekah Cearley, Legislative Advocate
Today the Legislature held their last floor session before breaking for a one-month summer recess. This was the best opportunity for the Legislature to pass a bill to address the issues created by AB 195 (Obernolte) in time to protect all bonds on the November 2018 ballot. Unfortunately, neither the Senate nor Assembly took action today on a bill to give that protection. The Legislature is still exploring possible options for early August action that could help some of the November bonds.
Budget trailer bill SB 863 would provide a two-year suspension to AB 195’s provisions for local bonds, allowing time to pursue a permanent policy resolution through the regular legislative process next year. The Legislature was awaiting assurance from the Governor that he would sign SB 863 before putting the bill up for a vote. As of this morning, legislative leadership had not received that confirmation and therefore did not feel comfortable sending the bill to the Governor.