by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports

Highly anticipated legislation was introduced Thursday morning in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee that would leverage $1 billion dollars to address the condition of Idaho’s school buildings.

In his January State of the State address, Gov. Brad Little referenced Idaho Statesman and ProPublica coverage of school facilities all over Idaho in disrepair, deeming it a top issue for the legislative session.

Tax committee chairmen Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, and Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, are sponsoring House Bill 521, along with House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star. The bill was drafted in collaboration with the governor’s office, and largely aligns with the funding pitch outlined in Little’s budget proposal.

“Just a lot of talk and negotiation to figure out how proceed, putting everything together,” is how Moyle described the drafting process to Idaho Reports following the introductory hearing.

The main element in the bill – similar to how the state bonds for large transportation projects – would leverage $125 million annually in sales tax revenue to take out a proposed ten-year $1 billion bond.

The $1 billion in bond proceeds would be sent out to school districts based on average daily attendance, adjusted for how many of the students are attending the district in-person in a physical building.

“The governor’s made it clear that we want to send money to schools for kids that are in those seats,” Moyle told Idaho Reports. “If we’re going to send money for buildings back to the school districts, we need to send it to where the children are, so it’s based on average daily attendance.”

If taken by school districts as a lump sum, proceeds from the bond sale could be used for construction, renovation, or maintenance needs. If taken as smaller annual payouts, districts would have to spend the money in the same manner as property tax relief funds for school facilities under last year’s HB 292. That law directs school districts to pay for – in order of priority – bonds, then supplemental levies, then maintenance and construction needs. The legislation introduced on Thursday would add plant facilities levies as the third item on the list.

The legislation would direct an additional $75 million each year to the school district facilities fund established last year under the property tax bill. Of that increase, $50 million would come from existing lottery funds the state sends to schools, which would offset an individual and corporate income tax rate reduction from 5.8 percent down to 5.695 percent.

“There’s two thousand less words in code with this bill, because we clean up all that language,” Moyle told Idaho Reports. “It was hard for the school districts to deal with the lottery money. All the formulas and stuff, they all go away. They get their money.”

HB 521 would also take two years to wind down the bond levy equalization fund, an account that the state uses to offset the costs of bonds and levies for economically disadvantaged school districts.

“Bond levy equalization only benefited districts that could pass a bond. The elimination should be viewed as a part of a broader package,” Little’s budget administrator Alex Adams told Idaho Reports on Thursday. “One of the things the governor hears across the state is the difficulty of passing bonds. We’re taking some of the pressure off of that and providing a billion dollars up front.”

To access distributions from the newly-created school modernization facilities fund, the state would require each school district to submit a ten-year facilities plan that guides how they will use the funding. The State Board of Education would also be required to submit an annual report to the legislature detailing the use and impact of the school modernization facilities fund.

Separate from the facilities funding, HB 521 includes changes to the State Board of Education’s organization, turning the board president and executive officer roles into gubernatorial appointments rather than positions selected by members of the board. The legislation would also ban school districts from requiring job applicants to sign written diversity statements, and it includes language limiting districts’ ability to shift from a five-day to four-day school week unless they meet yet-to-be-created requirements from the state board. Supporters of the legislation characterize those policy changes as accountability measures for the $1 billion in additional funding that would be going to school districts.

Additionally, the bill would remove the August election date on which schools can currently run bonds and levies. That would leave just the primary and general elections for school funding measures after HB 292 eliminated the March election date last year.

Adams told reporters on Thursday the governor’s office is compiling figures for how much each school district would receive under the legislation, which he said should be ready to release publicly next week.

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