From the House Select Committee on Public School Construction Funding meeting. They are submitting their report to the 2007 General Assembly. Included in their recommendations are the following:

  • Fully support a statewide bond referendum. The committee has not designated the amount or what it would be spent on;
  • Authorize all counties to impose impact fees and land transfer taxes for public school capital outlay;
  • Authorize counties to levy one-half cent local sales and use tax for public school capital;
  • Earmark a portion of the proceeds from the first and second one-half local sales and use taxes for an additional 10 years;
  • Exclude from property tax real and personal property that is subject to a capital lease with a local school admin unit;
  • Streamline the process for approval of school facility construction and renovation plans;
  • Allow a sales-and-use tax exemption for local school administrative units;
  • Reenact the sales-and-use tax refund for local school administrative units.

Committee discussion included:

Chair Doug Yougue said a committee should study the amount of the school construction bond and what the money should be spent on. He also noted that other players should be apart of this discussion.

Rep. Lucy Allen suggested that the different bond requests be put together with bond requests for land conservation.

Rep. Julia Howard moved to strike the local revenue and policy options because these kinds of tax increases are bad policy. The committee voted to remove this from their recommendations.

Rep. Alexander asked about costs for the proposals. If all 100 counties increased sales taxes by one-half cent, there would be an additional $500 million revenue. The LEA sales tax refund and exemption would result in $33 million less revenue. The rest of the proposals would not cause a savings or a cost to the state.

Package as amended passed and will be recommended to the 2007 General Assembly.