HB0877ham001 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Elementary & Secondary Education Committee

Filed: 3/20/2007

09500HB0877ham001 LRB095 07587 NHT 33862 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 877

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 877 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 5. The School Construction Law is amended by changing Section 5-35 as follows:

(105 ILCS 230/5-35)

Sec. 5-35. School construction project grant amounts; permitted use; prohibited use.

(a) The product of the district's grant index and the recognized project cost, as determined by the Capital Development Board, for an approved school construction project shall equal the amount of the grant the Capital Development Board shall provide to the eligible district. The grant index shall not be used in cases where the General Assembly and the Governor approve appropriations designated for specifically identified school district construction projects.

(b) In each fiscal year in which school construction project grants are awarded, 20% of the total amount awarded statewide shall be awarded to a school district with a population exceeding 500,000, provided such district complies with the provisions of this Article.

In addition to the uses otherwise authorized by this Law, any school district with a population exceeding 500,000 is authorized to use any or all of the school construction project grants (i) to pay debt service, as defined in the Local Government Debt Reform Act, on bonds, as defined in the Local Government Debt Reform Act, issued to finance one or more school construction projects and (ii) to the extent that any such bond is a lease or other installment or financing contract between the school district and a public building commission that has issued bonds to finance one or more qualifying school construction projects, to make lease payments under the lease.

(c) No portion of a school construction project grant awarded by the Capital Development Board shall be used by a school district for any on-going operational costs.

(d) A grant index must not be recalculated when a school district has received its entitlement, but the State has failed to appropriate sufficient funding under this Section. This subsection (d) applies to those entitlements obtained in fiscal year 2002 or thereafter.

(Source: P.A. 90-548, eff. 1-1-98; 91-38, eff. 6-15-99.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.".