HOUSE BILL 6

55th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2021

INTRODUCED BY

Patricia A. Lundstrom and Brian Egolf and Harry Garcia

and D. Wonda Johnson

 

 

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE; SPECIFYING USES FOR STATE EQUALIZATION GUARANTEE DISTRIBUTION OFFSETS FOR CERTAIN FEDERAL AND PROPERTY TAX REVENUE SOURCES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 6-23-7 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 231, Section 7, as amended) is amended to read:

     "6-23-7. PUBLIC SCHOOL UTILITY CONSERVATION FUND CREATED--USE.--

          A. The "public school utility conservation fund" is created as a special fund in the state treasury. The fund shall consist of money transferred to the fund, from year to year, from the distribution of the permanent fund and land income of which the common schools are the beneficiary. No other money from any school district or state source shall be deposited or paid into the public school utility conservation fund.

          B. Annually, after the calculation of the state equalization guarantee distribution has been made, the [superintendent of public instruction] secretary of public education shall determine the sum of the deductions made in the state equalization guarantee distribution of school districts pursuant to Paragraph [(7)] (5) of Subsection D of Section 22-8-25 NMSA 1978 and shall certify that amount to the secretary of finance and administration. Distributions from the permanent fund and land income of which the common schools are the beneficiary equal to that amount shall be transferred from the common school current fund to the public school utility conservation fund.

          C. Money in the public school utility conservation fund is appropriated to the [state department of] public education department solely for the purpose of disbursing money to school districts to make payments pursuant to any guaranteed utility savings contract between the school district and a qualified provider or any installment contract or lease-purchase agreement for the purchase and installation of energy or water conservation measures pursuant to that guaranteed utility savings contract.

          D. Disbursements from the public school utility conservation fund shall be made only to school districts and only upon certification by the [superintendent of public instruction] secretary of public education that the disbursement is for a payment authorized by the Public Facility Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation Act.

          E. The [superintendent of public instruction] secretary of public education shall submit to the legislative finance committee prior to each regular legislative session a list of school districts proposing to enter into approved guaranteed utility savings contracts in the succeeding fiscal year. The list shall include information on the amount of the school district's proposed annual payments and specific amounts that utility and operational budget items are guaranteed to be reduced to achieve the savings to make the payments.

          F. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining in the public school utility conservation fund at the end of any fiscal year shall be transferred to the public school fund."

     SECTION 2. Section 22-8-13.3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2020, Chapter 71, Section 1) is amended to read:

     "22-8-13.3. REPORTING SYSTEM--REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.--

          A. No later than December 31, 2021, the department, with input from stakeholders, including school districts, charter school leaders, business managers and staff from the legislative finance committee and legislative education study committee, shall establish, implement and maintain a statewide financial reporting system that is based on a standard chart of accounts. The department shall annually update the reporting system.

          B. In designing, implementing and maintaining the reporting system pursuant to Subsection A of this section, the department shall adhere to the following guidelines:

                (1) the reporting system shall be based on a standard chart of accounts that will enable comparisons between schools, between local education agencies and between regional education cooperatives;

                (2) the reporting system shall allow for the display of administrative costs of every school site and local education agency;

                (3) the reporting system shall make it possible to determine how school sites and local education agencies budget funds to support at-risk students, offer bilingual and multicultural educational services to students and support special education students;

                (4) the reporting system shall make it possible to determine each local education agency's and regional education cooperative's actual expenditures, which shall include actual salary expenditures and actual benefit expenditures reported by job category specified in the standard chart of accounts at the local education agency level, at the school site level and, if applicable, at the regional education cooperative level; [and]

                (5) the reporting system shall report the expenditures for each of the major categories specified in the chart of accounts for school sites and local education agencies; and

                (6) the reporting system shall make it possible to determine how school sites and local education agencies budget state equalization guarantee distributions pursuant to Subsection H of Section 22-8-25 NMSA 1978.

          C. The standard chart of accounts shall include the reporting of revenues received at all levels, including local, state and federal funds.

          D. As used in this section:

                 (1) "local education agency" means a school district or state-chartered charter school; and

                (2) "reporting system" means a statewide online financial reporting system."

     SECTION 3. Section 22-8-25 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1981, Chapter 176, Section 5, as amended) is amended to read:

     "22-8-25. STATE EQUALIZATION GUARANTEE DISTRIBUTION--

DEFINITIONS--DETERMINATION OF AMOUNT.--

          A. The state equalization guarantee distribution is that amount of money distributed to each school district to ensure that its operating revenue [including its local and federal revenues as defined in this section] is at least equal to the school district's program cost, after accounting for payments from the public school utility conservation fund and the amount certified pursuant to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bonding Act. For state-chartered charter schools, the state equalization guarantee distribution is the difference between the state-chartered charter school's program cost and the two percent withheld by the department for administrative services.

          B. "Local revenue", as used in this section, means seventy-five percent of receipts to the school district derived from that amount produced by a school district property tax applied at the rate of fifty cents ($.50) to each one thousand dollars ($1,000) of net taxable value of property allocated to the school district and to the assessed value of products severed and sold in the school district as determined under the Oil and Gas Ad Valorem Production Tax Act and upon the assessed value of equipment in the school district as determined under the Oil and Gas Production Equipment Ad Valorem Tax Act.

          C. "Federal revenue", as used in this section, means receipts to the school district or state-chartered charter school, excluding amounts that, if taken into account in the computation of the state equalization guarantee distribution, result, under federal law or regulations, in a reduction in or elimination of federal school funding otherwise receivable by the school district, derived from the following:

                (1) seventy-five percent of the school district's share of forest reserve funds distributed in accordance with Section 22-8-33 NMSA 1978; and

                (2) seventy-five percent of grants from the federal government as assistance to those areas affected by federal activity authorized in accordance with Title 20 of the United States Code, commonly known as "PL 874 funds" or "impact aid".

          D. To determine the amount of the state equalization guarantee distribution, the department shall:

                (1) calculate the number of program units to which each school district or charter school is entitled using an average of the MEM on the second and third reporting dates of the prior year; or

                (2) calculate the number of program units to which a school district or charter school operating under an approved year-round school calendar is entitled using an average of the MEM on appropriate dates established by the department; or

                (3) calculate the number of program units to which a school district or charter school with a MEM of two hundred or less is entitled by using an average of the MEM on the second and third reporting dates of the prior year or the fortieth day of the current year, whichever is greater; and

                (4) using the results of the calculations in Paragraph (1), (2) or (3) of this subsection and the staffing cost multiplier from the October report of the prior school year, establish a total program cost of the school district or charter school;

                [(5) for school districts and state-chartered charter schools, calculate the local and federal revenues as defined in this section;

                (6) deduct the sum of the calculations made in Paragraph (5) of this subsection from the program cost established in Paragraph (4) of this subsection;

                (7)] (5) deduct the total amount of guaranteed energy savings contract payments that the department determines will be made to the school district from the public school utility conservation fund during the fiscal year for which the state equalization guarantee distribution is being computed; and

                [(8)] (6) deduct ninety percent of the amount certified for the school district by the department pursuant to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bonding Act.

          E. Reduction of a school district's state equalization guarantee distribution shall cease when the school district's cumulative reductions equal its proportional share of the cumulative debt service payments necessary to service the bonds issued pursuant to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bonding Act.

          F. The amount of the state equalization guarantee distribution to which a school district is entitled is the balance remaining after the deductions made in Paragraphs [(6) through (8)] (5) and (6) of Subsection D of this section.

          G. The state equalization guarantee distribution shall be distributed prior to June 30 of each fiscal year. [The calculation shall be based on the local and federal revenues specified in this section received from June 1 of the previous fiscal year through May 31 of the fiscal year for which the state equalization guarantee distribution is being computed.] In the event that a school district or charter school has received more state equalization guarantee funds than its entitlement, a refund shall be made by the school district or charter school to the state general fund.

          H. The department shall require school districts and state-chartered charter schools to budget an amount of the state equalization guarantee distribution equal to each school district's or state-chartered charter school's local and federal revenues, as defined in this section, for purposes relating to the Indian Education Act, the Public School Capital Outlay Act, the Public School Capital Improvements Act, the Public School Buildings Act and the Community Schools Act."

     SECTION 4. Section 22-8-31 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1967, Chapter 16, Section 84, as amended) is amended to read:

     "22-8-31. STATE-SUPPORT RESERVE FUND.--

          A. The "state-support reserve fund" is created.

          B. The state-support reserve fund shall be used only to augment the appropriations for the state equalization guarantee distribution in order to insure, to the extent of the amount undistributed in the fund, that the maximum figures for such distribution established by law shall not be reduced.

          C. The undistributed money in the state-support reserve fund shall be invested by the state treasurer in interest-bearing securities of the United States government or in certificates of deposit in qualified banks and in savings and [loans] loan associations whose deposits are insured with an agency of the United States. The state treasurer may deposit money from the state-support reserve fund or any other fund in one or more accounts with any such bank or federally insured savings and loan association, but the state treasurer, in any official capacity, shall not deposit money from [said] that fund or any other fund in any one [such] federally insured savings and loan association the aggregate of which would exceed the amount of federal savings and loan insurance corporation insurance for a single public account. Income from these investments shall be periodically credited to the general fund.

          D. At least forty-five days before the money is needed, the [chief] state superintendent shall notify the state treasurer in writing of the amount that will be needed for distribution.

          [E. In the event that local or federal revenues as defined in Section 77-6-19 NMSA 1953 are received after May 31 of the fiscal year for which the state equalization guarantee distribution is being computed and it is therefore necessary to use money from the state-support reserve fund to augment the appropriation for the state equalization guarantee distribution, the chief, upon receipt by the school district of the delayed local or federal revenues, shall deduct the appropriate amount from the current state equalization guarantee distribution to that school district and reimburse the state-support reserve fund in the amount of the deduction.

          F.] E. It is the intent of the legislature that the state-support reserve fund be reimbursed in the amount of the yearly distribution by appropriation in the year following the distribution so that the fund at the beginning of each fiscal year shall have a credit balance of at least ten million dollars ($10,000,000).

          [G.] F. Distribution from [this] the state-support reserve fund shall be made in the same manner and on the same basis as the state equalization guarantee distribution."

     SECTION 5. APPLICABILITY.--The provisions of this act apply to fiscal year 2022 and subsequent fiscal years.

     SECTION 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2021.