The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Proposition 98 was enacted by the voters in 1988 to provide a minimum funding level for schools. The Legislature can exceed the minimum funding level required by Proposition 98 but it cannot provide less funding than the California Constitution requires, unless the Legislature suspends the minimum funding level pursuant to a separately enacted statute, adopted with a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

(b) The local control funding formula is the primary means of allocating Proposition 98 funds and was enacted to increase local control, to simplify the allocation of school funding to school districts, and to increase school funding across the state, providing the largest increases to school districts serving our neediest pupils.

(c) Now that the transition to the local control funding formula is complete, it is time to enhance the certainty of Proposition 98 by ensuring local control funding formula funds flow to school districts without delay.

(d) Chapter 39 of the Statutes of 2018 furthers the purposes of Proposition 98 through enactment of a continuous appropriation for local control funding formula funding that is automatically adjusted for increases in the cost of living and changes in enrollment to provide the funding guaranteed to school districts under the California Constitution.

(e) With enactment of a continuous appropriation comes a heightened need to know with certainty the amount of funding that is required to be provided to school districts under the California Constitution.

(f) While prior law created a mechanism to certify the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee to provide certainty and to allocate owed funds to schools in a timely manner, the mechanism was unenforceable and rarely implemented.

(g) The Proposition 98 minimum guarantee was last certified in the 2008-09 fiscal year by statute. Outstanding issues, including when a maintenance factor is created, how the maintenance factor is repaid, the impact on the constitutional minimum guarantee of funding and revenue changes, as well as which programs can be funded with Proposition 98 funds, have delayed certification of the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee. These delays in certification create uncertainty, lead to questions regarding the level of funding required for certain years, and can lead to delays in payment of settle-up funds. Notwithstanding the significance of outstanding issues, school districts and the state need to know with certainty the total amount of funding to which they are entitled and the state’s plan for providing all of that funding.

(h) Section 41207.31 certifies the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee for the 2009-10 to 2015-16, inclusive, fiscal years based on final school enrollment, personal income, and revenue data. Section 41206.01 replaces the existing certification process with a new transparent, mandatory process to certify the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee and provide settle-up funds on a timely basis commencing with the 2016-17 fiscal year minimum guarantee.

(i) Section 41206.01 is in addition to existing law that provides for calculation and recalculation of the minimum funding obligation to school districts under § 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, as well as provisions in current law that account for necessary revenues being set aside for these obligations.

(Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 497, Sec. 47. (AB 991) Effective January 1, 2020.)