South Carolina Code 59-21-420. Funds for renovation, capital improvement, or repair of classrooms, or reduction of millage as to bonds
(b) If a school district has issued bonds or otherwise undertaken any capital improvement programs during any of the most recent five fiscal years, at least fifty percent of the funds provided in subsection (a) must be used to reduce the millage required to pay debt service on such outstanding bonds.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 59-21-420
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. Source: OCC
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
Provided however, in the event that a school district sold bonds or secured a loan at an interest rate less than prevailing rates and has an identified need for funds in excess of fifty percent of funds provided in subsection (a) or anticipates a significant increase in need for additional classroom space, that district may request a waiver from this requirement by the State Board of Education. After consultation with the State Treasurer on prevailing interest rates and review of the evidence accompanying the waiver request from the school district, and upon certification by the State Treasurer that rates are beneficial to local school district, the State Board of Education may grant a waiver if the evidence is substantiated. The remaining sums may be used either to reduce millage to pay debt service or to pay for capital improvements, repairs, or renovations otherwise authorized during the then current fiscal year. Provided, Further, That if, on the occasion when the annual millage would otherwise be increased to provide for capital improvements, repairs, or renovations, there is on hand with the country treasurer sums from the appropriation herein authorized, sufficient to meet all or a portion of the payments of principal and interest on bonds to be outstanding in the ensuing fiscal year, then such portion of the millage required to pay such debt service need not be imposed.
(c) A capital improvement program for purposes of this section is defined as incurring debt for school building purposes or levying and collecting school taxes for school building purposes over the district’s last five fiscal years averaged at least one-half the amount the district is entitled to receive during state Fiscal Year 1985 as provided in subsection (a) hereof. If the district has fiscal autonomy to any degree, it shall provide for the manner in which the school millage must be reduced. If the district does not have fiscal autonomy, the governing body of the county wherein the district is located shall provide for the manner in which the school millage must be reduced.
(d) The funds authorized herein for reduction in millage for debt service may not be expended in conjunction with the authorization of bonds that increase a school district’s bonded indebtedness above the limit provided for in Article X of the South Carolina Constitution or expended to pay debt service on bond anticipation notes authorized which would put the total bonded indebtedness of the school district (general obligation and bond anticipation) above the constitutionally mandated limit.