Volume I, No. 16

March 5, 2009

Joint-Use Legislation

By Tom Duffy  

A new joint-use bill, Assembly Bill 346   has recently been introduced by Assembly Member Tom Torlakson. AB 346 closely resembles SB 35, which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The intent of the bill is to expand the breadth of the Joint-Use Program administered by the State Allocation Board (SAB) by increasing the project types allowable within the program. Those projects listed in the bill include career technical or shop, science and technology laboratory, science centers with exhibits or educational programs that meet current state content standards, historical or cultural education centers, performing arts centers, physical education and outdoor recreation site development and parking facilities.

AB 346 would authorize a school district to include as part of a local contribution the value of land upon which the joint-use project is to be built if the school district owns the land, but did not acquire the land with state funds or if the district does not own the property but will be given the property. The bill also provides that a portion of the contribution of a joint-use partner, which is equal to up to 10% of the eligible project costs, could include equipment that has a useful life expectancy of at least 10 years.

The Joint-Use grants are increased in AB 346 from $1,000,000 for elementary projects to $1,250,000; for middle school projects from $1,500,000 to $1,875,000; and for high school projects from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000.

The Joint-Use Program administered by the SAB has been highly successful. The concept began to be articulated in the early to mid 1990’s with the recognition that many schools existed in California that did not have core facilities such as libraries, multi-purpose rooms, cafeterias and gyms. Under the then State Lease-Purchase Program (LPP) such facilities could only be funded in association with a New Construction Project because eligibility for new classrooms was necessary. Not unlike the School Facility Program (SFP) a district could “spend” some of the eligibility for new construction funding on a core facility as long as it was able to construct the classrooms required to house the pupils upon which the eligibility was based. There was no state program; however, that offered funding for core facilities for districts lacking new construction eligibility. During that period, the Implementation Committee consistently heard testimony from school district representatives that such a program was needed. The Implementation Committee, with the assistance of the Office of Public School Construction, developed the concept of Minimum Essential Facilities (MEFs) in an effort to frame a potential policy solution to the practical needs of districts lacking such essential facilities. The concept was included in the bond bill of 1996.

That bond bill initiated the Joint-Use Program beginning with Proposition 203 in March 1996. Since that time the program has provided approximately $225,000,000 in state bond funding through Propositions 1A, 47, 55 and more recently Proposition 1D of November 2006. During that ten-year period, the Joint-Use Program was expanded to include childcare and teacher training facilities.