SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 37

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

George K. Munoz

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CAPITAL OUTLAY ACT'S RANKING METHODOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITY AUTHORITY'S ADMINISTRATION OF THE STANDARDS-BASED PROCESS.

     WHEREAS, the primary responsibility for funding public school facilities in New Mexico has been borne historically by local school districts, primarily through the issuance of general obligation bonds or the imposition of direct property tax mill levies dedicated to capital outlay needs; and

     WHEREAS, in 1978, the legislature passed the Public School Capital Outlay Act, which has served and continues to serve as the principal funding mechanism for state funding of public school capital outlay projects; and

     WHEREAS, the public school capital outlay council, which was created by statute in 1978, was reconstituted in law in 1994 to include the governor, the secretary of finance and administration, the director of the construction industries division of the regulation and licensing department, the secretary of public education, the chair of the public education commission, the president of the New Mexico school boards association and the directors of the legislative council service, legislative education study committee and the legislative finance committee; and

     WHEREAS, the public school capital outlay council is charged with investigating all applications for assistance from the public school capital outlay fund and certification of approved applications to the secretary of finance and administration for distribution of funds; and

     WHEREAS, in January 1998, the Zuni public school district, joined later by the Gallup-McKinley county and Grants-Cibola county school districts, filed a lawsuit in state district court challenging the constitutionality of the New Mexico's laws related to funding public school capital outlay given local school districts' disparate abilities to raise local revenues; and

     WHEREAS, in October 1999, Judge Joseph L. Rich, eleventh judicial district, ruled that New Mexico's current system for funding capital outlay violated the state's constitutional requirement that "a uniform system of free public schools sufficient for the education of, and open to, all the children of school age shall be established and maintained"; and

     WHEREAS, the 2000 legislature passed legislation to increase the limit for issuance of supplemental severance tax bonds and authorized an additional four hundred seventy-five million dollars ($475,000,000) in bonds for public school capital improvements and to correct life and safety facilities deficiencies; and

     WHEREAS, in 2001, the state adopted a new statewide capital outlay funding distribution system based on adequacy standards and a state-share formula system, established a short-term deficiencies correction program in the public education department and appropriated two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000) to fund it; and

     WHEREAS, in 2001, the legislature also appropriated funding for a statewide assessment of all school facilities to be used to rank schools against the adequacy standards; and

     WHEREAS, in May 2001, the district court in the Zuni lawsuit appointed a special master to review the state's progress in developing a uniform system for funding public school capital improvements; and

     WHEREAS, in January 2002, the special master issued a report that the state "is in good faith and with substantial resources attempting to comply with the requirements" of the court; and

     WHEREAS, in May 2002, the district court adopted the findings of the special master and agreed to continue to review the state's progress; and

     WHEREAS, in September 2002, the public school capital outlay council adopted the newly developed adequacy standards and began the first yearlong funding cycle under this program; and

     WHEREAS, in 2003, the legislature created a new permanent public school facilities authority to implement the newly adopted standards-based process; and

     WHEREAS, since that time, the public school facilities authority, a quasi-state agency under the control of both the legislative and executive branches of government and the operation of which is funded through supplemental severance tax bonds, has continued to oversee the standards-based process under the supervision of and serving as staff to the public school capital outlay council; and

     WHEREAS, since the standards-based process went into effect during the 2004 funding cycle, the public school facilities authority has overseen projects in four hundred thirty-six schools in eighty-seven of the state's eighty-nine school districts for a total of one billion two hundred ninety million four hundred thirty-four thousand eight hundred ninety-three dollars ($1,290,434,893); and 

     WHEREAS, although the system to rank public school facilities has been adjusted from time to time, some stakeholders have expressed concern about the current and continued efficacy of the system;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee, in consultation and cooperation with the public school capital outlay council, the legislative education study committee and the public education department, be requested to conduct an analysis of the public school facilities authority's system of ranking school buildings against the adequacy standards and against one another to determine whether the system, after ten years of operation, continues to serve the needs and the best interests of students, parents, school district employees who work in New Mexico's schools and taxpayers of the state; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative finance committee, in consultation and cooperation with the public school capital outlay council, the legislative education study committee and the public education department, report the results of the study to the legislature and the governor by December 1, 2012 along with any recommendations for changes or adjustments to the ranking system; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the chair of the public school capital outlay council, the directors of the legislative finance committee and legislative education study committee and the secretary of education.