FY 2016 Appropriation

The School Building Program assists school districts in the cost of building or rennovating school facilities. School districts may use program allocations for capital outlay and debt service purposes. School districts must meet eligibilty requirements established in statute for each program in order to receive funding.

The School Building Program contains the following programs:

  • The Capital Outlay Foundation Program;
  • The Capital Outlay Enrollment Growth Program; and
  • The School Building Revolving Account.

Funding History

Funding Issues

Capital Funding Equalization

The program provides state funding to assist school districts with capital maintenance, upgrades, and new construction. Funding is distributed to school districts with low tax bases per student.
Appropriation Overview

During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $33,249,700 from all sources for School Building Programs. This is a 129.3 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $14,499,700 from the General/Education Funds, a change of 0 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.

Appropriation Adjustments

In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:

DescriptionOngoingOne-Time Property Tax Equalization Amendments$18,750,000$0
OngoingOne-TimeFinancing Source
$18,750,000$0EFR - Minimum Basic Growth Account
Enactment of this legislation could increase budgeted local revenue to the Minimum School Program by $75,000,000 annually. Growth in local revenue decreases Education Fund amounts used to equalize the Basic School Program. This bill transfers the Education Fund savings into a newly created Minimum Basic Growth Account. Enactment of this legislation could increase the local property tax component of the Basic School Program by $75,000,000 annually. The result is a decrease in Education Fund expenditures used to equalize the Basic School Program equal to $75,000,000 annually. The Education Fund expenditure decrease is transferred to a newly created Minimum Basic Growth Account, which is then expended using the Voted and Board Levy, Capital Foundation and Enrollment Growth formulas.
Statute

Statutes governing the School Building Program are found in UCA 53A-21-101 to 53A-21-401. The following bullets highlight the key statutory provisions.

  • UCA 53A-21-201& 202 -- establishes the Capital Outlay Foundation Program and details the distribution formulas.
  • UCA 53A-21-301 & 302 -- details the qualifications for school district participation in the enrollment growth program. The statute also details a formula to distribute appropriated revenues.
  • UCA 53A-21-401 -- provides statutory provisions governing the School Building Revolving Account and details the qualifications for districts to meet in order to benefit from the program. School districts must contract with the State Superintendent to repay monies received from the account and levy a tax sufficient to guarantee annual loan repayments.

The State Board's Administrative Rule R277-451 provides administrative procedures associated with the governance of the School Building Program.

The Education Fund is the only revenue source contributing to program appropriations. Local property tax revenues generated by a school district also contribute to the costs of building and maintaining public school facilities, but are not part of the state appropriated budget.

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COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.