Bill Summaries: S 558 SCHOOL ROAD IMPROVEMENT GRANT PROGRAM.

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  • Summary date: Mar 30 2017 - View Summary

    Discontinues transfers from the Highway Fund to the following accounts, and closes the accounts, beginning in the 2017-18 fiscal year: (1) Department of Agriculture, Gasoline Inspection Fee; (2) State Ethics Commission; (3) Department of Revenue, Gasoline Tax Collections; (4) Department of Revenue, International Registration Plan; (5) Department of Health and Human Services, Chemical Testing; (6) Office of the State Controller, Best Shared Services; and (7) Motor Carrier Safety.

    Reduces the allocation from the Highway Fund to the Reserve for General Maintenance for the 2017-18 fiscal year by $11,104,270.

    Establishes a School Road Construction Account within the Highway Fund. Appropriates $25 million in nonrecurring funds for 2017-18 from the Highway Fund to the School Road Construction Account.

    Directs the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to use the School Road Construction Account to establish the School Road Improvement Grant Program to award grants to local boards of education and charter schools to make necessary improvements to State roads due to public school construction or expansion.

    Authorizes local boards of education to apply for one-year grants of up to $500,000 if they are required to perform necessary improvements to State roads connected to a public school due to construction or expansion, to be spent over a five-year period from the initial reward.

    Requires local boards of education or charter schools to provide matching, non-State funds, at specified rates, to be eligible for a grant under this Program.

    Directs the DPI and Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish guidelines and criteria for local boards of education and charter schools to apply for grants, by September 15, 2017. Directs DPI to accept applications for grants through November 30, 2017. Provides requirements for the applications. Directs DOT to provide DPI with supporting documentation or engineering estimates related to applications by January 15, 2017.

    Directs DPI to select grant recipients by February 1, 2018. Provides an order of priority for grant recipients, and provides instruction for selecting grants within each priority category.

    Directs DPI and DOT to report on the Program, including specified information, to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee and the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee by February 15, 2018, and biennially thereafter until the completion of the last project funded by a grant under the Program, to the offices of the President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Fiscal Research Division, the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee, and the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee.

    Provides that if a Current Operations Appropriations Act for 2017-18 is not enacted by July 1, 2017, funds subject to the eliminations and reductions specified in this act shall not be expended. This provision expires upon the enactment of a Current Operations Appropriations Act for 2017-18.

    Effective only if funds are appropriated in a Current Operations Appropriations Act for 2017-18 to implement the provisions of this act.