Bill Text: HI HCR121 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund; Audit

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-18 - Referred to EDN, FIN, referral sheet 39 [HCR121 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-HCR121-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	121
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the office of the auditor to conduct a financial and management audit of the state educational facilities improvement special fund.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, ensuring that Hawaii's schoolchildren learn in facilities that are safe, secure, and in good repair is critical to successful educational delivery; and

 

     WHEREAS, more than half of Hawaii's public schools are over 50 years old, with 16 percent that are more than 100 years old; and

 

     WHEREAS, older facilities present serious risks to the health and well-being of those who use them, illustrated most recently by the collapse of the auditorium roof at Farrington High School in November 2012; and

 

     WHEREAS, older facilities, by their nature require more funding to maintain as upgrades, particularly for water and electrical systems, are difficult and expensive to undertake; and

 

     WHEREAS, recognizing the extraordinary costs of capital improvements to ensure the proper maintenance and repair of the State's public schools, the Legislature established the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund through Act 368, Session Laws of Hawaii 1989, to earmark a portion of general excise tax revenues to improve school facilities; and

 

     WHEREAS, codified in section 36-32, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund is to be used solely to plan, design, acquire lands for, and construct public school facilities and to provide equipment and technology infrastructure to improve public schools and other Department of Education facilities, except public libraries; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Education may also use monies in the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund for activities intended to eliminate the gap between schools' facility needs and available resources; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund receives each fiscal year a sum from all general excise tax revenues realized by the State that represents the difference between $45,000,000 and the proceeds from the sale of any general obligation bonds authorized for that fiscal year for the purposes of the Fund, pursuant to section 237-31, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     WHEREAS, expenditures from the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund are limited to projects authorized by the Legislature, are subject to certain provisions of the State's allotment system, and must be expended by the Superintendent of Education; and

 

     WHEREAS, within the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund is a separate Lease Payments for Schools Account, for lease payments on new schools approved by the Legislature and included within the Department's current six year capital improvement programs, subject to legislative appropriation; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Education is required to annually report to the Legislature on the status of projects undertaken, including financial statements for the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund and the Lease Payments for Schools Account; and

 

     WHEREAS, there continues to be a backlog for capital improvement projects under the Department of Education's jurisdiction; and

 

     WHEREAS, it appears that the Department of Education is not always able to satisfactorily account for monies in and expended from the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund; and
     WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that an audit of the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund will illuminate any potential issues so that they may be appropriately rectified; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, the Senate concurring, that the Office of the Auditor is requested to conduct a financial and management audit of the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Office of the Auditor is requested to submit its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Acting Auditor, and Superintendent of Education.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund; Audit