Bill Summary, LB 1001 (1992)
LB 1001 contained four
modifications to the school finance formula. One of the changes related to the Indian Land factor, which was a part of the original LB 1059 (1990). Prior to LB 1001, the Indian Land factor provided that districts where more
than 75% of the students enrolled were residents on Indian land, the tiered
cost per student for each grade level would be increased by a factor of
25%. The provision in LB 1001 harmonized
state law with federal regulations to require that the tiered cost per student,
for each grade level would be increased by a factor “equal to the result of
multiplying the ratio of average daily attendance of students who reside on
Indian land to the total average daily attendance of the district” multiplied
by 25%. The change in law was
intended to increase, slightly, the spending authority and the state aid
received by qualified districts.
Another provision LB 1001 changed
several items under the other actual receipts section of the state aid
formula. These receipts were to be
considered a part of a district’s formula resources for purposes
of calculating state aid. The bill
changed the “miscellaneous receipts” subsection to exclude revenues from what
is commonly called the textbook loan program. Under this program, public schools were obliged, if
possible, to loan textbooks to children enrolled in private schools upon
individual request. The bill also
added a new accountable receipt for pre-school “Part H” special education funds from the
Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 but only to the extent of
the amount the district would have otherwise received under the Nebraska
Special Education Act.
The third modification to the school finance formula
concerned the annual requirement for school districts to submit budget
documents to the State Auditor or make corrections of errors in such documents
in a timely fashion. The existing
law required the Commissioner of Education to withhold state aid to such
districts failing to comply with this provision. The existing law also required the commissioner to notify
the county superintendent who must then
direct the county treasurer to withhold all school money belonging to the
school district until the matter is resolved. LB 1001 clarified perhaps what was taken for granted, and
that was for the county treasurer to actually obey the request and withhold the
money. The bill required the
county treasurer to obey the request of the county superintendent and withhold
the funds until told otherwise.
The fourth change to the school finance formula concerned
the dates by which Class I districts and
all other classes of districts must submit annual financial reports to the
respective county superintendent and the Commissioner of
Education. Class I districts were
to submit such reports by October 15th of each year (changed from
the previous October 1st date) and all other districts were to
submit reports by November 1st of each year. The financial reports include the
amount of money received from all sources during the year and the amount of
money expended by the school district during the year, among other statistics.
LB 1001 also expanded the usage of an authorized tax levy by school districts. The legislation authorized school districts to levy up to 5.2¢ per $100 valuation for purposes of accessibility barrier elimination projects and environmental hazard abatement projects. This provision would allow school districts to increase tax levies to fund the cost of accessibility barrier elimination projects if their levies were not currently at the maximum to fund environmental hazard abatement projects. The bill enabled school districts to accept state interest-free or low interest loans and allows schools to borrow money in any fund. The bill also allowed parents under the option enrollment program to appeal rejections of students made by resident school districts.