SB131 An Act relating to public school construction funding; and providing for an effective date
Click for PDF: http://www.akdemocrats.org/sponsor/SB131_ss_sen_lincoln.pdfThis legislation allows the Cordova City School District and the City of Cordova to receive 70% reimbursement from the state for the previous bonding of a public school construction project. On June 1, 1999, the voters of Cordova approved a $2,000,000 bond proposal for renovation of the Cordova Junior and Senior High School and to correct American with Disabilities Act (ADA) deficiencies at the Mt. Eccles Elementary School. These deficiencies had been identified in August of 1997. The Alaska Municipal Bond Bank informed the City that they would recommend approval of their loan application. They were also notified that, subject to legislative appropriation, they would be eligible for the state school debt reimbursement program at the 70% level. Legislation funding bond reimbursement for Alaska schools was passed last session and language approving reimbursement for Cordova was inadvertently excluded. The Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) had never been informed by Cordova had they had previously bonded to pay for certain ADA deficiencies in their elementary school. Although the Mt. Eccles Elementary School renovation was ranked 24th out of 59 projects by the DEED on their Capital Improvement Projects list for FY 2002, because of this miscommunication, Cordova was not included in their list for reimbursement. This legislation would allow an addition to AS 14.11.100 to permit reimbursement of $500,000 for the important Mt. Eccles Elementary ADA mandated school renovation, as was originally envisioned by Cordova’s voters in 1999.