Why are Oklahoma bond issue ballots very specific about only 70% of the spending?
Post date: Jul 20, 2013 6:55:12 PM
State law requires that at least 70 percent of the money to be spent in a bond issue be assigned to specific projects. Why not precisely spell out how every dollar will be spent? Is someone trying to pull a fast one?
NO ONE is trying to sneak something by you; the detailed legal language in the full ballot on file is being honest about the uncertainties of projects which still have to be fully designed and then go to bid, in some cases several years from today. For the ballot, architects, or bond planners to pretend to know precisely how much everything will cost years in the future is not possible.
The ballot DOES direct over 70% of the money to specific projects AND lists ALL of the projects for which the bonds can be spent. A future school board CANNOT start spending bond issue money on unrelated projects: the money is required to go for the projects described on the ballot you will be filling out.
The 70% rule is there to allow for the uncertainties inherent to a multi-year bond issue. The money is collected and spent over an extended period of time until the debt is paid off by the millage. Over that time costs will inevitably fluctuate with the economy and inflation, and the projects also go out to bid and one can only estimate what the winning bid amounts might be. This makes it impossible for any proposed bond issue to spell out precisely how every dollar will eventually be spent. But we can and have spelled out for you on this website, based on the ballot approved by the school board, what projects are allowed and have guaranteed minimum dollar amounts to various projects. The bottom line is that 100% of the bond monies must be spent on the listed project areas.
Bartlesville schools have a proven track record on this commitment. The results of the large 2001 and 2007 bond issues have been revolutionary and precisely align with what voters approved. When a declining economy after 2008 caused a drop in construction prices, the district rolled all of the "extra" money into the same project areas voters approved in the bond. For example, the bond issue funded climate control and other facility improvements to the high school, so that was an area where funds freed up by lower construction bids could be spent.
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The ballot resolution includes:
“The aforementioned bond proposition contains multiple capital projects, all within the overall spending authority amount that is granted to the Board of Education upon proposition approval. Oklahoma state law requires that the different capital projects identified in the bond proposition be described in detail within the resolution/proclamation calling the bond election. The State law requires that the resolution/proclamation calling the bond election describe how at least 70% of the overall spending authority amount will be spent among the individual capital project types. Because the individual capital projects in the bond proposal have not yet been bid out to contractors, the amounts in the bond proposal documents are all estimates and thus subject to variations between initial estimates and final actual costs of each project. Because some individiaul projects typically will have bids that come in over the original estimates and other individual projects typically will come in under the original estimates, it is prudent from a capital project management standpoint for the Board of Education to have some flexibility to shift spending authority amounts between the different capital project types that are described in the proposition. This flexbility was incorporated into this bond proposition by only describing above the minimum required 70% of the initial cost estimate for each capital project type. The remaining 30% of overall spending authority will still have to be expended on the capital project types described in this proposition.”