School Bond Information, November 2, 2004 Election

State Debt Reimbursement for School Bond Debt

The Anchorage School Board recently surveyed all legislative candidates on a number of education issues, including whether they supported full funding of the existing debt reimbursement plan. All candidates who responded to the survey indicated that they did support full funding. You can review their responses here .

All of the projects on the two school bond propositions qualify for at least 60 percent state reimbursement funding throughout the 20-year life of the bonds. But to get the reimbursement, the projects must be approved by voters by December 31, 2004. Projects approved by voters after December 31 are not covered by any existing state reimbursement plan and would be funded entirely by local taxes.

Although the projects have been approved by the state as eligible for reimbursement, the year-to-year funding of the reimbursement plan is subject to annual legislative appropriation.

The state has provided various bond debt reimbursement plans since 1976. Past practice is not a guarantee of future performance, but following is a year-by-year history of how much of its debt reimbursement obligation each year's legislature actually funded: