RALEIGH — With legislators planning to leave Raleigh on Saturday, the fate of Senate Bill 554 this morning was unclear.
The bill, which would allow school boards to use local dollars to pay for a lease-purchase agreement to help build new schools, appeared on a long list of items awaiting review by the House’s Rules Committee. That committee was scheduled to meet at 10 a.m., but citing information from the committee’s chairman, Rep. David Lewis, Rep. Ken Goodman said Senate Bill 554 will not be discussed.
Goodman, a member of the Rules Committee who represents part of Robeson County, said this morning he plans to submit a new version of the bill revising what was passed unanimously by the Senate earlier this week.
“There’s still a lot of problems with the bill. It needs some fixing,” he said. “Treasury still has lots of problems with it. The bill’s not structured well. It financially hangs Robeson County out to dry.”
The Treasurer’s Office, which had spoken out against Senate Bill 554 prior to the revisions, had been working on an alternate plan to finance consolidation of Robeson County schools. Representatives said the consolidation plan would burden Robeson County with more debt and would take money from the classroom to pay a private developer.
When the bill was revised to remove state money as a way to pay for consolidation, spokesperson Brad Young said many of Treasurer Janet Cowell’s “primary concerns” had been addressed by the revision and that the department was “comfortable with the legislation in its current form.” Young said the alternate plan was being put on hold in light of those changes.
On Thursday, when asked whether the Treasurer’s Office had concerns about the bill and if work on the alternate plan had resumed, Young said: “The Department is working with members of the General Assembly to continue addressing the critical needs for schools facilities and to ensure that they are financed responsibly. As House members are considering a number of potential changes, we do not have any further comment at this time.”
The Robesonian this morning sent an email to Young asking if a reporter could speak with Cowell or Edgar Starnes, a Treasury representative who mulitiple sources have told The Robesonian is working against the bill in the General Assembly. The email had not received a response by 9:54 a.m.
Originally, Senate Bill 554 was meant to allow school systems to enter into lease-purchase agreements to provide an affordable means of building new schools. Financial officers in Robeson County said the state money freed up by the original bill would be necessary in paying for a $1.4 billion plan to close 30 schools in favor of building 14 new ones, but with state money now off the table, the plan’s architect and CEO of sfL+a Architects, Robbie Ferris, said he’s revisiting his calculations.
Ferris did not want to comment on the possibility the bill would not be heard by the House, saying it was “premature” to comment.
Rep. Ken Waddell said the Treasury Office has a lingering concern about whether the bill ensures a competitive bidding process for who does the architectural work and construction.
“We want to ensure that the county gets a good deal, but we want to make sure it gets the best deal possible,” Waddell said.
Rep. Garland Pierce said this morning he had not seen any specific changes proposed for Senate Bill 554.
“If they’re making changes, they’re doing it secretively. I have not seen any legislation on our side. I didn’t see it before we left last night,” he said.
If the House does consider a revised version of the bill before the short session comes to an end, that version would still need approval from the Senate.
“We will finish up what’s left on the table tomorrow morning,” Pierce said. “If it came over, that means its still active and still alive, so it could always get to a committee and things could move fast.”
Robeson County commissioners have already signed a pre-development agreement with sfL+a Architects, but the Public Schools of Robeson County’s Board of Education decided to halt discussion on the consolidation until the fate of the bill is decided.
