All acts and proceedings taken prior to the effective date of the enactment of this section, by or on behalf of any district under this article, or under color of this article, for the authorization of an increase in the maximum tax rate of the district and for the leasing of a building or buildings for the purposes of the district are hereby confirmed, ratified, validated, and declared legally effective. This shall include all acts and proceedings of the governing board of the district and of any person, public officer, board, or agency, heretofore done or taken upon the question of the authorization of the tax rate increase or the leasing. Whenever an election has been called and held prior to the effective date of the enactment of this section, for the purpose of submitting to the voters of any district the question of an increase in the maximum tax rate of the district and for the leasing of a building or buildings for the purposes of the district, the election and all proceedings attendant thereon are hereby confirmed, ratified, validated, and declared to be legally effective for all purposes, and the tax rate increase, if authorized by the required vote and in accordance with the proceedings heretofore taken, shall be a legal and valid authorization, in accordance with its terms, and any tax heretofore or hereafter levied pursuant to that authorization shall be legal and valid. The foregoing provisions of this section shall operate to supply any legislative authorization that may be necessary to validate the acts and proceedings heretofore taken which the Legislature could have supplied or provided for in this article. The foregoing provisions of this section shall be limited to the validation of acts and proceedings to the extent to which the same can be effectuated under the California and United States Constitutions. The foregoing provisions of this section shall not operate to confirm, ratify, validate, or legalize any act, proceeding, or other matter the legality of which is being contested or inquired into in any legal proceeding now pending and undetermined or which may be pending and undetermined during the period of 30 days from and after the effective date of this section, and shall not operate to confirm, ratify, validate, or legalize any act, proceeding, or other matter which has heretofore been determined in any legal proceeding to be illegal, void, or ineffective.

In any school district in which an election was called and held prior to the effective date of this section in which the voters of the district authorized an increase in the maximum tax rate of the district and the leasing of a building or buildings for the purposes of the district, the law in effect at the date of the school district election shall govern the terms of the lease, the terms of the sale of related bonds, notes, and warrants, and the school district’s maximum bonded indebtedness, and Section 17423 shall not be applicable to the school district’s entry into any lease or agreement authorized at an election called and held prior to the effective date of this section.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)