(a) The Legislature intends for the board to encourage school districts to utilize alternative methods to fund school facilities.

(b) The board shall approve applications pursuant to the requirements of this section that request the board to share a portion of the cost of projects constructed pursuant to the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, as set forth by Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 53311) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code. The board shall disregard the fact that structures have been constructed in accordance with that act, and neither consider nor approve any application for cost sharing until the time that the applicant school district would have become eligible for approval of its application during the normal process established for considering and approving applications.

(c) The board shall approve applications for cost sharing based on both of the following factors:

(1) Estimates of average daily attendance at the time the application is considered.

(2) The amount of cost sharing requested.

(d) The costs shared by the board shall be an amount equal to the cost that would have been allowed for the project had it been originally approved pursuant to this chapter less 5 percent per year depreciation, exclusive of land, for each year that the project was constructed in advance of the application approval, but no more than the lesser of an amount equal to 75 percent of the allowable cost of the project or the principal amount of any outstanding callable bonds and other debts incurred to finance the project under the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982.

(e) If the board utilizes a point system to prioritize applications for funding, the computation of priorities for an application pursuant to this section shall be increased by 4 percent for each year from the date of construction of the project to the date of approval of the cost-sharing application.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)