(1) The general assembly finds that school districts receive significant operating revenue from mill levies that are in addition to the school districts' total program mill levy. This additional revenue helps school districts offset the effects of the budget adjustment imposed by section 22-54-104 (5)(g). The general assembly further finds that institute charter schools do not have access to additional revenue from a local property tax mill levy. The general assembly finds, therefore, that it is appropriate to consider additional state equalization funding for institute charter schools.

(2) (a) The mill levy equalization fund, referred to in this section as the "fund", is hereby created in the state treasury. The fund consists of any amount that the general assembly may appropriate or transfer to the fund. The state treasurer shall credit to the fund all interest and income derived from the deposit and investment of money in the fund.

(b) Subject to annual appropriation by the general assembly, the institute shall annually distribute the money appropriated or transferred to the fund to the institute charter schools on an equal per-pupil basis; except that, in any budget year, an institute charter school shall not receive a per pupil amount that is greater than the total amount of additional mill levy revenue, as defined in section 22-32-108.5, that the accounting district for the institute charter school is authorized to collect, divided by the funded pupil count, as defined in section 22-54-103, of the accounting district for the applicable budget year. The money distributed pursuant to this section is in addition to money distributed to institute charter schools pursuant to section 22-30.5-513.