(A) This section applies to existing and future general obligation bonds issued by an operating school unit. For purposes of this section, general obligation bonds are obligations expressly secured by the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the operating school unit that issues the bonds.

(B) The county treasurer of a county in which any operating school unit has outstanding general obligation bonds shall notify the State Treasurer on the fifteenth day prior to the due date of any payment of principal or interest on the bonds if the county treasurer does not have on deposit, or there is not on deposit with a paying agent, the sum required to make that payment. If the county treasurer or paying agent does not have on deposit the sum required to make that payment on the third business day prior to the due date, the State Treasurer shall transfer to the county treasurer from the general fund of the State the sum necessary to enable the county treasurer or paying agent to make payment of principal and interest then coming due. However, the total amount to be advanced to operating school units for this purpose in any fiscal year may not exceed the amount appropriated in that year under the Education Finance Act. Immediately upon receipt of the sum from the State Treasurer on a bond for which a paying agent other than the county treasurer has been appointed, the county treasurer shall transfer to the paying agent all amounts required to effect punctual payment of the sum due. The State Treasurer shall withhold from the operating school unit from the next and subsequent distributions of any revenue to that operating school unit sufficient monies necessary to reimburse the general fund of the State for the sums applied to pay the principal and interest on the bonds and for the investment earnings that would have been received on the monies advanced from the general fund. In addition, the State Treasurer may direct the county treasurer to apply to the payment due on the bonds any monies being held by the county treasurer in any fund, other than the sinking fund, derived from state revenue for the operating school unit.

(C) The amounts forwarded to any county treasurer by the State Treasurer under subsection (B) must be applied by the county treasurer or paying agent solely to the payment of the principal of or interest on the bonds. The State Treasurer shall notify the State Department of Education, the county auditor, and the superintendent of the operating school unit of payments made and sums withheld pursuant to this section.

(D) Whenever the State Treasurer makes a payment to a county treasurer pursuant to subsection (B) and withholds sums from revenue to the operating school unit pursuant to this section, or directs a county treasurer to apply monies for this purpose, the county treasurer shall pay to the operating school unit all collections of property taxes levied for the payment of the operating school unit's general obligation bonds until the sums so withheld or applied have been paid by the county treasurer to the operating school unit from such tax levies.

(E) A county auditor in any county in which the provisions of subsection (B) have been implemented for the payment of principal and interest on the general obligation bonds of an operating school unit shall adjust the millage levied for the payment of those bonds in the next fiscal year to the level necessary to provide for the punctual payment of all sums due during that year and shall file a report with the State Treasurer demonstrating compliance with this subsection not later than five business days after setting the millage for this fiscal year.

HISTORY: 1997 Act No. 155, Part II, Section 65.