As Amended
SEC. 29-3-137. Disbursement of funds to Chickasaw counties; powers and duties of State Department of Education; issuance of promissory notes by school districts in Chickasaw counties to purchase school buses.
(1) Beginning with the 1985-1986 fiscal year the Legislature of the State of Mississippi shall appropriate to the State Department of Education a sum of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) to be disbursed to the Chickasaw counties, and an additional One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) each succeeding fiscal year thereafter until a maximum appropriation of Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00) is made for the fiscal year 1989-1990. Beginning with the appropriation for the 1990-1991 fiscal year, the amount appropriated under the provisions of this section shall not exceed the total average annual expendable revenue per teacher unit received by the Choctaw counties from school lands, or Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00), whichever is the lesser.
(2) The State Department of Education is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to allocate for distribution such funds appropriated each year under subsection (1) of this section in proportion to the number of teacher units allotted under the minimum program, to such school districts affected by the sale of Chickasaw cession school lands. School districts not wholly situated in Chickasaw cession affected territory shall receive a prorated amount of such allocation based on the percentage of such lands located within the district. Provided further, that the State Department of Education shall in addition deduct from each affected school district's allocation the amount such district shall receive from interest payments from the Chickasaw School Fund under Section 212, Mississippi Constitution of 1890 for each fiscal year. The total number of teacher units in the Chickasaw counties shall be computed by the State Department of Education. The department shall document the foregoing computation in its annual budget request for the appropriation to the Chickasaw School Fund, and shall revise its budget request under such formula as the average annual revenues from sixteenth section school lands fluctuate.
(3) The school board of any school district within the Chickasaw cession territory is authorized to issue promissory notes in an amount not to exceed the funds anticipated to be distributed to it under this section for the ensuing fiscal year, less any amount necessary to pay costs incident to issuing such notes. The proceeds of such notes shall be used solely for the purpose of purchasing school buses. Such notes shall bear interest at a rate to be fixed by the school board not to exceed that allowed in Section 75-17-105. The principal of and interest on the notes shall be payable in full not later than September 30 of the year succeeding the year in which such notes are issued from the funds distributed to it under this section for the fiscal year in which such payments are finally due. This subsection (3) shall stand repealed from and after June 30, 1991.
SOURCES: Laws, 1985, ch. 23, Sec. 1; 1988, ch. 432, eff from and after passage (approved April 25, 1988).