Sec. 45.105. AUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES

(a) The public school funds may not be spent except as provided by this section.

(b) The state and county available funds may be used only for the payment of teachers' and superintendents' salaries and interest on money borrowed on short time to pay those salaries that become due before the school funds for the current year become available. Loans for the purpose of payment of teachers may not be paid out of funds other than those for the current year.

(c) Local school funds from district taxes, tuition fees of students not entitled to a free education, other local sources, and state funds not designated for a specific purpose may be used for the purposes listed for state and county available funds and for purchasing appliances and supplies, paying insurance premiums, paying janitors and other employees, buying school sites, buying, building, repairing, and renting school buildings, including acquiring school buildings and sites by leasing through annual payments with an ultimate option to purchase, and for other purposes necessary in the conduct of the public schools determined by the board of trustees. The accounts and vouchers for county districts must be approved by the county superintendent. If the state available school fund in any municipality or district is sufficient to maintain the schools in any year for at least eight months and leave a surplus, the surplus may be spent for the purposes listed in this subsection.

(d) An independent school district that has in its limits a municipality with a population of 150,000 or more or that contains at least 170 square miles, has $850 million or more assessed value of taxable property on the most recent approved tax roll and has a growth in average daily attendance of 11 percent or more for each of the preceding five years as determined by the agency may, in buying school sites or additions to school sites and in building school buildings, issue and deliver negotiable or nonnegotiable notes representing all or part of the cost to the school district of the land or building. The district may secure the notes by a vendor's lien or deed of trust lien against the land or building. By resolution or order of the governing body made at or before the delivery of the notes, the district may set aside and appropriate as a trust fund, and the sole and only fund, for the payment of the principal of and interest on the notes that part of the local school funds, levied and collected by the school district in that year or subsequent years, as the governing body determines. The aggregate amount of local school funds set aside in or for any subsequent year for the retirement of the notes may not exceed, in any one subsequent year, 10 percent of the local school funds collected during that year. The district may issue the notes only if approved by majority vote of the qualified voters voting in an election conducted in the manner provided by Section 45.003 for approval of bonds.

(e) The governing body of an independent school district that governs a junior college district under Subchapter B, Chapter 130, in a county with a population of more than two million may dedicate a specific percentage of the local tax levy to the use of the junior college district for facilities and equipment or for the maintenance and operating expenses of the junior college district. To be effective, the dedication must be made by the governing body on or before the date on which the governing body adopts its tax rate for a year. The amount of local tax funds derived from the percentage of the local tax levy dedicated to a junior college district from a tax levy may not exceed the amount that would be levied by five percent of the effective tax rate for the tax year calculated as provided by Section 26.04, Tax Code, on all property taxable by the school district. All real property purchased with these funds is the property of the school district, but is subject to the exclusive control of the governing body of the junior college district for as long as the junior college district uses the property for educational purposes.

(f) Funds from a junior college district branch campus maintenance tax levied by a school district board of trustees under Section 130.087 may be used as provided by that section.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1071, Sec. 23, eff. Sept. 1, 1997. Amended by: Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1163 , Sec. 10, eff. September 1, 2011.