SCHOOL DISTRICT ELECTION DATE S.B. 751 (S-1)-754 (S-1): FLOOR SUMMARY
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Senate Bill 751 (Substitute S-1 as reported)
Senate Bill 752 (Substitute S-2 as reported)
Senate Bill 753 (Substitute S-1 as reported)
Senate Bill 754 (Substitute S-1 as reported)
Sponsor: Senator Cameron S. Brown (S.B. 751 & 753) Senator Michael Switalski (S.B. 752) Senator Roger Kahn, M.D. (S.B. 754)
Committee: Education

CONTENT
Senate Bill 751 (S-1) would add Section 642c to the Michigan Election Law to do the following:

-- Require school districts, as a rule, to hold their regular elections for school board members at the general November election or the even-year August election, beginning March 31, 2011.
-- Permit a school district to hold its regular election at the odd-year general election if one or more cities in the district that contained a majority of the district's electors conducted an odd-year general election.
-- Permit a school district that, before the bill's effective date, held its regular election at the odd-year general election to continue holding its regular election at that time, if it adopted a resolution before March 31, 2011.
-- Require a district to hold its regular election at the even-year August election if it failed to adopt a resolution to hold its regular election on a date in compliance with Section 642c.
-- Prohibit a school district from changing the date of its regular election after March 30, 2011.


Senate Bill 752 (S-2) would amend the definitions of "intermediate school district election" and "regular school election" in the Revised School Code to refer to Section 642c of the Election Law. The bill also would revise provisions relating to intermediate school board elections to refer to the general November election or even-year August election, rather than the regular school election.


Senate Bill 753 (S-1) would amend the Michigan Election Law to require a school district election to be held as provided in Section 642c, and remove references to a May regular election.


Senate Bill 754 (S-1) would amend the Michigan Election Law to provide that, if a regular election date were changed under Section 642c, the term of an official who was elected before the change took effect would continue until a successor was elected and qualified at the next regular election.


The four bills are tie-barred to one another.


Proposed MCL 168.642c (S.B. 751) Legislative Analyst: Curtis Walker
MCL 380.4 et al. (S.B. 752) 168.302 (S.B. 753) 168.644g (S.B. 754)


FISCAL IMPACT
Currently, school board elections may be held in May or November, and can be held annually or biennially. According to data received a year ago, the vast majority of school board elections are held in May, and the rest are held in November. In fact, roughly 400 school board elections (or 73%) were scheduled for May, and the remaining 150 or so were scheduled for November. This legislation would require school board elections to be held at the November general election, the even-year August election, or, under certain conditions, the odd-year general election. Under any of these three scenarios, it is likely that a local election would already occur, and a school board election could "piggyback" onto that local election.


Under current law, if schools "piggyback" onto an election that is already going to occur, they incur virtually no costs. Therefore, if school board elections were limited to one of the three dates specified, and if other entities were already running elections on those dates, it is possible that there could be savings to schools of up to $2,000 per precinct per election (net of the negligible costs attributable only to the portion of the election dedicated solely to schools, such as a portion of the ballot costs, or advertising of the ballot content pertaining to schools). Clearly, a large school district with many precincts would incur a higher cost for an election than a smaller school district would, if not "piggybacking" onto a local election.


Statewide, there are 5,050 city/township precincts; data on the number of consolidated school precincts are not available but are forthcoming. After netting out the marginal costs incurred related solely to the school board member portion of the ballot, the maximum savings realized by the roughly 73% of school districts running May school board elections could reach close to $7.0 million spread over the annual or biennial time frame in which the elections are held, if the number of consolidated school precincts is close to the number of city/township precincts. This calculation is derived from multiplying the 5,050 city/township precincts by $2,000 per precinct multiplied by the 73% of districts running May school board elections.


Date Completed: 4-1-10 Fiscal Analyst: Kathryn Summers

Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. sb751-754/0910