Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 281 - Education Department › Title XVI - School Facilities › Chapter 98 - Supplementary Weighting › Rule 281-98.64 - Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) Fund

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
The physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL) consists of the
				  regular PPEL not to exceed $0.33 per $1,000 of assessed valuation and a
				  voter-approved PPEL not to exceed $1.34 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, for a
				  total of $1.67. The authority to establish a PPEL fund is available to school
				  districts but not to area education agencies.
(1)
Sources of revenue in the PPEL
				fund.
Sources of revenue in the PPEL fund include a property tax,
				income surtax, and interest on the investment of those moneys, and proceeds
				from loan agreements in anticipation of the collection of the voter-approved
				property. Proceeds from the condemnation, sale or disposition of real property
				are revenue to the PPEL fund. Proceeds from loans for equipment pursuant to
				Iowa Code section 279.48, federal loans for
				asbestos projects pursuant to Iowa Code section
				279.52, or loans for energy
				conservation projects pursuant to Iowa Code section
				473.20 may be accounted for in
				the PPEL fund. If the school board intends to enter into a rental, lease, or
				loan agreement, only a property tax will be levied for those
				purposes.
(2)
Appropriate
				uses of the PPEL fund.
Appropriate expenditures in the PPEL fund
				include the following:
a. Purchase of grounds
				including the legal costs relating to the property acquisition, costs of
				surveys of the property, costs of relocation assistance under state and federal
				law, and other costs incidental in the property acquisition.
b. Improvement of grounds including grading,
				landscaping, paving, seeding, and planting of shrubs and trees; constructing
				sidewalks, roadways, retaining walls, sewers and storm drains, and installing
				hydrants; surfacing and soil treatment of athletic fields and tennis courts;
				exterior lighting, including athletic fields and tennis courts; furnishing and
				installing flagpoles, gateways, fences, and underground storage tanks that are
				not parts of building service systems; demolition work; and special assessments
				against the school district for public improvements.
c. Construction of schoolhouses or
				buildings.
d. Construction of roads
				to schoolhouses or buildings.
e.
				Purchasing, leasing, or lease-purchasing equipment or technology exceeding $500
				in value per purchase, lease, or lease-purchase transaction.
(1) "Equipment" means both equipment and
				furnishings. The cost limitation for equipment does not apply to recreational
				equipment pursuant to paragraph 98.64(2)
"n"
or equipment that
				becomes an integral part of real property such as furnaces, boilers, water
				heaters, and central air-conditioning units that are included in repairs to a
				building pursuant to paragraph 98.64(2)
"h."
(2) "Transaction" means a business deal or
				agreement between a school district and a provider of goods or services.
				Technology may be bundled for purposes of exceeding $500 per
				transaction.
f.
				Transferring to debt service for payments, when due, of debts contracted for
				the erection or construction of schoolhouses or buildings, not including
				interest on bonds.
g. Procuring or
				acquisition of library facilities.
h. Repairing, remodeling, reconstructing,
				improving, or expanding the schoolhouses or buildings and the additions to
				existing schoolhouses. "Repairing" means restoring an existing structure or
				thing to its original condition, as near as may be, after decay, waste, injury,
				or partial destruction, but does not include maintenance. "Reconstructing"
				means rebuilding or restoring as an entity a thing that was lost or destroyed.
				"Maintenance" means to cause to remain in a state of good repair or to keep
				equipment in effective working condition and ready for daily use. Maintenance
				includes cleaning, upkeep, inspecting for needed maintenance, preserving the
				existing state or condition, preventing a decline in the existing state or
				condition, and replacing parts, unless otherwise a repair.
i. Energy conservation projects.
j. Transferring interest and principal to the
				debt service fund when due for loans to purchase equipment authorized under
				Iowa Code section 279.48, for loans in
				anticipation of the collection of the voter-approved property under Iowa Code
				section 297.36, and loans to be used for
				energy conservation measures under Iowa Code section
				473.20, in the case of a school
				district, when the original proceeds were accounted for in the PPEL
				fund.
k. The rental of facilities
				under Iowa Code chapter 28E.
l.
				Purchase of transportation equipment for transporting students and for
				repairing such transportation equipment when the cost of the repair exceeds
				$2,500. "Repairing," for purposes of this paragraph, means restoring an
				existing item of transportation equipment to its original condition, as near as
				may be, after gradual obsolescence of physical and functional use due to wear
				and tear, corrosion and decay, or partial destruction, and includes maintenance
				that meets the definition of equipment and repair and the cost of which exceeds
				$2,500. Effective October 2, 2019, "repairing" also means retrofitting
				transportation equipment when such retrofitting aligns to the school bus
				construction standards in 281-Chapter 44.
m. Purchase of buildings or lease-purchase
				option agreements for school buildings.
n. Purchase of equipment for recreational
				purposes.
o. Payments to a
				municipality or other entity pursuant to Iowa Code section
				403.19(2).
p. Asbestos projects including costs of
				inspection and reinspection, sampling, analysis, assessment, response actions,
				operations and maintenance, training, periodic surveillance, development of
				management plans and record-keeping requirements relating to the presence of
				asbestos in school buildings of the district and its removal or
				encapsulation.
q. Purchase, erect,
				or acquire a building for use as a school meal facility, and equip a building
				for that use.
r. Purchase of land
				as part of start-up costs for a new student construction program or if the sale
				proceeds of the previous student construction were insufficient to purchase
				land, but not for materials and supplies for a facility intended to be
				sold.
s. Construction materials and
				supplies for a student-constructed building or shed intended to be retained by
				and used by the district.
t.
				Demolition of a district-owned building.
u. Improving buildings or sites for the
				purpose of accessing digital telecommunications over multiple channels, often
				referred to as broadband.