Senate Bill 16-204 Summary

• Amends the Higher Education Revenue Bond Intercept Program to require state treasurer preapproval certificates and approval from the Capital Development Committee and Joint Budget Committee before institutions issue intercept bonds.

• Establishes financial eligibility requirements including a maximum 75% debt service limit based on general fund appropriations for stipends and fee-for-service contracts, credit ratings in top three categories, and minimum 1.5-to-1 debt service coverage ratio.

• Allows the state treasurer to exempt refunding bonds from certain requirements if they result in cost savings with no extension of repayment years and are refunding existing intercept bonds.

• Requires state treasurer to issue annual preapproval certificates by September 1 and notify relevant committees within 15 days of receiving bond issuance requests, with guidelines for determining refunding bond cost savings through cash flow analysis.

• Modifies capital construction project approval requirements to mandate general assembly approval for auxiliary and academic facilities funded in whole or in part through intercept bonds, while exempting them from other commission review processes.