Current Status Bill Number:705 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:Senate Introduced Date:19950405 Primary Sponsor:Education Committee SED 04 All Sponsors:Education Committee Drafted Document Number:gjk\21389sd.95 Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Education Committee 04 SED Subject:Academic Endowment Incentive Act of 1995
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
______ ________ _______________________________________ _______ ____________
Senate 19950418 Recommitted to Committee 04 SED
Senate 19950405 Introduced, read first time,
placed on Calendar without reference
View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.
INTRODUCED
April 5, 1995
S. 705
S. Printed 4/5/95--S.
Read the first time April 5, 1995.
TO AMEND TITLE 59, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO EDUCATION, BY ADDING CHAPTER 118 SO AS TO ENACT THE SOUTH CAROLINA ACADEMIC ENDOWMENT INCENTIVE ACT OF 1995 WHICH PERMITS CERTAIN STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO ESTABLISH AN ACADEMIC ENDOWMENT INCENTIVE TRUST FUND, THE DISBURSEMENTS FROM WHICH SHALL BE MATCHED BY THE STATE ON A FIFTY PERCENT BASIS TO PROVIDE FUNDS TO SUPPORT ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPS, NEED-BASED TUITION ASSISTANCE, ACADEMIC PROGRAMS SPECIFICALLY DEVELOPED TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND FACULTY POSITIONS NECESSARY TO PROVIDE TEACHER EDUCATION IN AREAS DETERMINED TO BE OF CRITICAL NEED.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Title 59 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 59-118-10. This chapter is known and may be cited as the South Carolina Academic Endowment Incentive Act of 1995.
Section 59-118-20. The purposes of this chapter are to:
(1) further the state's efforts to meet its responsibility for the intellectual development of our youth;
(2) enhance statewide economic development through initiatives in higher education; to provide incentives to individuals, corporations, or private funding organizations to create endowments to support the teaching and related activities at South Carolina's public colleges and universities;
(3) supplement endowments at these colleges and universities; and
(4) improve the quality of teacher education in South Carolina.
Section 59-118-30. For purposes of this chapter:
(1) `Qualifying college or university' means a state-supported, post-secondary, four-year educational institution offering undergraduate, master, or doctoral degree programs.
(2) `Endowments' mean permanent gifts or donations to the qualifying college or university including cash, income producing securities, an income producing business, real property, personal property, fixed assets, mortgage notes, and life income gifts or bequests. Research grants and funds received by the institution in the performance of a contractual obligation are not an endowment for purposes of this chapter and funds therefrom may not be deposited into the institution's academic endowment incentive trust fund.
(3) `Year' means a state fiscal year beginning on the first day of July and ending the following June thirtieth.
Section 59-118-40. Each qualifying college or university may establish an academic endowment incentive trust fund. Such trust fund shall provide each qualifying college or university with the opportunity to provide donors with an incentive in the form of matching state gifts on disbursements from earnings on certain endowments, donations, or gifts if these monies are used for the purposes specified in Section 59-118-50. Endowments received after July 1, 1995, as selected by the donor and the institution, may be deposited into the trust fund and disbursements therefrom are eligible for a fifty percent match by the State in the manner provided in this chapter.
Section 59-118-50. Disbursements from the earnings of an academic endowment incentive trust fund if used to provide funds for the following purposes are eligible to receive state matching gifts on a fifty percent basis:
(1) academic scholarships;
(2) need-based tuition assistance;
(3) academic programs specifically developed to improve the quality of teacher education; and
(4) faculty positions necessary to provide teacher education in areas determined to be of critical need.
Section 59-118-60. The board of trustees of each qualifying college or university may delegate to the board of one of its principal foundations its duties and responsibilities in regard to the managing of the academic endowment incentive trust fund authorized to be established as provided by this chapter.
Section 59-118-70. There is created the South Carolina Higher Education Matching Gift Fund which shall be separate and distinct from the state general fund. The General Assembly in the annual general appropriations act beginning with fiscal year 1995-96 shall appropriate such monies as it determines necessary into this matching gift fund to be used for the purpose of providing matching state funds on a fifty percent basis beginning with fiscal year 1996-97 to qualifying colleges and universities which make disbursements from their Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund for purposes stipulated by this chapter. The State Treasurer shall manage and invest the monies in the Higher Education Matching Gift Fund in the same manner and under the same terms and conditions as other state funds under his control are managed and invested and disbursements to particular colleges or universities shall be made on warrant and under the direction of the Commission on Higher Education pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
Section 59-118-80. The State of South Carolina from the Higher Education Matching Gift Fund established in Section 59-118-70, to the extent of available funds therein and acting through the Commission on Higher Education, shall provide funds to match on a fifty percent basis disbursements from the qualifying college or university's Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund.
Section 59-118-90. The state matching gifts authorized in Section 59-118-80 are subject to the following conditions:
(1) disbursements from the college or university's Academic Endowment Incentive Fund to which the state matching gift is applied must come from the income of the fund and not from principal or corpus;
(2) the state matching funds must go directly into the college or university's operating bank account to be spent within two years from the date of the state match only for the purposes authorized;
(3) the college or university must make application to receive state matching funds on forms and under procedures prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education and must specifically disclose the purposes for which the disbursement from the institution's Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund and the state's matching gift funds will be used;
(4) all matters relating to the institution's Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund, the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund, including their governance, investments, donors, and expenditures, are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act;
(5) annual audits of the institution's Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund, the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund, and disbursements and expenditures therefrom must be performed and the results disclosed to the institution, the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Commission on Higher Education.
Section 59-118-100. The Commission on Higher Education by regulation shall specify the procedures for submission, documentation, and approval of requests for matching state funds, accountability for endowments and disbursements of income from endowments in academic endowment incentive trust funds, allocation to qualifying colleges and universities of state matching funds, restrictions on the use of the monies received under this chapter, and other criteria to implement the provisions of this chapter.
Section 59-118-110. The Commission on Higher Education shall ensure that each qualifying college or university has equal access to the monies in the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund. No qualifying college or university may receive more than ten percent of the monies in the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund available to be distributed during any particular year, unless thirty days before the end of that year monies still are available to be distributed from the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund. In this case, institutions may receive additional matching distributions from the fund, but in no event shall an institution's total receipts from the matching gift fund exceed twenty-five percent of the monies available to be distributed in any one year. Any monies in the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund not distributed in any year shall be carried forward for the same purposes in future years and all earnings on monies in the State Higher Education Matching Gift Fund shall be retained in the fund and used for its stated purposes.
Section 59-118-120. Income earned from the principal or corpus of the Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund shall be used to provide disbursements from the fund, provided that nothing herein prevents earnings or income to be reinvested in the fund rather than disbursed in the manner authorized by this chapter. However, if earnings in any year are reinvested and not disbursed during that year, it will for future years be considered principal and not income. No principal or corpus of the fund may be disbursed in any year unless the fund is dissolved in a manner permitted by law. In addition, for the period July 1, 1995, to June 30, 1996, no earnings may be disbursed and for this period must be added to principal.
Section 59-118-130. The board of trustees of each qualifying college and university authorized to establish an Academic Endowment Incentive Trust Fund shall manage and serve as the trustees for such fund and in this regard are authorized in its absolute discretion with respect to any property, real or personal, in addition to any other rights, powers, authority, and privileges granted by any other provision of law:
(1) To retain in the form received any property or undivided interests in property donated to, or otherwise acquired as a part of the trust, regardless of any lack of diversification, risk, or nonproductivity, as long as it considers advisable, and to exchange any such property for other securities or properties and to retain such items received in exchange, although the property represents a large percentage of the total property of the trust or even the entirety thereof.
(2) To invest all or any part of the trust in any property and undivided interests in property, wherever located, including bonds, debentures, notes, secured or unsecured, stocks or corporations regardless of class, interest in partnerships, real estate, or any interest in real estate whether or not productive at the time of investment, investment trusts, whether of the open or closed fund type, without being limited by any statute or rule of law concerning investments by fiduciaries.
(3) To sell or dispose of or grant option to purchase any property, real or personal, constituting a part of the trust, for cash or upon credit, to exchange any property of the trust for other property, at such times and upon such terms and conditions as it considers best.
(4) To hold any securities or other property in the trustee's own name as trustee, in its own name, in the name of a nominee (with or without disclosure of any fiduciary relationship) or in bearer form.
(5) To keep, at any time and from time-to-time, all or any portion of the trust in cash and uninvested for such period or periods of time as it may consider advisable.
(6) To sell or exercise stock subscription or conversion rights.
(7) To refrain from voting or to vote shares of stock owned by the trust at shareholders' meetings in person or by special, limited, or general proxy and in general to exercise all the rights, powers, and privileges of an owner in respect to any securities constituting a part of the trust.
(8) To borrow money and to encumber, mortgage, or pledge any asset of the trust for such terms as considered appropriate, in connection with the exercise of any power vested in the trustee.
(9) To enter for any purpose into a lease as lessor or lessee with or without option to purchase or renew for any term.
(10) To make ordinary or extraordinary repairs or alterations in buildings or other structures, to demolish any improvements or buildings.
(11) To collect, receive, and receipt for rents, issues, profits, and income of the trust.
(12) To insure the assets of the trust against damage or loss and the trustee against liability with respect to third persons.
(13) To compromise, adjust, arbitrate, sue or defend, abandon, or otherwise deal with and settle claims in favor of or against the trust as the trustee considers best.
(14) To employ and compensate agents, accountants, investments advisers, brokers, attorneys in fact, attorneys at law, tax specialists, realtors, and other assistants and advisors considered by the trustee needful for the proper administration of the trust, and to do so without liability for any neglect, omission, misconduct, or default of any such agent or professional representative provided he was selected and retained with reasonable care.
(15) To receive property bequeathed, devised, or donated to the trust by any person; to receive the proceeds of any insurance policy; to execute all necessary receipts and releases to donors, insurance companies, and other parties adding property to the trust.
(16) In general, to exercise all powers in the management of the trust which any individual could exercise in his own right, upon such terms and conditions as it considers best, and to do all acts which it considers necessary or proper to carry out the purposes of this trust."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 1995.