On December 10, 2004, the Treasury Department/IRS announced the state allocations for the Qualified Zone Academy Bond (QZAB) Program. The national bond limitation of $400 million for each of the years 2004 and 2005 is allocated among the states on the basis of their respective populations below the poverty level (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget).
The Arkansas QZAB allocation for 2004 is $5.822 million and the allocation for 2005 is $5.008 million. The total allocation for 2004 and 2005 of $10,830,000 is available in the next application cycle. Applications will be accepted from January 10, 2005 through the application submission deadline of March 14, 2005. The Arkansas State Board of Education (SBE) will consider approval of these applications at its April 11, 2005 meeting. If the total 2004 and 2005 allocation of $10,830,000 is not approved at the April 11, 2005 SBE meeting, the remaining amount will be available for allocation during the next application cycle. The submission deadline for this subsequent application cycle is July 11, 2005 to be considered for approval at the August 8, 2005 SBE meeting.
For your consideration when reviewing this information and planning for the establishment of a QZAB Program, any carry forward of a limitation amount may be carried forward only to the first 2 years following the unused limitation year. In other words, 2004 QZABs must be approved by the SBE and issued by the district on or before December 31, 2006 to avoid expiration of the allocation. The 2005 QZABs must be approved by the SBE and issued by the district on or before December 31, 2007 to avoid expiration of the allocation.
Both the QZAB application and rules and regulations are available at the Arkansas Department of Education website as shown below: http://arkedu.state.ar.us/directory/publicschool_finance_p2.html#Loans
Please call Cindy Hedrick at (501)682-4258 for additional information on the QZAB Program.