AN ACT to Clarify and codify jury instructions for a budget dispute between board of education and board of county commissioners.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑431(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	Within five days after an announcement of no agreement by the mediator, the local board of education may file an action in the superior court division of the General Court of Justice. Either board has the right to have the issues of fact tried by a jury. When a jury trial is demanded, the cause shall be set for the first succeeding term of the superior court in the county, and shall take precedence over all other business of the court. However, if the judge presiding certifies to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, either before or during the term, that because of the accumulation of other business, the public interest will be best served by not trying the cause at the term next succeeding the filing of the action, the Chief Justice shall immediately call a special term of the superior court for the county, to convene as soon as possible, and assign a judge of the superior court or an emergency judge to hold the court, and the cause shall be tried at this special term. The judge shall find, or if the issue is submitted to the jury, the jury shall find the facts as to the following in order to maintain a system of free public schools as defined by State law and State Board of Education policy: (i) the amount of money legally necessary from all sources and (ii) the amount of money legally necessary from the board of county commissioners. In making the finding, the judge or the jury shall consider the educational goals and policies of the State and the local board of education, the budgetary request of the local board of education, the financial resources of the county and the local board of education, and the fiscal policies of the board of county commissioners and the local board of education. All findings of fact in the superior court, whether found by the judge or a jury, shall be conclusive. When the facts have been found, the court shall give judgment ordering the board of county commissioners to appropriate a sum certain to the local school administrative unit, and to levy such taxes on property as may be necessary to make up this sum when added to other revenues available for the purpose."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to all actions commenced on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 13th day of June, 2013.

	s/	 Daniel J. Forest
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Thom Tillis
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Pat McCrory
	 Governor

Approved 4:24 p.m. this 19th day of June, 2013