State Rep. David Hawk, R-5th, of Greeneville, said during an interview Saturday that House Bill 9, which would return a portion of "surplus" state lottery funds to local school systems for use in funding school building projects, crossed an important hurdle last week.

The legislation was approved by the state House of Representatives' Education Committee on Wednesday, April 23. Introduced by Hawk in 2007, the bill had been stalled in the Education Committee until last week.

"As we all know Greene County has many, many needs in our schools and this is a small way to help that," he said.

The Greene County Board of Education, last Thursday, voted to seek funding from the Greene County Commission for a $26.8 million project that would build a new, 1,000-student West Greene High School on property across Midway Road from the existing school.

During last Thursday's school board meeting, Director of Schools Dr. Joe Parkins told board members that should Rep. Hawk's legislation be approved and signed into law, county officials could use proceeds of the legislation to make the first year's interest payment on the construction bonds that would have to be issued to build the new school.

Parkins said that could delay a local property tax increase that otherwise will be needed for the 2008-09 fiscal year until next year.

If approved by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen, Hawk said, the bill would mean "between $1.2 million and $1.3 million would come back to Greene County" in the first year after the legislation becomes effective.

Hawk said he was happy that he was able to keep a mechanism in the bill that specifies "any excess revenue in the lottery fund above $250 million" will go back to local school systems.

"That gives us an opportunity for the dollars to be recurring if the lottery is successful and funds go above $250 million in years to come," he said.

Hawk said that could mean the Greene County School System could receive "a couple of hundred thousand dollars" in future years.

The next hurdle for the bill will be to pass the state House of Representatives Budget Subcommittee and then its Finance Committee.

"There is a little bit of cost in setting up the program," Hawk said. "Hopefully, we will be able to work out the financial obligation. We could go through the state Department of Education to run the program. There are several options we have to try to remove the financial obligation to the state's budget."

The Greeneville legislator said he is looking at ways to subsequently get the bill through the House of Representatives' Finance Committee.

Hawk noted that companion state Senate legislation has been amended to limit the amount of surplus lottery funds returned to local school systems to "one lump sum."

"That would scale back the amount of money Greene County could expect to receive to about $800,000 to $900,000," he said. "I'm certainly going to be fighting for the larger amount of money to come back to Greene County."

Hawk said the Senate version also has been approved by that body's Education Committee and is currently awaiting consideration in the Senate's Finance Committee.

"Both bills are on the same track in the legislative process," he said.

Should the companion bills be approved by state House of Representative and the state Senate, Hawk said, they will have to be reconciled in a conference committee.