Topeka ? A state program that helps poor school districts pay for new schools and athletic facilities would be placed on hold for three years, under two bills given tentative House approval Wednesday.

Construction projects for which voters approved a bond issue before July 1, 2003, would not be affected. But with few exceptions, no projects for which local bonds were passed after July 1 would qualify for the state funding.

The three-year moratorium is intended to rein in the state’s cost of the funding program — a section of the 1992 school finance law meant to help poorer districts afford new schools and athletic facilities.

Under the program, the state pays up to 75 percent of the principal and interest on construction bonds for school districts in which total assessed property valuation falls below a certain threshold. The precise amount of aid varies with districts’ wealth.

House members placed the moratoriums — one on school buildings, one on sports facilities — in two Senate bills from which they stripped the original content, then gave them tentative approval on unrecorded voice votes. Final House votes are expected today.

Rep. Bill Mason said districts had taken advantage of the aid program with the notion that the “free money” would not last forever. He said the money was not free and that it came from taxpayers.

“If they want to build, they can do it, but it doesn’t have to be with state money,” Mason, R-El Dorado, said.

Kansas will spend $47.2 million to assist school districts with bond and interest payments in the 2003 fiscal year, which ends June 30, and $55 million in fiscal 2004.

House Education Committee Chairwoman Kathe Decker, R-Clay Center, said the state’s costs under the program had been increasing by $5 million to $7 million annually.

The two bills provide exceptions for construction that is needed for safety or asbestos reasons or to accommodate rapid growth in enrollment.