Provides for the repayment by the Schenectady city school district of certain excess state payments through deduction of future aid payments over a three year period.
Ayes (18): Flanagan, Farley, Lanza, LaValle, Marcellino, Maziarz, Ranzenhofer, Robach, Saland, Seward, Oppenheimer, Addabbo, Avella, Breslin, Montgomery, Serrano, Stavisky, Huntley
Ayes (30): DeFrancisco, Johnson, Alesi, Bonacic, Farley, Flanagan, Fuschillo, Golden, Griffo, Hannon, Lanza, Larkin, LaValle, Little, Marcellino, Nozzolio, Robach, Saland, Seward, Young, Breslin, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, Gianaris, Montgomery, Oppenheimer, Perkins, Stavisky, Stewart-Cousins
Ayes W/R (4): Krueger, Kruger, Peralta, Rivera
Nays (1): Parker
Ayes (62): Adams, Addabbo, Alesi, Avella, Ball, Bonacic, Breslin, Carlucci, DeFrancisco, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, Espaillat, Farley, Flanagan, Fuschillo, Gallivan, Gianaris, Golden, Griffo, Grisanti, Hannon, Hassell-Thomps, Huntley, Johnson, Kennedy, Klein, Krueger, Kruger, Lanza, Larkin, LaValle, Libous, Little, Marcellino, Martins, Maziarz, McDonald, Montgomery, Nozzolio, O'Mara, Oppenheimer, Parker, Peralta, Perkins, Ranzenhofer, Ritchie, Rivera, Robach, Saland, Sampson, Savino, Serrano, Seward, Skelos, Smith, Squadron, Stavisky, Stewart-Cousin, Valesky, Young, Zeldin
BILL NUMBER:S5390
TITLE OF BILL: An act to provide for the repayment by the Schenectady city school district of certain excess state payments
PURPOSE: To allow the Schenectady City School District to spread out repayment of excess state aid over three years.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: Section 1 of the bill provides that excess aid paid to the Schenectady City School District in the 2003-04 through 2008-09 school years, of which the District has been notified and for which the State must make a recovery through deductions of future aid payments, shall be recovered by reducing the amount of future State aid payments by one-third of the amount of such excess payments in the aid payments for June of 2011, 2012 and 2013.
JUSTIFICATION: In 2008, the State Education Department identified an error in a legal notice published several years earlier by the Schenectady City School District in relation to certain transportation services for the 2003-04 school year. Because of this error, the Department indicated that the expected state transportation aid could not be paid for these two contracts which covered the 2003-04 school year. The situation worsened when the Education Department also indicated that the District could not be reimbursed for transportation expenses incurred in connection with the extension of those contracts covering school years from 2004-05 through 2008-09. Because the School District was unaware that there was a problem with the original contracts, it had extended the contracts several times. Because of the delay in identifying the original error, the potential financial ramifications of this error increased dramatically.
The District now must pay back a total of $3,860,466. The Department of Education is currently requiring that this money be paid back in two installments. $2,956,669 is to be deducted from the June 2011 General Aid payment and $903,797 from the June 2012 General Aid payment. This creates a hardship for the District. This legislation would allow the District to make the repayments to the State in three equal payments to be deducted from the General Aid payments in June of 2011, 2012 and 2013.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: Minimal to State. Provides fiscal relief to the School District.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5390 2011-2012 Regular Sessions IN SENATE May 16, 2011 ___________Introduced by Sen. FARLEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to provide for the repayment by the Schenectady city school district of certain excess state payments THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM- BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Notwithstanding any provisions of law to the contrary, state aid payments in the amount of not more than three million eight hundred sixty thousand four hundred sixty-six dollars ($3,860,466) made to the Schenectady city school district in the 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006- 07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years, which included excess payments of which such district has been notified, and for which a recovery must be made by the state through deduction of future aid payments, shall be reduced through aid deductions totaling such excess payments, by deduct- ing one-third of such excess payments from the payments due to such school district and payable in the month of June in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013; provided, however, there shall be no interest penalty assessed against such district or collected by the state; and provided, further, that notwithstanding any other provisions of this act, any pending payment of moneys due to such district as a prior year adjustment paya- ble pursuant to paragraph c of subdivision 5 of section 3604 of the education law for aid claims that had been previously paid in excess as current year aid payments for which recovery of excess payments is to be made pursuant to this section, shall be reduced at the time of actual payment by any remaining unrecovered balance of such excess payments, and the remaining scheduled deductions of such excess payments pursuant to this section shall be reduced by the commissioner of education to reflect the amount so recovered. S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD11487-02-1
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