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History
- Referred to education
- Referred to rules
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Limits a school district contingency budget to the lowest proposed defeated budget for the applicable school year
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Steven Englebright
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to limiting the contingency budget of a school district
Purpose or general idea of bill
This legislation would prevent school districts from proposing a contingency budget that is greater than the lowest proposed budget defeated by the voters of that district.
Summary of specific provisions
The bill amends subsection 4a of section 2023 of the Education Law, adding a new criterion for school districts to follow when proposing a contingency budget.
Justification
Every year, school districts across the state (with the exception of large city and special act school districts) put forth budgets for voter approval for the following school year. Should a proposed budget be rejected by voters, the school district may put forth a second budget for voter approval or adopt a contingency budget not subject to voter approval. A district whose second proposed budget is rejected also revert to a contingency budget.
Section 2023 of the Education Law requires that contingency budgets conform to certain limitations. Among those limitations are that any spending increase under a contingency budget not exceed the lesser of 4% or the Consumer Price Index x 120 percent. Despite these limitations, it is unclear whether a school district could propose a contingency budget that is greater than a proposed budget rejected by the voters. This situation appeared to be developing in the Schenectady school district during the 2009 school budget voting process, but was averted after a canvas of the voting machines revealed a narrow victory on the second school budget vote by the district's voters.
This bill will prevent situations like the one in Schenectady from arising again by clarifying that a contingency budget can't be greater than the lowest school budget proposed by the district and defeated by the voters.
Prior legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.