What's happening
This bill provides a $500,000 supplemental grant to the West Valley Central School District due to its high percentage of tax-exempt property.
Why it matters
Targets a Unique Financial Hardship. The grant directly addresses the fiscal challenges faced by West Valley Central School District due to an unusually high percentage (over 83%) of tax-exempt property, which limits the district’s ability to generate revenue from local property taxes.
Narrows Eligibility Criteria. By removing references to other financial hardships (like reductions in taxable property or large tax certiorari judgments) and focusing solely on districts with very high tax-exempt property, the bill specifically tailors aid to West Valley, potentially excluding other districts with different types of financial distress.
Temporary, One-Time Relief. The supplemental $500,000 grant is intended as short-term assistance for the 2019–2020 school year, highlighting that this is not an ongoing funding solution but rather a stopgap measure for a district facing immediate fiscal pressure.
Precedent for Future Aid Requests. By amending the law to explicitly provide this grant based on a high proportion of tax-exempt property, the bill could set a legislative precedent and potentially open the door for similar claims from other districts in comparable situations in the future.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Fund West Valley School
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
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History
- Referred to education
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.
Fund West Valley Schools
In Assembly Committee · Real Property Taxation · Sponsor Joseph Giglio
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
906
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 9, 2019
Introduced by Sen. YOUNG -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to providing a supplemental valuation impact grant to the West Valley central school district
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 3641 of the education law, as added by section 29-a of part B of chapter 57 of the laws of 2008, paragraph a as amended by section 31 of part A of chapter 57 of the laws of 2009, is amended to read as follows:
3. Supplemental valuation impact grants. a. In addition to apportionments otherwise provided by section thirty-six hundred two of this article, for aid payable in the two thousand [eight] nineteen--two thousand [nine and two thousand nine--two thousand ten] twenty school [years] year, the [amounts] amount specified in [paragraphs] paragraph c [and d] of this subdivision shall be paid for the purpose of providing additional funding for a school [districts] district which [have experienced a significant financial hardship caused by an extraordinary change in the taxable property valuation or extraordinary judgments resulting from tax certiorari proceedings] has more than eighty-three percent of its real property classified as tax exempt.
b. The purpose of this subdivision is to provide financial assistance to a school [districts] district which [have experienced a significant reduction in the taxable full value of the school district or extraordinary tax certiorari judgments] has more than eighty-three percent of its real property classified as tax exempt. The legislature finds that a school [districts for which a judgment was made resulting from a tax certiorari proceeding which is larger than the total budget of the school district for school year two thousand seven--two thousand eight or for school districts] district which [have observed a reduction of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03732-01-9
S. 906 2
taxable real property of more than seventy-five percent between school year two thousand five--two thousand six and school year two thousand eight--two thousand nine] has more than eighty-three percent of its real property classified as tax exempt during school year two thousand nineteen--two thousand twenty may benefit from temporary additional assistance.
c. To the [Barker central school district, there shall be paid one million three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000). Such grant shall be payable to the Barker central school district in accordance with the payment schedules contained in section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this article, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary.
d. To the Haverstraw-Stony Point central school district, there shall be paid two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000). Such grant shall be payable to the Haverstraw-Stony Point central school district in accordance with the payment schedules contained in section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this article, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary] West Valley central school district, there shall be paid five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000). Such grant shall be payable to the West Valley central school district in accordance with the payment schedules contained in section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this article, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to providing a supple- mental valuation impact grant to the West Valley central school district
Purpose
To provide a $500,000 supplemental valuation impact grant to the West Valley central school district.
Summary of provisions
Section 3641, subdivision 3 of the Education Law is amended.
Justification
Within the boundaries of the West Valley Central School District is the West Valley Nuclear Demonstration project site. This site is located on approximately 3,300 acres in the Town of Ashford where West Valley is situated. Initially, in 1961, the site was created to commercially reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The operator of the site was Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS). In the late 1970's, NFS determined that it was no longer feasible to pursue reprocessing. Since then the site has been in the process of being decommissioned. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is the owner of the facility.
The real property tax school funding system that New York State uses to fund its public schools system disproportionately hurts West Valley, since they have little real property to tax, given that most of their land is state-owned, and as such is tax exempt, primarily as a result of the West Valley nuclear reprocessing project that folded. In addition, the School District is a small, rural, relatively poor area with little tax base to begin with. This situation is further magnified by an unwillingness of families to locate in the District due to fears associ- ated with living close to a nuclear facility couple with one of the highest tax rates in Cattaraugus County.
West Valley School District assessment date for 2012 shows that $531,901,574 out of the district's estimated $628,380,834 assessed value is tax exempt. This equates to approximately 85% tax exempt lands. New York State-owned lands account for 94% of this exemption. If taxable, this nuclear site would provide over $2.7 million dollars of tax revenue each school year to the district. In addition, the school tax rate in the Town of Ashford would decrease from $37.62 per thousand to $5.45 per thousand.
As a result of the high tax rate, which is 21 percent to 65 percent higher than contiguous districts, the District's current property owners pay a disproportionate share of school tax as compared to property owners in other districts. This makes purchasing a home cost prohibitive for young families, and is also a factor contributing to the District's 30.7 percent rate of decline in student enrollment between the 2005/06 and 2013/14 school years.
Because of West Valley's unique situation, this bill was requested by the school district to help offset the loss of revenues that they incur due to their tax exempt lands.
Legislative history
2018: S.557-A/A.5005-A Referred to Education 2017: S.557/A.5005 Referred to Education 2015, 2016: S.2772A/A.5429A Referred to Education 2013, 2014: S.3780A/A.6018A Referred to Education 2011, 2012: S.859A/A.1955A Referred to Education 2010: S.8189 Referred to Rules
Fiscal implications
$500,000, subject to appropriation in the state budget.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.