Provides an annual tax levy limit allowing for expenditures directly or indirectly related to school safety, including improving district wide emergency response plans, training staff and/or students on school safety and/or conflict mediation, installing and maintaining safety technology and software in school buildings, hiring school resource officers, acquiring emergency medical equipment, installing fencing around the perimeter of school grounds, installing bulletproof doors and windows, acquiring and maintaining technology for expedited notification of local law enforcement during an emergency.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6799
SPONSOR: Eachus TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a school
safety spending exclusion from annual tax levy limits
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To add school safety spending to the list of exemptions to school tax
levies.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section of the education law to include school safety
spending within exemptions to school tax cap levy limits.
Section 2 sets the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
For too many New Yorkers, the first thing that comes to mind when they
think of students attending school are acts of mass violence. And when
many parents say goodbye to their children in the morning, they wonder
if it's the last time they'll be able to do so. The more often these
acts of violence are perpetrated, the more that fear is compounded.
Of the more than 2,000 school shootings that have occurred in the U.S.
since 1970, about half occurred in the past ten years. Since 1999, about
300,000 students have been on campus during a school shooting. Although
school shootings decreased during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,
data shows they have risen to, and even surpassed, pre-COVID levels.
The other exemptions to the school tax cap are generally things outside
of a school's control, i.e. a court order or increase in retirement
system contributions. Here, schools have frustratingly little power to
prevent, prepare, and respond to violence on their grounds. Addi-
tionally, keeping students safe stands alone amongst all school
expenses, and should be treated as such. The allowable expenditures
under this legislation span all efforts to improve school safety, from
physical improvements to digital infrastructure, to staff and training.
If students do not feel safe, they cannot grow to their fullest poten-
tial. This change in law would allow school districts to provide an
environment where that student growth is possible.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24 A6803: Referred to Education, S8362: Referred to Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to taxes levied
by or on behalf of school districts for school years commencing on and
after such effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6799
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. EACHUS -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a school
safety spending exclusion from annual tax levy limits
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph i of subdivision 2 of section 2023-a of the
2 education law, as added by section 2 of part A of chapter 97 of the laws
3 of 2011, is amended to read as follows:
4 i. "Tax levy limit" means the amount of taxes a school district is
5 authorized to levy pursuant to this section, provided, however, that the
6 tax levy limit shall not include the following:
7 (i) a tax levy necessary for expenditures resulting from court orders
8 or judgments against the school district arising out of tort actions for
9 any amount that exceeds five percent of the total tax levied in the
10 prior school year;
11 (ii) in years in which the system average actuarial contribution rate
12 of the New York state and local employees' retirement system, as defined
13 by paragraph ten of subdivision a of section nineteen-a of the retire-
14 ment and social security law, increases by more than two percentage
15 points from the previous year, a tax levy necessary for expenditures for
16 the coming fiscal year for school district employer contributions to the
17 New York state and local employees' retirement system caused by growth
18 in the system average actuarial contribution rate minus two percentage
19 points;
20 (iii) in years in which the normal contribution rate of the New York
21 state teachers' retirement system, as defined by paragraph a of subdivi-
22 sion two of section five hundred seventeen of this chapter, increases by
23 more than two percentage points from the previous year, a tax levy
24 necessary for expenditures for the coming fiscal year for school
25 district employer contributions to the New York state teachers' retire-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05790-01-5
A. 6799 2
1 ment system caused by growth in the normal contribution rate minus two
2 percentage points; [and]
3 (iv) a capital tax levy[.]; and
4 (v) a tax levy for expenditures related to school safety. For the
5 purposes of this subparagraph, "expenditures related to school safety"
6 shall include costs, including labor costs, incurred as a result of, or
7 directly related to: improving district wide emergency response plans,
8 training staff and/or students on school safety and/or conflict medi-
9 ation, installing and maintaining safety technology and software at
10 entrances and throughout school buildings, hiring school resource offi-
11 cers, acquiring emergency medical equipment, installing fencing around
12 the perimeter of school grounds, installing bulletproof doors and
13 windows, acquiring and maintaining technology for expedited notification
14 of local law enforcement during an emergency, and designing school
15 grounds and structures to implement Crime Prevention Through Environ-
16 mental Design principles.
17 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to taxes
18 levied by or on behalf of school districts for school years commencing
19 on and after such effective date.
