NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7675A
SPONSOR: Buchwald (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the education law, in relation to
requiring notice of reserve funds and reserves funded by resolution and
to require that each school district post on its website, if any, a
final annual budget and any multi-year financial plan adopted by the
board of education or trustees
PURPOSE:
To provide increased transparency in school district fiscal operations.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Sections 1 and 1-a of this bill amend paragraph a of Subdivision 7 of
Section 1608 of the Education Law and Sections 2 and 2-a amend paragraph
a of Section 1716 of the Education Law to require school districts to
include a schedule of all reserve funds as part of the detailed state-
ment that is appended to the annual budget document.
Section 3 of this bill adds a new Section 3653 to the Education Law to
require boards of education or trustees of a school district to author-
ize any increased funding of reserves by resolution.
Section 4 of this bill adds a new subdivision 3-b to Section 2116-a of
the Education Law to require each school district to post on its,
website, if any, the annual external audit report and the corrective
action plan prepared in response to any findings contained in the annual
external audit report or management letter, or any final audit report
issued by the State Comptroller.
Section 5 of this bill adds a new Subdivision 7 to the current Section
2022 of the Education Law and the language to which such section will
revert if the current law expires to require that each school district
post on its website, if any, a final annual budget and any multi-year
financial plan adopted by the board of education or trustees.
Section 6 of the bill would make this act effective on the first of July
next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law and
addresses the expiration of certain provisions.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2013-2014 - S 4182-B /A.3733-B
2011-12 - S. 5689-A / A.7815-A
JUSTIFICATION:
The Office of the State Comptroller's experience auditing school
districts and BOCES, as required by Chapter 263 of the Laws of 2005, has
resulted in audits disclosing a number of circumstances in which certain
significant fiscal activities of school districts and BOCES were under-
taken without adequate transparency to the governing board and taxpay-
ers, in some cases because of a lack of statutory direction.
In such audits, it was also found that there were a number of situations
when school boards did not have current information about the amounts in
the district reserves. Without this key information, school boards
cannot effectively manage the finances of the districts. To avoid this
situation and increase transparency in school district fiscal oper-
ations, the bill would require that all transfers into reserve funds be
made pursuant to board resolution, and that a schedule of all reserves,
including the balance in each reserve fund and any plans for use of the
reserve in the ensuing fiscal year, be included in a schedule appended
to the annual budget document.
The requirements for posting on a school district's website the annual
external audit report and the corrective action plan prepared in
response to any findings contained in the annual external audit report
or management letter, or any final audit report issued by the State
Comptroller as well as a final annual budget and any multi-year finan-
cial plan adopted by the board of education or trustees increases the
transparency and accountability of the school district to the taxpayers.
The State Comptroller urges passage of this legislation.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None;
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding the date
on which it shall have become a law; provided, however, that the amend-
ment to paragraph a of subdivision 7 of section 1608 of the education
law made by section one of this act shall be subject to the expiration
and reversion of such paragraph pursuant to section 13 of part A of
chapter 97 of the laws of 2011, as amended, when upon such date the
provisions of section 1-a of this act shall take effect; provided
further, however, that the amendment to paragraph a of subdivision 7 of
section 1716 of the education law made by section two of this act shall
be subject to the expiration and reversion of such paragraph pursuant to
section 13 of part A of chapter 97 of the laws of 2011, as amended, when
upon such date the provisions of section 2-a.of this act shall take
effect; and provided, further, that the amendment to section 2022 of the
education law made by section five of this act shall survive the expira-
tion and reversion of such section pursuant to section 13 of part A of
chapter 97 of the laws of 2011, as amended.
