NY State Senate Bill 2013-S5332

Senate Bill S5332

2013-2014 Legislative Session

Legalizes, validates, ratifies and confirms the actions of the Panama central school district regardless of the failure of such district to timely file final building cost reports

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Education Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 08, 2014	referred to education
May 16, 2013	referred to education

2013-S5332 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A7708
Current Committee:: Senate Education
Law Section:: Education
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2015-2016: A10045
2017-2018: A8302, A9730
2019-2020: A5442

2013-S5332 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Legalizes, validates, ratifies and confirms the actions of the Panama central school district regardless of the failure of such district to timely file final building cost reports.

2013-S5332 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:S5332

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to legalize, validate, ratify and confirm the
actions of the Panama central school district notwithstanding the
failure to timely file final building cost reports with the education
department

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

The purpose of this legislation is to authorize the Panama Central
School District to receive state aid despite the error that caused an
untimely submission of their building aid project final cost report.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 allows the Education Department to consider the final cost
report for Panama Central School as legalized, validated, ratified and
confirmed so long as it was submitted before December 21, 2012, the
commissioner approved the cost report, all state funds were properly
expended for such building project, and the failure to submit the
report in a timely manner was an inadvertent administrative or
ministerial oversight.

Section 2 provides that this act shall take effect immediately.

JUSTIFICATION:

Panama Central School District is a small, rural school district in
Southwestern New York with an enrollment of 573 students and a budget
of approximately $12,000,000.

In 2005, the Panama Central School District completed a small
maintenance project that was closed out. In 2009, Panama Central
School District verified that this project was complete as shown on
the state website. Panama then started a new project in 2008.

In 2012, Panama Central School reviewed the state's website to find
that they had an "open" project with a substantial completion
certificate filed on August 28, 2002 and December 12, 2005. This
information was not previously made available to Panama Central School
when they were closing out their 2005 building project. This meant
that Panama Central School neglected to file a Final Cost Report for a
building project with the Office of Facility Planning of the State
Education Department (SED) within the established time frame.

Requiring the school district to pay back and have anticipated state
aid withheld for the projects would amount to withholding 1/3 of the
school's yearly spending plan or $4.9 million. This is an onerous and
unfair amount for a ministerial oversight that was immediately
rectified once the school was made aware of the problem.

This legislation would allow the Education Department to consider the
final cost report legalized, validated, ratified and confirmed.

This bill would correct this unfair penalization of the school as well
as the taxpayers of the district who must bear its cost.


PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

This legislation will have no fiscal implications for the State since
the state aid has already been approved and budgeted.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.

2013-S5332 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  5332

                       2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                              May 16, 2013
                               ___________

Introduced  by  Sen.  YOUNG  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
  printed to be committed to the Committee on Education

AN ACT to legalize, validate, ratify and  confirm  the  actions  of  the
  Panama  central  school district notwithstanding the failure to timely
  file final building cost reports with the education department

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
all  acts done and proceedings heretofore had and taken, or caused to be
had or taken, by the Panama central school district and by  any  of  its
officers or agents relating to or in connection with final building cost
reports  required to be filed with the education department for approved
building projects completed prior to December 31,  2012,  and  all  acts
incidental   thereto  are  hereby  legalized,  validated,  ratified  and
confirmed, notwithstanding any failure to comply with the time  require-
ments for the approval and filing provisions of the education law or any
other  provision  of law, rule or regulation, relating to any omissions,
error, defect, irregularity or illegality in such  proceedings  had  and
taken,  and  provided  further  that  any amount due and payable to such
school district for school years prior to the 2012-2013 school year as a
result of this act shall be paid pursuant to the provisions of paragraph
c of subdivision 5 of section 3604 of the education law,  provided  that
such school district:
  (a)  submitted  the  late or missing final building cost report to the
commissioner of education on or before December 31, 2012;
  (b) such cost report is approved by the commissioner of education;
  (c) all state funds expended by the school district, as documented  in
such  cost  report,  were properly expended for such building project in
accordance with the terms and conditions for such project as approved by
the commissioner of education; and

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD11056-02-3

S. 5332                             2

  (d) the failure to submit such report in a timely manner was an  inad-
vertent  administrative or ministerial oversight by the school district,
and there is no evidence of any fraudulent or other improper  intent  by
such district.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.