WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. By John F. Bailey. March 19, 2010. UPDATED 9:55 A.M. E.D.T.  UPDATED 11:08 A.M. E.D.T.:  The New York State Senate has quietly passed a bill that if passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor would allow school districts to raise property taxes approximately 3% above the 0% currently required by contingency budget legislation now in effect. It replaces the contigency budget formula followed for years, for one year.

The bill if it becomes law effectively would keep in effect any school budget of approximately 3% more than last year presented to voters even if the voters would turn that budget down at the polls. The legislation allows school districts across the state to raise budgets about 3% prior to the school budget vote in May without fear of a voter rejection reducing them to a contingency budget.

In White Plains, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred Seiler told WPCNR the average of the last 5 years of inflation was about 3%. He said, when asked if the school district was aware of this legislation, acknowledge, "I've heard bits and pieces of it."

He explained the legislation section 7 of Assembly Bill A10130, noting that the complex formula of 120% of the previous 5 years inflation rate, or 4%  would be the normal raise permitted under the new Senate-created bill.

Asked the effect of an "allowed" 3% increase in the White Plains Budget, Seiler said this would mean an 8% property tax hike, instead of the 4.72% property tax hike in the current budget which will be presented Monday evening.

This works out to a $556.36/$1,000 of assessed valuation for White Plains tax payers if the School Board went along with what Albany is allowing them to do.

Seiler said he had presented the option to the School Board Finance Committee this past Tuesday evening. Seiler told WPCNR the 3% Contingency budget would allow about an $6 Million increase up to $193 Million and allow the school district to avert the 83 job eliminations, including 41 teachers, 38 support staff and 4 administrators currently considered in the current budget of $185.5 Million, that is down 3/4 of a percent -- the first budget decline in school district history.

Seiler said the Board had to decide if it wants to raise the school budget (anticipating the Albany legislation) before sending the current budget out to voters, because once a vote passes a school budget, it cannot be raised retroactively.

The New York State Senate passed 56-2 this built-in property tax increase as part of a bill called the Educational Mandate Relief Act, sponsored by White Plains State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer and Nassau County Senator Craig Johnson. The bill now goes to the Assembly, where it will be sponsored by Assembly District 88 Assemblywoman Amy Paulin.

Details are very sketchy on the legislation, but the essence of the bill explained in "The Purpose" section is that it would enable school districts to pool services for such purposes as school busing and purchasing supplies.

However in Section 7 of the bill it allows Districts to increase property taxes 4% over and above contingency budgets if a school budget is defeated by voters. Currently, the contingency budget allowance for districts across the state is a 0% increase.

The background on this little-known, and heretofore untouted bill was reported first by the New York Post at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/tax_hike_back_stab_77q0UCmV7IOeKudeFRwdNP#ixzz0icHvoNJ4

The bill now passed by the New York State Senate goes to the Assembly under the Legislation Number A10130. The key section reads:

S 7. Paragraph a of subdivision 4 of section  2023  of  the  education
   38  law,  as  added  by  section  24 of part A of chapter 436 of the laws of
   39  1997, is amended to read as follows:
   40    a. The contingency budget shall not result in a percentage increase in
   41  total spending over the  district's  total  spending  under  the  school
   42  district  budget  for  the prior school year that exceeds the lesser of:
   43  (i) THE AVERAGE OF THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS OF the result  obtained  when
   44  one  hundred  twenty percent is multiplied by the percentage increase in
   45  the consumer price index, with the result rounded to two decimal places;
   46  or (ii) four percent.

Should this law be passed by the Assembly, it would enable the White Plains School District for example, to increase the school budget over and above the year-to-year decrease currently planned.

The bill should it be passed would expire in May 2011, indicating it is a one-year measure that circumvents the contingency budget legislation in effect for years.