N.Y. Education Law § 1608: Estimated expenses for ensuing year

§ 1608. Estimated expenses for ensuing year. 1. It shall be the duty

of the trustees of each common school district to present at the annual

budget hearing a detailed statement in writing of the amount of money

which will be required for the ensuing year for school purposes,

specifying the several purposes and the amount for each. The amount for

each purpose estimated necessary for payments to boards of cooperative

educational services shall be shown in full, with no deduction of

estimated state aid. The amount of state aid provided and its percentage

relationship to the total expenditures shall also be shown. This section

shall not be construed to prevent the trustees from presenting such

statement at a budget hearing held not less than seven nor more than

fourteen days prior to a special meeting called for the purpose, nor

from presenting a supplementary and amended statement or estimate at any

time.

2. Such statement shall be completed at least seven days before the

budget hearing at which it is to be presented and copies thereof shall

be prepared and made available, upon request and at the school district

offices, at any public library or free association library within the

district and on the school district's internet website, if one exists,

to residents within the district during the period of fourteen days

immediately preceding the annual meeting and election or special

district meeting at which the budget vote will occur and at such meeting

or hearing. The board shall also as a part of the notice required by

section two thousand three of this chapter give notice of the date, time

and place of the budget hearing and that a copy of such statement may be

obtained by any resident in the district at each schoolhouse in the

district in which school is maintained during certain designated hours

on each day other than a Saturday, Sunday or holiday during the fourteen

days immediately preceding such meeting. The board shall include notice

of the availability of such statement at least once during the school

year in any district-wide mailing distributed.

3. Commencing with the proposed budget for the nineteen hundred

ninety-seven--ninety-eight school year, such proposed budget shall be in

plain language and shall be consistent with regulations promulgated by

the commissioner pursuant to subdivision twenty-six of section three

hundred five of this chapter. Categorization of and format for revenue,

including payments in lieu of taxes, property tax refunds from

certiorari proceedings, expenditure, transfer, and fund balance

information and changes in such data from the prior year and, in the

case of a resubmitted or amended budget, changes in such information

from the prior year's submitted budget, shall be complete and accurate

and set forth in such a manner as to best promote public comprehension

and readability.

4. Commencing with the proposed budget for the nineteen hundred

ninety-eight--ninety-nine school year, such proposed budget shall be

presented in three components: a program component, a capital component

and an administrative component which shall be separately delineated in

accordance with regulations of the commissioner after consultation with

local school district officials. The administrative component shall

include, but need not be limited to, office and central administrative

expenses, traveling expenses and all compensation, salaries and benefits

of all school administrators and supervisors, including business

administrators, superintendents of schools and deputy, assistant,

associate or other superintendents under all existing employment

contracts or collective bargaining agreements any and all expenditures

associated with the operation of the office of trustee or board of

trustees, the office of the superintendent of schools, general

administration, the school business office, consulting costs not

directly related to direct student services and programs, planning and

all other administrative activities. The program component shall

include, but need not be limited to, all program expenditures of the

school district, including the salaries and benefits of teachers and any

school administrators or supervisors who spend a majority of their time

performing teaching duties, and all transportation operating expenses.

The capital component shall include, but need not be limited to, all

transportation capital, debt service, and lease expenditures; costs

resulting from judgments in tax certiorari proceedings or the payment of

awards from court judgments, administrative orders or settled or

compromised claims; and all facilities costs of the school district,

including facilities lease expenditures, the annual debt service and

total debt for all facilities financed by bonds and notes of the school

district, and the costs of construction, acquisition, reconstruction,

rehabilitation or improvement of school buildings, provided that such

budget shall include a rental, operations and maintenance section that

includes base rent costs, total rent costs, operation and maintenance

charges, cost per square foot for each facility leased by the school

district, and any and all expenditures associated with custodial

salaries and benefits, service contracts, supplies, utilities, and

maintenance and repairs of school facilities. For the purposes of the

development of a budget for the nineteen hundred

ninety-eight--ninety-nine school year, the trustee or board of trustees

shall separate the district's program, capital and administrative costs

for the nineteen hundred ninety-seven--ninety-eight school year in the

manner as if the budget for such year had been presented in three

components.

5. The trustee or board of trustees shall append to the statement of

estimated expenditures a detailed statement of the total compensation to

be paid to the superintendent of schools, and any assistant or associate

superintendents of schools in the ensuing school year, including a

delineation of the salary, annualized cost of benefits and any in-kind

or other form of remuneration. The trustees shall also append a list of

all other school administrators and supervisors, if any, whose annual

salary will be eighty-five thousand dollars or more in the ensuing

school year, with the title of their positions and annual salary

identified; provided however, that the commissioner may adjust such

salary level to reflect increases in administrative salaries after June

thirtieth, nineteen hundred ninety-eight. The trustees shall submit a

copy of such list and statement, in a form prescribed by the

commissioner, of compensation to the commissioner within five days after

their preparation. The commissioner shall compile such data, together

with the data submitted pursuant to subdivision three of section

seventeen hundred sixteen of this chapter, into a single statewide

compilation, which shall be made available to the governor, the

legislature, and other interested parties upon request.

6. Each year, the board of education shall prepare a school district

report card, pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, and shall make

it publicly available by transmitting it to local newspapers of general

circulation, appending it to copies of the proposed budget made publicly

available as required by law, making it available for distribution at

the annual meeting, and otherwise disseminating it as required by the

commissioner. Such report card shall include measures of the academic

performance of the school district, on a school by school basis, and

measures of the fiscal performance of the district, as prescribed by the

commissioner. Pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, the report

card shall also compare these measures to statewide averages for all

public schools, and statewide averages for public schools of comparable

wealth and need, developed by the commissioner. Such report card shall

include, at a minimum, any information on the school district regarding

pupil performance and expenditure per pupil required to be included in

the annual report by the regents to the governor and the legislature

pursuant to section two hundred fifteen-a of this chapter; and any other

information required by the commissioner. School districts (i)

identified as having fifteen percent or more of their students in

special education, or (ii) which have fifty percent or more of their

students with disabilities in special education programs or services

sixty percent or more of the school day in a general education building,

or (iii) which have eight percent or more of their students with

disabilities in special education programs in public or private separate

educational settings shall indicate on their school district report card

their respective percentages as defined in this subparagraph and

subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of this paragraph as compared to the

statewide average.

7. a. Each year, commencing with the proposed budget for the two

thousand--two thousand one school year, the trustee or board of trustees

shall prepare a property tax report card, pursuant to regulations of the

commissioner, and shall make it publicly available by transmitting it to

local newspapers of general circulation, appending it to copies of the

proposed budget made publicly available as required by law, making it

available for distribution at the annual meeting, and otherwise

disseminating it as required by the commissioner. Such report card shall

include: (i) the amount of total spending and total estimated school tax

levy that would result from adoption of the proposed budget and the

percentage increase or decrease in total spending and total school tax

levy from the school district budget for the preceding school year; and

(ii) the district's tax levy limit determined pursuant to section two

thousand twenty-three-a of this title, and the estimated school tax

levy, excluding any levy necessary to support the expenditures pursuant

to subparagraphs (i) through (iv) of paragraph i of subdivision two of

section two thousand twenty-three-a of this title, that would result

from adoption of the proposed budget; and (iii) the projected enrollment

growth for the school year for which the budget is prepared, and the

percentage change in enrollment from the previous year; and (iv) the

percentage increase in the consumer price index, as defined in paragraph

c of this subdivision; and (v) the projected amount of the

unappropriated unreserved fund balance that will be retained if the

proposed budget is adopted, the projected amount of the reserved fund

balance, the projected amount of the appropriated fund balance, the

percentage of the proposed budget that the unappropriated unreserved

fund balance represents, the actual unappropriated unreserved fund

balance retained in the school district budget for the preceding school

year, and the percentage of the school district budget for the preceding

school year that the actual unappropriated unreserved fund balance

represents, and a schedule of reserve funds, setting forth the name of

each reserve fund, a description of its purpose, the balance as of the

close of the third quarter of the current school district fiscal year

and a brief statement explaining any plans for the use of each such

reserve fund for the ensuing fiscal year.

b. A copy of the property tax report card prepared for the annual

district meeting shall be submitted to the department in the manner

prescribed by the department by the end of the business day next

following approval of the report card by the trustee or board of

trustees, but no later than twenty-four days prior to the statewide

uniform voting day. The department shall compile such data for all

school districts whose budgets are subject to a vote of the qualified

voters and shall make such compilation available electronically at least

ten days prior to the statewide uniform voting day.

c. For purposes of this subdivision, "percentage increase in the

consumer price index" shall mean the percentage that represents the

product of one hundred and the quotient of: (i) the average of the

national consumer price indexes determined by the United States

department of labor for the twelve-month period preceding January first

of the current year minus the average of the national consumer price

indexes determined by the United States department of labor for the

twelve-month period preceding January first of the prior year, divided

by (ii) the average of the national consumer price indexes determined by

the United States department of labor for the twelve-month period

preceding January first of the prior year, with the result expressed as

a decimal to two places.