N.Y. Education Law § 416: School taxes and school bonds

§ 416. School taxes and school bonds. 1. A majority of the voters of

any school district, present and voting at any annual or special

district meeting, duly convened, may authorize such acts and vote such

taxes as they shall deem expedient for making additions, alterations,

repairs or improvements, to the sites or buildings belonging to the

district, or for altering and equipping for library use any former

schoolhouse belonging to the district, or for the purchase of other

sites or buildings, or for a change of sites, or for the purchase of

land and buildings for agricultural, athletic, playground or social

center purposes, or for the erection of new buildings, or for building a

bus garage, or for buying apparatus, implements, or fixtures, or for

paying the wages of teachers, and the necessary expenses of the school,

or for the purpose of paying any judgment, or for the payment or

refunding of an outstanding bonded indebtedness, or for such other

purpose relating to the support and welfare of the school as they may,

by resolution, approve.

2. On all propositions arising at said meetings involving the

expenditure of money, or authorizing the levy of a tax in one sum or by

installments, the vote thereon shall be by ballot, or ascertained by

taking and recording the ayes and noes of such qualified voters

attending and voting at such meetings; and they may direct the moneys so

voted to be levied in one sum, or by installments, which shall be of

such amounts and levied in such years as may be determined, within such

limitations as may be fixed by the voters, by the trustees or board of

education. No such tax shall be authorized to be levied by installments

as a condition precedent to the issuance of bonds or capital notes

unless the notice of the meeting shall state that such tax will be

proposed and the object or purpose thereof. Such notice shall comply

with the requirements of section 41.10 of the local finance law.

3. No addition to or change of site or purchase of a new site or tax

for the purchase of any new site or structure, or for grading or

improving a school site, or for the purchase of an addition to the site

of any schoolhouse, or for the purchase of lands and buildings for

agricultural, athletic, playground or social center purposes, or for

building any new schoolhouse or for the erection of an addition to any

schoolhouse already built, or for the payment or refunding of an

outstanding bonded indebtedness, shall be voted at any such meeting in a

union free school district or a city school district which conducts

annual budget votes in accordance with article forty-one of this chapter

pursuant to section twenty-six hundred one-a of this chapter, unless a

notice by the board of education stating that such tax will be proposed,

and specifying the object thereof and the amount to be expended

therefor, shall have been given in the manner provided herein for the

notice of an annual meeting. In a common school district the notice of a

special meeting to authorize any of the improvements enumerated in this

section shall be given as provided in section two thousand six. The

board of education of a union free school district or a city school

district which conducts annual budget votes in accordance with article

forty-one of this chapter pursuant to section twenty-six hundred one-a

of this chapter, may determine that the vote upon any question to be

submitted at a special meeting as provided in this section shall be by

ballot, in which case it shall state in the notice of such special

meeting the hours during which the polls shall be kept open. Printed

ballots may be prepared by the board in advance of the meeting and the

proposition or propositions called for in the notice of the meeting may

be submitted in substantially the same manner as propositions to be

voted upon at a general election.

4. And whenever a tax for any of the objects hereinbefore specified

shall be legally voted, the board of trustees or board of education

shall make out their tax list, and attach their warrant thereto, in the

manner provided in article seventy-one of this chapter, for the

collection of school district taxes, and shall cause such taxes or such

instalments to be collected at such times as they shall become due.

5. No vote to raise money shall be rescinded, nor the amount thereof

be reduced at any subsequent meeting, unless it be an adjourned meeting

or a meeting called by regular and legal notice, which shall specify the

proposed action, and at which the vote upon said proposed reduction or

rescinding shall be taken by ballot or by taking and recording the ayes

and noes of the qualified voters attending and voting thereat.

6. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, propo-

sitions for the construction of a new schoolhouse or an addition to a

present schoolhouse at the same site shall not be submitted for a vote

more than twice during any twelve month period and in no event shall a

proposition be submitted for a vote less than ninety days after a vote

on the same or similar proposition. However, the prohibition of this

subdivision shall not apply to a proposition to approve an additional

amount necessary to carry out a construction project, where the voters

have approved an initial building project and it is determined that the

bids for such project are in excess of the approved amount.

7. The provisions of this section shall not apply to a city school

district in a city having a population of one hundred twenty-five

thousand inhabitants or more.