Bill Text: NY S08362 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides an annual tax levy limit allowing for expenditures directly or indirectly related to school safety, including improving district wide emergency response plans, training staff and/or students on school safety and/or conflict mediation, installing and maintaining safety technology and software in school buildings, hiring school resource officers, acquiring emergency medical equipment, installing fencing around the perimeter of school grounds, installing bulletproof doors and windows, acquiring and maintaining technology for expedited notification of local law enforcement during an emergency.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-22 - REFERRED TO EDUCATION [S08362 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S08362-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8362 IN SENATE January 22, 2024 ___________ Introduced by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a school safety spending exclusion from annual tax levy limits The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph i of subdivision 2 of section 2023-a of the 2 education law, as added by section 2 of part A of chapter 97 of the laws 3 of 2011, is amended to read as follows: 4 i. "Tax levy limit" means the amount of taxes a school district is 5 authorized to levy pursuant to this section, provided, however, that the 6 tax levy limit shall not include the following: 7 (i) a tax levy necessary for expenditures resulting from court orders 8 or judgments against the school district arising out of tort actions for 9 any amount that exceeds five percent of the total tax levied in the 10 prior school year; 11 (ii) in years in which the system average actuarial contribution rate 12 of the New York state and local employees' retirement system, as defined 13 by paragraph ten of subdivision a of section nineteen-a of the retire- 14 ment and social security law, increases by more than two percentage 15 points from the previous year, a tax levy necessary for expenditures for 16 the coming fiscal year for school district employer contributions to the 17 New York state and local employees' retirement system caused by growth 18 in the system average actuarial contribution rate minus two percentage 19 points; 20 (iii) in years in which the normal contribution rate of the New York 21 state teachers' retirement system, as defined by paragraph a of subdivi- 22 sion two of section five hundred seventeen of this chapter, increases by 23 more than two percentage points from the previous year, a tax levy 24 necessary for expenditures for the coming fiscal year for school 25 district employer contributions to the New York state teachers' retire- 26 ment system caused by growth in the normal contribution rate minus two 27 percentage points; [and] 28 (iv) a capital tax levy[.]; and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10917-01-3S. 8362 2 1 (v) a tax levy for expenditures related to school safety. For the 2 purposes of this subparagraph, "expenditures related to school safety" 3 shall include costs, including labor costs, incurred as a result of, or 4 directly related to: improving district wide emergency response plans, 5 training staff and/or students on school safety and/or conflict medi- 6 ation, installing and maintaining safety technology and software at 7 entrances and throughout school buildings, hiring school resource offi- 8 cers, acquiring emergency medical equipment, installing fencing around 9 the perimeter of school grounds, installing bulletproof doors and 10 windows, acquiring and maintaining technology for expedited notification 11 of local law enforcement during an emergency, and designing school 12 grounds and structures to implement Crime Prevention Through Environ- 13 mental Design principles. 14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to taxes 15 levied by or on behalf of school districts for school years commencing 16 on and after such effective date.