BILL NUMBER:  S4649

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to authorize the Cuba-Rushford central school
district to transfer certain monies from the employee benefit accrued
liability reserve fund to the general fund for the purpose of real
property tax reduction; and providing for the repeal of such
provisions upon expiration thereof

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

Allows the Cuba-Rushford Central School District to transfer money
from the employee benefit accrued liability reserve fund (EBALR) to
the general fund for the purpose of reducing the tax levy.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section 1 allows the Cuba-Rushford Central School District to transfer
no more than $404,234 from the employee benefit accrued liability
reserved fund to the general fund for the sole purpose of real
property tax reduction. Section 2 says this act shall take effect
immediately and shall expire and be deemed repealed on July 1, 2011.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Recently, the Comptroller's office released the results of an audit
that looked specifically at the Employee Benefit Accrued Liability
              

Reserve Funds that are used by School Districts across the State to
pay for accrued vacation, personal and other leave time due to
employees when they leave district employment.

However, GASB-45 liabilities caused independent school auditors to
instruct many schools to place funds into this particular reserve
account for the purpose of paying for retiree health insurance costs.
Section 6-p of the General Municipal Law does not allow school
districts to utilize the funds for that purpose, thus hundreds across
the State have far more money in the EBALR fund than they do
liabilities.

Special legislation is required to authorize any school district to
remove funds from specific reserve accounts. This legislation will
authorize the Cuba-Rushford Central School District to transfer no
more than $404,234 from the EBALR reserve account to the general fund
for the sole purpose of real property tax reduction.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

This is a new bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None to the State.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediate.