Senate Bill S8608

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8608

SPONSOR: AKSHAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to the computation of
building aid for construction, reconstruction or modernizing of projects
for Binghamton City School District

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation makes it possible for the Binghamton city school
district to fund school construction, renovations and improvements.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Adds a new subparagraph 10 to paragraph a of subdivision 6 of
3602 of the education law related to. building aid for the district for
MCA calculation.

Section 2: Sets-the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

School buildings in the Binghamton City School District are in serious
need of replacement, repair and renovation. To this purpose this act
would enable the district to fund the necessary projects. This legis-
lation is an important step in providing the children of the district
with safe, healthy and productive learning environments.

The Binghamton City School District and the Feasibility Study conducted
under the direction of consultants have evaluated the capacity and
conditions of the current 10 school buildings. Six of the ten buildings
were originally constructed between 1914 and 1936, each eligible histor-
ical designation, with two others built in the late 60'/early 70's, a
time when asbestos was widely used throughout a building project, making
renovations and remediations extremely costly.

The state utilizes multi-year cost allowances when calculating Building
Aid for eligible capital projects. Once a district has reached its maxi-
mum cost allowance (MCA) for a particular project, additional state
contribution is not available for a period of five-years. This partic-
ular limitation has an adverse impact on the efficient execution of the
Capital Plan for the district, increases the costs of projects,
restricts the use of limited resources and unnecessarily disrupts the
academic process.

In order to be able to adopt the most cost-efficient plan as a result of
the Feasibility Study and ensure the district is adopting a plan to
place the district's facilities in the best possible position for
providing a sustainable quality learning environment, the district is
seeking flexibility in access existing building aid for up to 5 Build-
ings. Renovations and reconfigurations being proposed can only be accom-
plished by allowing up to 5 building projects to access three multi-year
maximum cost allowances, which would be authorized pursuant to this
bill. If this variance is not provided, the cost of renovations will
increase enormously as it will take a period of 15 years at each site to
achieve the plans goes. The long-term soft costs and material costs and

disruption to student would be increased with the need to complete the
full renovation and reconfiguration plan over the course of 15 years.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is new legislation.

 
FISCAL IMPACT:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.