NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5312
SPONSOR: Giglio JM TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to providing a supple-
mental valuation impact grant to the West Valley central school district
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To provide a $500,000 supplemental valuation impact grant to the West
Valley Central School District.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 3641, subdivision 3 of the Education Law is amended.
JUSTIFICATION:
Within the boundaries of the West Valley Central School District is the
West Valley Nuclear Demonstration project site. This site is located on
approximately 3,300 acres in the Town of Ashford where West Valley is
situated. Initially, in 1961, the site was created to commercially
reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The operator of the site was Nuclear Fuel
Services, Inc. (NFS). In the late 1970's, NFS determined that IL was no
longer feasible to pursue reprocessing. Since then the site has been in
the process of being decommissioned. The New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is the owner of the facility.
The real property tax school funding system that New York State uses to
fund its public schools system disproportionately hurts West Valley,
since they have little real property to tax, given that most of their
land is state-owned, and as such is tax exempt, primarily as a result of
the West Valley nuclear reprocessing project that folded. In addition,
the School District is a small, rural, relatively poor area with little
tax base to begin with. This situation is further magnified by an
unwillingness of families to locate in the District due to fears associ-
ated with living close to a nuclear facility couple with one of the
highest tax rates in Cattaraugus County.
West Valley School District assessment equates to approximately 85% tax
exempt lands. New York State-owned lands account for 941 of this
exemption. If taxable, this nuclear site would provide over $2.7 million
dollars of tax revenue each school year to the district. The district's
current property owners pay a disproportionate share of school tax as
compared to property owners in other districts. This makes purchasing a
home cost prohibitive for young families. Because of West Valley's
unique situation, this bill was requested by the school district to help
offset the loss of revenues that they incur due to their tax exempt
lands.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2020: S.7220 Referred to Education
2019: S.906/A.5876 Referred to Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
$500,000, subject to appropriation in the state budget.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5312
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 7, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. J. M. GIGLIO -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to providing a supple-
mental valuation impact grant to the West Valley central school
district
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 3641 of the education law, as
2 added by section 29-a of part B of chapter 57 of the laws of 2008, para-
3 graph a as amended by section 31 of part A of chapter 57 of the laws of
4 2009, is amended to read as follows:
5 3. Supplemental valuation impact grants. a. In addition to apportion-
6 ments otherwise provided by section thirty-six hundred two of this arti-
7 cle, for aid payable in the two thousand [eight] twenty-three--two thou-
8 sand [nine and two thousand nine--two thousand ten] twenty-four school
9 [years] year, the [amounts] amount specified in [paragraphs] paragraph c
10 [and d] of this subdivision shall be paid for the purpose of providing
11 additional funding for a school [districts] district which [have experi-
12 enced a significant financial hardship caused by an extraordinary change
13 in the taxable property valuation or extraordinary judgments resulting
14 from tax certiorari proceedings] has more than eighty-three percent of
15 its real property classified as tax exempt.
16 b. The purpose of this subdivision is to provide financial assistance
17 to a school [districts] district which [have experienced a significant
18 reduction in the taxable full value of the school district or extraor-
19 dinary tax certiorari judgments] has more than eighty-three percent of
20 its real property classified as tax exempt. The legislature finds that
21 a school [districts for which a judgment was made resulting from a tax
22 certiorari proceeding which is larger than the total budget of the
23 school district for school year two thousand seven--two thousand eight
24 or for school districts] district which [have observed a reduction of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09590-01-3
A. 5312 2
1 taxable real property of more than seventy-five percent between school
2 year two thousand five--two thousand six and school year two thousand
3 eight--two thousand nine] has more than eighty-three percent of its real
4 property classified as tax exempt during school year two thousand twen-
5 ty-three--two thousand twenty-four may benefit from temporary additional
6 assistance.
7 c. To the [Barker central school district, there shall be paid one
8 million three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000). Such grant shall be
9 payable to the Barker central school district in accordance with the
10 payment schedules contained in section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
11 article, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary.
12 d. To the Haverstraw-Stony Point central school district, there shall
13 be paid two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000). Such
14 grant shall be payable to the Haverstraw-Stony Point central school
15 district in accordance with the payment schedules contained in section
16 thirty-six hundred nine-a of this article, notwithstanding any provision
17 of law to the contrary] West Valley central school district, there shall
18 be paid five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000). Such grant shall be
19 payable to the West Valley central school district in accordance with
20 the payment schedules contained in section thirty-six hundred nine-a of
21 this article, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
