UPDATE: Lawmakers Take Action to Return Lost School Aid

The Babylon school district could get $100,000 in lost state aid if an effort by local Senators proves victorious.

The New York State Education Committee is proposing a series of bills that would return state aid to four Long Island districts, including Babylon.

In a committee meeting Tuesday the lawmakers took steps again to return the aid that the districts lost last year after missing a filing deadline related to building construction.

The aid would be welcome news to Babylon given district feedback this week regarding the impact of the tax levy cap. Babylon faces the possibility of slicing nearly $1 million from the school budget this year to meet the cap requirements.

“We are pleased with this decision and look forward to receiving the funds that are owed to our district,” nterim Superintendent of Schools Peter Daly told Patch in an email.

The bills are being proposed by four senators, including Owen H. Johnson (4th Senate District), who represents the Babylon area.

It's the first step toward gaining Senate Education Committee approval of legislation that would restore the funding vetoed last September by Governor Andrew Cuomo for Central Islip, Smithtown, Rocky Point and Babylon.

The legislation will now be reviewed in the Senate Finance Committee.

According to a committee press statement, the State Education Department originally denied the funding as the districts had inadvertently failed to file paperwork on time for certain capital construction projects. That prompted the senators to pass legislation last year to correct the clerical errors and restore funding.

In a joint letter sent to Cuomo in November, the four legislators refer to a provision in Education Law which is used to address clerical errors and is tied to a recurring annual budget appropriation of $15 million. The senators’ legislation and this provision are used by lawmakers to address these types of issues by providing the authorization to allow a district to collect from the fund when its “turn” for repayment comes up, states the press release. The lawmakers hope the  restorations will be included as part of  Cuomo’s proposed budget for 2012.   

The legislators decided to proceed with reintroducing legislation for their individual school districts to keep an open dialogue on this important issue and to protect their taxpayers, according to the release.

“It is my expectation that Governor Cuomo will address and resolve this situation," Johnson states in the release. "We clearly should not be penalizing taxpayers of the Babylon Union Free School District or other school districts for clerical oversights.”

Without any further action, the school districts will collectively lose more than $48 million in state aid reimbursement and penalties, which would mean a total of $250,000 for Babylon, according to the release.

This article was updated to include feedback from district leaders.