April 23, 2015
‘Impact aid’ bill gains momentum in Albany
A bill the city helped craft that would offer state aid to municipalities with SUNY college campuses in their boundaries is closer to approval, having received support from several state legislators.
The bill is before the state Legislature, city Director of Administration and Finance Mack Cook said Wednesday.
Last year, the New York Conference of Mayors, of which Cortland is a member, drafted what is being called the “impact aid” proposal. It calls for additional state aid to go to municipalities where colleges are based. The idea is that the aid will offset the cost of providing emergency services forstudents — services municipalities end up shouldering because of SUNY colleges’ tax exempt status. A formula would be used to calculate the exact amount each municipality should receive.
Since asking state Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D-Ithaca) and state Sen. James Seward (R-Milford) for their support in February, Cook said both legislators have taken the necessary steps to make the proposal a bill.
“Both Sen. Seward and (Assemblywoman) Lifton have been wholly supportive,” Cook said. “They have both introduced in their respective houses legislation which are currently pending.”
Assembly Bill A06416 is before the Ways and Means Committee. Similar legislation, S04643, is in front of the state Senate Finance Committee, Cook said, adding the proposal also has gained support among otherlegislators.
In addition to Seward and Lifton, Sen. John Bonacic (R-Mt. Hope), Sen. Catharine Young (R-Olean) and Assemblyman Bill Magee (D-Nelson) have all come out in support of the proposal.
“SUNY schools provide high quality educational opportunities, and serve as economic drivers to the communities they are in,” Bonacic said Wednesday in an e-mail. “However, small, cash-strapped municipalities which host these schools could benefit from state assistance to address the costs of hosting such an institution. That is why I support this legislation.”
Cook has said in the past that like residents and other institutions inmunicipalities where they reside, SUNY schools often use their local fire departments and emergency medical transport providers.
But by and large, these services are paid for using local tax dollars and since SUNY colleges are tax-exempt, this puts municipalities in a situation where they are looking to fund crucial safety services without further burdeningtaxpayers.
Impact aid would calculate exactly how much in additional funding a municipality would receive by using a formula that takes into account how much municipalities spend on safety services per student and how much they already get in state aid.
Once calculated, half of the additional funding would need to be put toward funding safety services while the rest would be applied to lowering the municipality’s tax levy, or revenue it generates from property taxes.
But even with the support of members in both chambers of the Legislature, the proposal has yet to be placed on the agendas for either of the respective committees.
This year’s legislative session ends on June 17 and Cook said even if neither bill gets voted on by then, he is happy with the support the impact aid proposal has received statewide and knows there will continue to be support come next legislative session.
“I continue to remain realistically optimistic,” Cook said.
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