Governor signs bill forgiving $20 million penalty for late paperwork
By Sarah Hall
Editor
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill that will forgive nearly $20 million in penalties assessed against the North Syracuse Central School District for paperwork errors dating back to 1996.
Cuomo announced Friday that he had signed the bill, which was sponsored by 50th District State Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) and 127th District Assemblymember Al Stirpe (D-Cicero). Both legislators issued statements in response to the announcement.
“I am very pleased that my bill was signed into law, since the amount of penalties in this matter were simply outrageous and not reasonable,” DeFrancisco said. “This measure will help save the school district approximately $2 million a year for the next 10 years, and allow the district to continue to provide a quality education to its students.”
DeFrancisco said the penalties would have created an “impossible burden” on the district.
Stirpe echoed those sentiments.
“This is a huge victory for North Syracuse students and for our community,” said Stirpe in a statement. “It’s unacceptable to penalize our students because of paperwork errors. This law will ensure our kids and property taxpayers don’t pay for those mistakes.”
The penalties were originally assessed in December of 2015, when the New York State Department of Education’s Office of State Aid notified the district that 23 Final Cost Reports for capital projects the district had undertaken between 1996 and 2010 had been filed late. At the time, the district was told it was subject to penalties totaling $50.8 million. According to a letter district officials sent to residents on April 19, it provided documentation on several projects, and the state revised the payment due to $29.9 million in May of 2017. With help from area legislators, the penalty was further reduced to $19.4 million, to be paid over 10 years. The first payment was to be made this past June using the district’s fund balance.
District officials emphasized that, in addition to a turnover in leadership, a number of changes have been made to district procedures since 2010 to prevent missing similar deadlines. North Syracuse has also changed the architecture and accounting firms it uses for capital projects. While the error was the district’s, administrators asserted on the district website that the state experienced no financial harm as a result of the late filings and the assessment of the penalties was “nothing less than punitive.”
Now that the penalties have been forgiven, Superintendent Annette Speach said the district can move forward.
“This new bill will ensure our students and teachers are not unfairly penalized and allow us to continue providing our students with a high-quality education that prepares them for future success,” she said in a statement.
