New York Assembly Bill A08402

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 5/13/25
• Refer: 5/13/25
• Refer: 1/7/26

Caption

Relates to the enforcement of taxes in certain school districts.

Summary

This bill amends the Real Property Tax Law to change how returned unpaid school taxes are handled in certain school districts. Under current law, the county treasurer pays the school district officer 50 percent of returned unpaid school taxes by April 1, and the bill preserves that payment structure while adding a matching 50 percent payment from the state comptroller at the same time. The bill also creates a repayment schedule for the county treasurer: beginning the first day of each month after the initial payment, the county treasurer must remit one-eleventh of the amount advanced by the state comptroller for the next eleven months, so the state is fully reimbursed by March 1 of the following year. The measure takes effect immediately and is limited to the enforcement and collection process for unpaid school taxes, not to the underlying tax rates themselves.

Impact

The bill would amend section 1330 of the Real Property Tax Law to shift part of the immediate burden of unpaid school tax enforcement from local school districts to the state, with the state comptroller advancing half of the returned unpaid school taxes and counties repaying that advance over time. This changes the cash-flow mechanics for school tax collections in affected districts and creates a new statutory repayment obligation for county treasurers, while leaving the basic tax enforcement framework in place.

Sentiment

There is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided materials, so the bill’s political sentiment cannot be directly measured from debate or roll call data. Based on the text alone, the measure appears administrative and fiscally technical, aimed at smoothing school district cash flow rather than changing tax policy in a controversial way.

Contention

No specific points of contention are documented in the available materials. Potential areas of concern, if raised, would likely involve state versus county fiscal responsibility, the timing of reimbursements, and whether advancing state funds for unpaid school taxes creates an administrative or budgetary burden for the comptroller and counties. However, no opposing or supporting arguments are recorded here.