Authorizes the town of Massena to issue bonds to cover the cost of pension contributions due by the town for employees of the former Massena Memorial Hospital.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A47
SPONSOR: Gray TITLE OF BILL:
An act to authorize the town of Massena to issue bonds to cover the cost
of pension contributions due by the town for employees of the former
Massena Memorial Hospital
PURPOSE:
Allows the Town of Massena to issue bonds not to exceed $5 million to
cover the cost of the pension contributions due by the town for employ-
ees of the former Massena Memorial Hospital.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 details the amount and provisions related to the bonding
authority of the Town of Massena. Section 2 marks the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Town of Massena recently transferred its municipal hospital to St.
Lawrence Health Systems with the help of the New York State Department
of Health. Unfortunately, there was not sufficient funding to cover all
of the outstanding liabilities, including the town's obligations to St.
Lawrence County for its workers' compensation insurance and pension
liabilities. Though the town used assets and reserves to satisfy the
county, the pension liability remains too large for the town to pay from
reserves and current revenues. This bill would provide Massena with the
ability to bond the liability detailed above and pay the pension system.
This would allow the town to pay the bonds over time in an effort to
minimize the overall impact on taxpayers.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A10409 of 2021-2022; referred to local governments
2023-2024 - Referred to Local Governments
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
47
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GRAY -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Local Governments
AN ACT to authorize the town of Massena to issue bonds to cover the cost
of pension contributions due by the town for employees of the former
Massena Memorial Hospital
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. (a) The town of Massena, county of Saint Lawrence, is here-
2 by authorized to issue serial bonds, subject to the provisions of
3 section 10.10 of the local finance law, in an aggregate principal amount
4 not to exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000), for the specific object
5 or purpose of liquidating actual deficits in its general fund at the
6 close of the fiscal year as certified by the state comptroller. In
7 anticipation of the issuance and sale of such serial bonds, bond antic-
8 ipation notes are hereby authorized to be issued.
9 (b) The specific object or purpose of this issuance is hereby declared
10 to be a public purpose which the town is hereby authorized to accomplish
11 and the period of probable usefulness thereof is hereby authorized to be
12 thirty years.
13 (c) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, general, special
14 or local, the town board is hereby authorized to levy a tax to be
15 collected in annual installments sufficient to pay the principal of and
16 interest on said bonds and bond anticipation notes and to adopt a bond
17 resolution authorizing the serial bonds authorized to be issued pursuant
18 to this section.
19 (d) Amounts provided from the proceeds of obligations issued pursuant
20 to this section in excess of the amount of the deficit as confirmed by
21 the state comptroller shall be accounted for in the same manner as
22 prescribed by the state comptroller pursuant to section 36 of the gener-
23 al municipal law.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00101-01-5
